Greens: will push for more climate action to match the scale of the crisis

12 comments on “Greens: will push for more climate action to match the scale of the crisis ”

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1. greywarshark 1

   14 October 2020 at 11:16 am

   edit
   Yep the Green Party will say 'Come on mateys we can do this and make life better for all – we can move forward with a small majority, even a committed minority, and protect the interests of the rest. There is always more vitality in the leaner group in society than the individualised part. If we don't do it, it will always be put off in the SEP way as below..

   'Sorry I'm busy at present. I have to go and buy my expensive running shoes with the leap-u-forward impulse sole, my electric bike, my hydroponic scooter, my rocket-fired walking shoes, my new-type jeans tattooed onto my legs (so green, saving washing water, clean them in the shower).'
2. greywarshark 2

   14 October 2020 at 12:01 pm

   The climate action needs to be people-centred not systems and outcome-centred. I thought it was a mistake for Eugenie Sage to encourage higher tip fees in a bid to decrease rubbish volume.

   We are in a country with a lot of poverty and people concerned with how to keep going and deal with existence, and another lot of people concerned with how to keep getting good incomes and what improvements to their house, lifestyle they desire. Then there are those who consider themselves practical, or are concerned about keeping down costs, or those who make a profit but are focussed on that and will seek efficiency rather than do the right, green thing.

   So a mix of regulations, lectures, explanations, help and fines, and more punitive treatment for the uncaring and egregious is needed to deal with the problem. But an approach of encouragement to do the right thing, assistance quickly available, reward perhaps by less tax, a discount, a koha from those in difficulty or recalcitrant, and a group in each region who work with and understand their constituency, would get the required results. Just charging individuals more is middle-class thinking like Judith C coming out with self-blame the other day. See AB on the just approach with the individual being blamed.
   https://thestandard.org.nz/latest-umr-poll-national-sinking/#comment-1759055 – see this.

   The poor are pushed to the limits of endurance and need assistance to cope with the rubbish they get from society, and their difficult conditions are enabled by government, which is something that general society refuses to comprehend.

   So something from the above management ideas is needed with this problem highlighted by Radionz’s Phil Pennington.

   https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/428291/hidden-story-of-industrial-sized-plastic-bladders-going-to-landfills
   Huge plastic bladders, each weighing as much as 20,000 plastic bags, are being dumped in landfills with no controls and no record-keeping.

   Government and other agencies are largely blind to the growing problem of flexitanks used to import and export everything from wine, to paint and pharmaceuticals.

   One North Island trucking company alone has dumped 450 of the bladders in tips in the last year – the equal in weight to nine million plastic bags. The company asked not to be identified. Each bladder had been used just once.

   A supplier of tanks to exporters, that also requested anonymity, said demand was growing.
   • Draco T Bastard 2.1

     14 October 2020 at 3:38 pm

     Those huge plastic bladders show the need for more and better regulation.

     ACT and National want to get rid of the regulation so such waste can continue as such wastage produces more profit.

     EDIT:
     Here’s an interesting point though: According to present economic theory a good waste control company would have been looking at ways to reuse those bladders for their own profit. The fact that they aren’t proves that the capitalist free-market model fails to work.
     • greywarshark 2.1.1

       14 October 2020 at 4:38 pm

       No doubt you are right DTB. I wonder though if part of the trouble is the lack of government presence in planning and co-ordinating. In this case there are large ads in the paper for Rural waste recycling – Agrecovery. The Press NZ Farmer Oct.6/20

       They are running one-stop shop events – safe disposal of
       * Agrichemical containers and drums
       * Used Motor oil
       * Unwanted agrichemicals
       * Seed feed and fertiliser bags

       Get involved they invite
       go to http://www.agrecovery. co.nz-call on 0800 247 326

       Utilising vital start-ups like this to take on other large collections should be effective. As I said earlier, someone in each area that is looking for efficient ways of dealing what is, and better ways of performing the job with better materials would be good. Locally the Environment Centre is working hard but seems underfunded. Also someone with the task of keeping an eye out would know what this group have set up to deal with the materials and leachate.

       Same with the ouvea from Southland – if it is shifted where? What's to become of it?
3. Dennis Frank 3

   14 October 2020 at 1:22 pm

   Greens will get leverage if they use that lever: the future.

   Our Parliament has been castigated for failing to take the future seriously. As part of a report for the triennial review of Parliament’s standing orders, Jonathan Boston and Anna Barry upbraided MPs for often talking about the challenges of the future, but rarely using Parliament to do anything about it. They suggested establishing a special select committee focused on the future or establishing a cross-party futures forum of MPs working in association with respected research organisations and sector groups to examine long-term issues.

   The recommendation was ditched – and a suite of more modest reforms, often focused on scheduling.

   https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300131692/election-2020-facing-dim-prospects-at-home-young-kiwis-might-vote-with-their-feet-and-leave

   The PM "framed her final pitch to voters around imagining the country in 2030. “Child poverty will have halved,” she told a crowd in Wellington on Sunday. “We’ve ended our housing wait list.”

   Nine more years! It's an inspiring rallying cry. Notably missing from her utterances! So will she start making it happen?

   It’s a pity that – with the exception of the Greens – more parties don’t match the fighting rhetorical talk about the future with ambitious policy.

   If she joins the Greens in operating the lever via policy initiatives, her talk about those 2030 goals will seem anticipatory. She must walk that talk, and take the scaredy cats in Labour along by holding their hands as she does. Thus reassured, no need for herding.
4. WeTheBleeple 4

   14 October 2020 at 4:38 pm

   Solar could be rolled out fairly quickly. The state owns the housing stock and thus the solar systems they'd install on them. Initial investment by the state (or private, any landlord can do this) is spent on as many systems as can be installed. The immediate 'savings' can be measured and apportioned, a percentage to help the householder(s), a percentage to pay for the next system(s).

   I'd do something like 20% passed on to householders, 80% toward next systems. Upon one system paying for itself (or in this instance, the next system) 80% savings to householder, 20% for the state.

   Win-win for the greens putting more in the pockets of the poor while effectively rolling solar out. Even the capitalists would have a hard time slagging a system that, after initial investment, continues to roll out assets without continued expense.

   It's solar pay-it-forward. As solar generates power at a rate of return much better than banks ever offer it's a good place to park money, increase asset values, generate goodwill, help the poor, make the grid more resilient…

   And jobs!
   • PsyclingLeft.Always 4.1

     14 October 2020 at 7:29 pm

     Indeed. For the longest time I've wondered …and also proposed this. Why aren't we?

     "Solar power in New Zealand is on the rise, but operates in an entirely free market with no form of subsidies or intervention from the New Zealand Government. As of February 2020, New Zealand has 118 MW of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) solar power installed, of which 25 MW were installed in the preceding 12 months."

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_New_Zealand

     "Free Market" BS should be kicked to touch. We could have Solar Panel Factories…and train up Electricians and other Tradies to fit them…
5. sumsuch 5

   15 October 2020 at 12:21 am

   Youse great details people.
   • PsyclingLeft.Always 5.1

     15 October 2020 at 7:07 am

     Youse is yowza : )

     [Fixed error in e-mail address]
     • PsyclingLeft.Always 5.1.1

       15 October 2020 at 7:14 am

       NZ needs Rail. Including Light Rail. Coastal Shipping. Cycle FRIENDLY everywhere. Solar no longer "free market" but a NZ Government program. Well theres a start : )
6. PsyclingLeft.Always 6

   15 October 2020 at 7:34 am

   I had inadvertently added extra letters to email addy in an earlier comment …
7. PsyclingLeft.Always 7

   15 October 2020 at 7:48 am

   And CRISIS there is.!

   "

   'The region is at risk. We were able to witness how the ice disappears and in areas where there should have been ice that was many metres thick, and even at the North Pole – that ice was gone," the Alfred Wegener Institute scientist told a media conference in Bremerhaven on Monday.

   RV Polarstern was on station to document this summer's floes shrink to their second lowest ever extent in the modern era.'

   https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/428262/german-ship-completes-historic-arctic-expedition

   We must act now. Leaving it for later…will be too late. NZ, small as it is, has a big voice in the World. Our own actions must match ….

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