New Zealand wins fossil of the day award – again

Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, December 11th, 2015 - 43 comments
Categories: climate change, Environment, global warming, greens, interweb, Media, national, same old national, sustainability, the praiseworthy and the pitiful - Tags: , , ,

fossil of the day award

The Climate Action Network has awarded New Zealand a second Fossil of the Day, this time in recognition of New Zealand’s role in blocking compensation for vulnerable countries for climate change damage in the draft text for the Paris Agreement.

Zoe Lenzie-Smith a member of the New Zealand Youth Delegation describes what happened:

“New Zealand, Australia and the US have made a joint effort to block the loss and damage clause in the text. That means that vulnerable countries, especially people from Pacific Islands, will have a very difficult time to get any compensation when there are damages related to climate change.”

In response, youth and environmental groups organised a sit-in in the area where the plenary sessions are held, to demonstrate “that we will not stand by and watch these decisions being made without any input or influence from civil society”.

Minister Groser’s lacklustre climate leadership was also recognized with a dishonourable mention at the event. Fossil of the Day is an award given by Climate Action Network International, a global coalition of environmental NGOs.

Fellow NZYD member Natalie Smith expressed justified concern:

We are heartbroken that New Zealand has won a second Fossil of the Day award by trying to leave vulnerable communities out at sea. Instead we should be future proofing the Pacific by increasing our inadequate Green Climate Fund contribution and doing all we can to make sure that our neighbours, among others, get their fair share for the damages resulting from climate change. Friends don’t let friends drown without offering a helping hand and New Zealand can and should do better. ”

The talks are entering their last few days and hopes of an agreement are high although it is almost inevitable that the agreement will not be sufficient to achieve even the inadequate goal of stopping a 2 degree increase which will mean that the world’s environment is fundamentally changed.

But judging from how main stream media is treating the matter you would think that it was just business as usual.  If you want to follow what is happening do not rely on our main stream media, apart from Radio New Zealand.  The printed media’s coverage of the conference is sparse and inadequate.

But social media is standing out.  Julie Anne Genter is providing regular updates.  Here is her latest:

And the New Zealand Youth Delegation is active both on twitter and on their site.

43 comments on “New Zealand wins fossil of the day award – again ”

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  1. srylands 1
    11 December 2015 at 9:38 am

    New Zealand regularly gets the Fossil award. It did so under the last Labour Government almost every COP. Has the frequency of Fossil awards increased under this Government? No.

    Give it up and focus on the policies.

    “Friends don’t let friends drown without offering a helping hand and New Zealand can and should do better. ”

    FFS. They are not going to drown. Except in garbage through their own terrible environmental practices and high birth rates. Tackle those.

    [Any proof that NZ under Labour was awarded a fossil award? They started in November 2009 (http://www.climatenetwork.org/fossil-of-the-day/fossil-day-blog-live) – MS]

    • weka 1.1
      11 December 2015 at 10:08 am

      Try googling ‘metaphor’. Then ‘judgemental prick’ and ‘hypocrite’.

    • galeandra 1.2
      11 December 2015 at 10:52 am

      Arsehole-of-the-day award. Congrats.

      • greywarshark 1.2.1
        11 December 2015 at 11:22 am

        galeandra
        That sort of reply just fuels people like drylands. It acts like a battery charge for an otherwise static mind.

    • Paul 1.3
      11 December 2015 at 11:24 am

      So you don’t care about our international reputation being in shreds.

      • Draco T Bastard 1.3.1
        11 December 2015 at 2:21 pm

        One of the things that’s taught in business schools and ‘self-help’ books about getting rich is that you should ignore what others think of you.

    • linda 1.4
      11 December 2015 at 3:27 pm

      scum lands are you getting personal lessons from fjk on fibbing or is dishonesty and fraud in your right wing DNA ?????

  2. greywarshark 2
    11 December 2015 at 9:43 am

    What an unpleasant triumvirate we make with Australia and the USA. Having an English background hasn’t made us great or good, just despicable irresponsible nations that revert to colonial practices of being dismissive of indigenous people and their cultures merely observing and then scoping their resources for our advantage.

    I am impressed by Julie Anne Genter’s bio. This is an immigrant to treasure (from LA). She has studied across a spectrum of disciplines, philosophy, political studies, planning,transport. I give her a place as one of our new Council of Citizens’ Guidance that should replace our present government structure of frenetic money and power dealers and grabbers.

    Listening to the news this morning about Northland’s dying forests that will cost $15 mill? to fix, which can’t be afforded, FGS breaks your heart. It must be afforded and started now. Apparently it has been going on for 20 years and any remedial measures have been too little and slow. Some trees are just skeletons and possums are blamed. All these years of unemployment in Northland there could have been a dedicated, skilled group shooting and trapping these pests if there had been intelligent, pragmatic and determined political and local leadership. Apparently there is such negative attitudes to 1080 that it hasn’t been used much or at all, even as an emergency culling measure.

    It could also be that these possum pests are acting as a vector for the kauri killing organism. (Stuff – Kauri dieback is caused by a microbe called Phytophthora taxon Agathis (PTA), which was formally identified in 2008.)
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/66042377/scientists-make-progress-on-disease-killing-off-kauri
    Scientific background – factual two pages FAQ:
    http://www.kauridieback.co.nz/media/20081/the%20science%20kauri%20dieback%20v2.pdf
    For more information, or to report any suspect sightings of diseased kauri
    on public or private land, phone the Kauri Dieback Hotline on 0800 NZ KAURI
    (695 2874) or visit http://www.kauridieback.co.nz
    KAURI DIEBACK PROGRAMME PARTNERS:
    TANGATA WHENUA I MINISTRY FOR PRIMARY INDUSTRIES
    | DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION | NORTHLAND REGIONAL COUNCIL | AUCKLAND COUNCIL | WAIKATO REGIONAL COUNCIL | BAY OF PLENTY REGIONAL COUNCIL
    Their Karakia:
    Kia Toitu He Kauri
    Keep Kauri Standing
    edited

    • mickysavage 2.1
      11 December 2015 at 9:48 am

      Yep and in Titirangi another person has scaled the branches of a 500 year old Kauri to stop it from being felled. It is so appalling that our institutions are incapable of providing adequate care and protection.

      • Tarquin 2.1.1
        11 December 2015 at 10:10 am

        500 years old? Don’t think so.

        • greywarshark 2.1.1.1
          11 December 2015 at 10:26 am

          Tarquin
          Quibble, sidetracking, straying from the point, see if you can say anything interesting about that.

        • mickysavage 2.1.1.2
          11 December 2015 at 10:27 am

          Estimates put the tree at between the ages of 200 and 500 years, and there is a 300 year old Rimu that is also facing the chop. The precise age is rather irrelevant.

    • RedBaronCV 2.2
      11 December 2015 at 9:57 am

      The Iraq deployment is costing $65m the flag $26m , there’s a piece of useless motorway revamp in wellington $85m, NZTA waste on basin reserve tunnel $12m. the money is there.

      Also memo to Bill English – taxes on hogher incomes need to be raised.

      • Manuka AOR 2.2.1
        11 December 2015 at 10:31 am

        “the money is there. ”

        and yet they can’t find the $15m to save our national treasures.
        I would rather have our Kauri Forests than a new flag!!!
        And so would our grandchildren, our mokopuna.

      • RedBaronCV 2.2.2
        11 December 2015 at 11:03 am

        Apologies for the Freudian slip – Hogher should be higher

  3. greywarshark 3
    11 December 2015 at 10:22 am

    That’s the word – appalling! Second appalling thing that there is such complacency about such matters in this country.

    I have a picture in my mind of the old white male who has made a success in life to his mind, similar to those I saw going into the supermarket yesterday determinedly upright with careful steps, looking sour, neither left or right, ignoring a very good busker. Self- involved, joyless, uninterested in other people, withdrawn, isolated.

    I noticed them when they came out of the woodwork when the constitution conversation was circulating around the country. They can wield a lot of energy and power when they speak damning progressive measures that benefit everyone. This they don’t like because only people like them matter, those who have kept the faith of the focussed money-mad business maker, deserve everything they want and need.

    Such people are a barrier to getting good governance that meets today’s problems and their numbers are growing to an advanced age, with old age accompanied by increased self-absorption.

    When it comes to trees, respect for these long-lived leviathans of the land may be entirely absent. The question in the mind – does it affect me, is it useful to me? Trees being lost – to the comfortable and moneyed, if they don’t belong to a plantation they have invested in, not my concern and I don’t want to pay for remedial work out of my rates. The wealthy and nouveau riche both can have ugly minds and small horizons.

    • Manuka AOR 3.1
      11 December 2015 at 11:33 am

      “That’s the word – appalling!”

      It’s also heartbreaking. It is the growing realisation that those in power honestly do not give a damn. Other than for what can be exploited for profit. (Eg the 50,000 year old ‘swamp kauri’ being flogged off to China.)

      I’m reminded of when the govt couldn’t find the money to save Sir Ed’s home in Remuera – Yes, turning away from the plight of the Kauri forests is far, far worse, but these are both effects of people in power who really, really do not care.

  4. Ant 4
    11 December 2015 at 11:45 am

    Culminating nails in the coffin that once housed a clean, green image. Depressing and consummately shameful.

  5. Manuka AOR 5
    11 December 2015 at 1:01 pm

    In ‘Apocalyptic Capitalism’, Chris Hedges sees no real change resulting from the summit, and says there are only three ways individuals can deal with climate change.
    He lists these as:
    – sustained civil disobedience that disrupts the machinery of exploitation;
    – preparing for the inevitable dislocations and catastrophes that will come from irreversible rising temperatures;
    – and cutting our personal carbon footprints, which means drastically reducing our consumption, particularly of animal products.

    “The global elites have no intention of interfering with the profits, or ending government subsidies, for the fossil fuel industry and the extraction industries. They will not curtail extraction or impose hefty carbon taxes to keep fossil fuels in the ground. They will not limit the overconsumption that is the engine of global capitalism. They act as if the greatest contributor of greenhouse gases—the animal agriculture industry—does not exist. They siphon off trillions of dollars and employ scientific and technical expertise—expertise that should be directed toward preparing for environmental catastrophe and investing in renewable energy—to wage endless wars in the Middle East.”

    Hedges gives special mention to the TPP:
    “And as the elites mouth platitudes about saving the climate they are shoving still another trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), down our throats. The TPP permits corporations to ignore nonbinding climate accords made at conferences such as the one in Paris, and it allows them, in secret trade tribunals, to defy environmental regulations imposed by individual states.” http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/apocalyptic_capitalism_20151206

    • Macro 5.1
      11 December 2015 at 1:31 pm

      The govt’s abandonment of the legislation regarding cartels is just another step along the road to the facilitation of the TTP as well. Truly our lord and masters these days are not our elected representatives – they are simply puppets for the unseen Rulers of the Planet – those who have more money than they know what to do with, and still want more. By their “wealth” they control much of the remaining resources and the infrastructure upon which we rely. Previously it was a common good. It was given away (or snatched by stealth) to the greedy. They have never held any sense of accountability for the resources they control apart from short term gain, and now the world is stuffed.
      NZs current government is firmly in their pocket, and a lapdog to the cause for short term profit at the expense of sustainability.

      • Manuka AOR 5.1.1
        11 December 2015 at 1:55 pm

        “and now the world is stuffed.”
        Yes. It is breaking down …

        “The breakdown of the planet, many predict, will be nonlinear, meaning that various systems that sustain life—as Tainter chronicles in his study of collapsed civilizations—will disintegrate simultaneously. The infrastructures that distribute food, supply our energy, ensure our security, produce and transport our baffling array of products, and maintain law and order will crumble at once. It won’t be much fun: Soaring temperatures. Submerged island states and coastal cities. Mass migrations. Species extinction. Monster storms. Droughts. Famines. Declining crop yields. And a security and surveillance apparatus, along with militarized police, that will employ harsher and harsher methods to cope with the chaos. ” (Hedges link above)

        • Colonial Viper 5.1.1.1
          11 December 2015 at 3:12 pm

          As with most things, I’m with Hedges’ view of how things are going.

          The Left has no radical agenda to deal with the issues that he has raised. Carbon taxes and hybrid cars aren’t going to do it.

  6. Robert Glennie 6
    11 December 2015 at 1:48 pm

    Really people. If anyone thinks National cares about climate change, they need a reality check.

    You have only to look at their habit of saying something positive on the climate, and then announcing another block of seabed will be opened to exploration hours or days later.

    • emergency mike 6.1
      11 December 2015 at 3:11 pm

      Paula Bennett in her first week as climate change issues minister in response to the our last fossil award: “I’m not going to listen to a bunch of environmentalists.”

      • Colonial Viper 6.1.1
        11 December 2015 at 3:13 pm

        will Labour ban coal + oil mining and exploration?

        • emergency mike 6.1.1.1
          12 December 2015 at 3:27 am

          Are you asking me? No idea sorry. Ask Labour? My money would be on no. I don’t think Robert nor myself were trying to imply that Labour was any better on this issue.

      • greywarshark 6.1.2
        11 December 2015 at 3:15 pm

        Did she?. Or is that what we think she would have said? Citation?

      • Lara 6.1.3
        11 December 2015 at 3:46 pm

        Crikey.

        Is “environmentalist” a dirty word now?

        Is caring for nature and the environment we live in now considered a crazy radical thing?

        What a fucked up world we live in.

        • Reddelusion 6.1.3.1
          11 December 2015 at 6:06 pm

          No the nut jobs who have hijacked the word are or alternatively and been more gracious the “environmentalist” have done a terrible job in selling thier message by turning off a sizeable proportion of society as has the the far left

      • vto 6.1.4
        11 December 2015 at 4:38 pm

        Yes I heard saw that too and was pretty gobsmacked.

        Shows what National people think of the environment. No wonder it is fucked and their supporters, like farmers, dump their business waste in the public estate like rivers and grounddrinkingwater – they all have implicit support to pollute the environment.

        dirty polluters

  7. Keith 7
    11 December 2015 at 4:29 pm

    And going by the latest Roy Morgan poll those who vote National are totally indifferent to the whole subject!

  8. acrophobic 8
    11 December 2015 at 4:59 pm

    It seems senseless for NZ to be involved in these discussions at all. Our % of global emissions is so small, even if we were to make huge reductions it would have no impact, other than harming our economy and exporting NZ jobs to higher polluters.

    • weka 8.1
      11 December 2015 at 5:53 pm

      So says every other group of 4 million people. Which is why we’re not doing what is required.

      Besides, NZ citizens benefit massively from other countries (think how much we import). We are all culpable and responsible and living on the same planet.

    • Drowsy M. Kram 8.2
      11 December 2015 at 10:11 pm

      NZ punches well above its weight in per-capita greenhouse gas emissions, and our Government’s position is that we’re too SMALL to make a difference.
      This inspirational and aspirational strategy is a moving, almost spiritual message for future generations – go NAct.

      “Therefore my challenge to each of you is that you ask yourself what you can do to make a difference. And then take that action, no matter how large or how small. For our children have a right to peace.” — Graça Machel-Mandela

      “My goal in life is to leave behind a safe and healthy world for our children. Before I leave this world, I want to be satisfied that at least I tried. I know I can make a difference, even if it might only be a small one.” — Maisie Shiell

    • Expat 8.3
      12 December 2015 at 7:50 pm

      Yes, acrophobic, all the right wing run countries use this excuse, countries like Canada and Australia especially, funny though, Australia had a carbon tax under Labour and was successful in reducing emissions and look at it now, paying heavy polluters with tax payers money, Canada has just changed Govt’s to a Liberal govt and is changing direction and is going to take CC seriously, unlike the previous Govt.

      Classic “profits” before the future security of the world, typical right wing philosophy.

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