Stand up and fight
Written By:
- Date published:
11:19 am, October 19th, 2022 - 19 comments
Categories: climate change, sustainability -
Tags: regenerative politics, sunflowers
Joanna Macy, elder of the transition movements based in life-affirming models of our future, has a threefold model of this great moment of change we are in:
- Holding Patterns (think conventional protest movements)
- Alternative Structures (eg Doughnut economics, community gardens, regenerative agriculture)
- Shifting Consciousness (eg the applied philosophies of deep ecology, ecofeminism, ways of knowing based in systems thinking).
Lots of ways to do climate action.
If you can’t be an activist, offer then support.
If you disagree with climate activists or a protest, don’t just naysay, bring something else to the table. Argue the issues, hash it out, but use regenerative politics, not tear-them-down-because-I-don’t-like-them politics. Help build something better.
If activism turns you off, join any of the myriad of regenerative movements that are transitioning now.
Ways out of the climate crisis
Don’t give up. Don’t retrench into reactionary blocking. We have more choices for action and transition, and creating regenerative and sustainable systems, than ever before.
If you want to understand more about direct climate activism and what is going to be happening going forward, please read this thread from NASA climate scientist and long time activist Peter Kalmus,
OK, hear me out, this was actually a visionary and inspired action.pic.twitter.com/OeMH8DVg2V
— Peter Kalmus (@ClimateHuman) October 15, 2022
listen to her explain the Van Gogh soup protest.
she’s got a point, no? pic.twitter.com/cObcWNx8aP
— michael mezz (@michaelmezz) October 18, 2022
"It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality is more important than the feeling for pictures."
– Vincent van Gogh“The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh”, p.156, Simon and Schuster
— Shaun Chamberlin | mstdn.social/@DarkOptimism (@DarkOptimism) October 16, 2022
Shout out to the New Zealand climate activists out here as we speak.
Tunnel is now closed.
Now is the time to resist. Nothing in the past has worked well enough — marches, petitions, letters to MPs all fall on dead ears. Only ordinary people engaging in peaceful #CivilResistance will save us from this crisis.
Join us! https://t.co/IGPShCgfWm pic.twitter.com/2HP6Hwg5tK
— Climate Liberation Aotearoa (@ClimateLib) October 17, 2022
Image from Kt Shepherd: sunflower seedheads as mulch and habitat.
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The Green Party has written to the Speaker of the House requesting he enable a personal vote on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
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Kua hinga te manawa kairākau o Te Rua Tekau Ma Waru Tiwhatiwha te po! Kakarauru i te po! Ka rapuhia kei hea koe kua riro! Haere e te Ika a Whiro ki o tini hoa kua ngaro atu ki te Pō ...2 weeks ago
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Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Ka mihi ki te mana whenua ko Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. Kia ora and good morning everyone. Thank you Fran and Simon for inviting me here today, and importantly your leadership of this forum over several years now. I want to acknowledge David Gehrenbeck, Deputy ...3 days ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Peel, Director, Melbourne Climate Futures, The University of Melbourne The petroleum-laden dust has settled on this year’s United Nations climate summit, COP29, held over the past fortnight in Baku, Azerbaijan. Climate scientists, leaders, lobbyists and delegates are heading for home. ...11 hours ago
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The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.
A little music to get you in the mood.
Tautoko weka!
1:12 – 1:17 (from the soup-chucker interview)
Oh, yes!
I've been thinking about doing a post around that quote (Roger Hallam has been using it). My concern is that in five years if things haven't changed enough, this narrative will be used to justify giving up.
As opposed to pull out all the stops now and go hard. For obvious reasons.
Am interested in your thoughts on this. I'm already seeing people pulling back from action, people who I though would have been moving forward.
We're just in last quarter of completing NZs largest windfarm, and turning our energies to dedicated busways around Queenstown and pushing cars out of the town centre.
It's more Stand Up And Get To Work.
Distributed residential solar has installed 24.2 mw (by July) this year with 32mw last year av install now 5.3kw and on target to beat 300mw by 2025,with no capex cost to NZ grid.
Commerical and industrial will be around 20mw this year with around another 100mw in tenders for next 12 month (mostly embedded onto site)
Significant savings will start to appear in transmission and distribution losses.At no taxpayer cost.
That's excellent for those who have the money for their own home system.
I must admit my granny and granddad in Kerkeri had one the size of a medium window and it did their hot water no matter what.
I prefer to support whole grids in my work. Otherwise like any utility it's mostly the rich that get to drop out (tiny house videos aside).
NZ has around 2% of housing with distributed Solar (rising to 5% by 2025) Australia has around 30% and a policy to increase (along with smart grids)
Here with electricity demand growth in residential (not industrial) as space and water heating changes to electricity from solid and gas,outweighing efficiency gains from the changes in housing stock a higher local input should be encouraged.This is for changes in work flows (such as working from home) and increased home solar will lessen hydro daytime generation for other users.
This also negates the need for land purchases for large scale solar such as Meridians 105 hectare solar /battery site by marsden point.
The large projects are more for substitution of process heat,and solid fuels,as well as Hydrogen for transport etc.Large pipeline of projects though around 27gw.
I struggle to see the point of private house solar for NZ. Why pay and own the asset?
Australia has less than 30% renewable electricity generation on a good day, so most don't have a renewable choice.
New Zealand has 82% and get to 84% end of next year. Harapaki, Lodestone, Turitea and the big Todd one on the Napier-Taupo road will get us a long way to 90%.
If one believes off-grid fits ones' politic well hey who am I to judge.
The vast majority just want to flick the switch and pay the bill like they do for everything. That's also quite good for those wanting a renewables utility for their Super.
Distributed generation reduces both the need for excess network transmission,with solar it reduces both distribution and transmission loss around 3000 gwh (2021) which is higher during daylight hours and summer,which is higher then the total wind generation of 2616 gwh in 2021.
This lessens the maintenance costs,transmission costs etc.Refunding the gst on an estimated 500mw of domestic solar would cost the government 75 m$,and transfer capex into peakload storage.
Look call me a sceptic and I don't presume to be an energy analyst. I'd be happy to encourage solar household but your points aren't encouraging.
A really high energy distribution loss in solar isn't a ringing endorsement.
Also putting the CAPEX onto individual households for battery storage, panel replacement, maintenance isn't a selling point.
Also we are actively discouraged in NZ from feeding solar into the grid. Not nice.
Also call me suspicious but the idea that putting costs onto households will enable the state to make savings elsewhere in the system, well, the EA is charitably opaque in ruling Transpower's AMP, and I very much doubt there's anyone in MBIA who understands that attribution methodology. And I can guarantee that the consumer won't be saving any money.
Good on people who want to front up with solar panels. Who knows I may do it myself. But I will be under no illusions that either myself or the system will be saving CAPEX with it.
Transmission and distribution loss from nz generation is 3000 gwh,greater then the annual wind generation of 2600 gwh.
distributed solar has no distribution loss for what is used on site,the excess that goes into the local distribution system reduces loss on the local network,and reduces load on the transmission network.
The lines charges (including transmission) are to increase substantively over the next 6 years moving from around a third of the bill cost to over half,and the additional capex for generation will have electricity priced at the last project cost,and for areas with high transmission costs such as the west coast or nelson (around 10$mwh extra) it should be a targeted policy.
The other part with distributed electricity is it lessens risk due to grid failure from either AF8 or a cook strait event.
Today with its high solar application South Australian electricity spot price is -66.86 mwh, (also wind) due to production exceeding demand by 30% ,the flows into Victoria and from there to Tasmania see spot prices of 0.02 mwh.
The problem is with storage and efficiency and reducing load,negates capacity constraints.
We are running at 86% renewable last 52 weeks ( 84.9g co2 /kwh) last 7 days 94% renewable (42.8gco2/kwh) for comparison Germany 50% 383gco2 (includes nuc) netherlands 56% 216gco2
“Live, or be, the change you want” as the saying goes. It is unlikely to be about perfection or pleasing others.
I like my EV whatever the whingers complaints, because it is smooth and quiet, has the torque of some of my old V8s, and I cruise past gas stations with, yes, a ‘sod you lot’ thought or two. Plus we live in a reasonably remote area and if the gas pumps were pulled, which has happened in the past, it is a 25km drive to the next lot.
The bonus would be a solar array to charge car, am looking at it right now. We have small one for hot water cylinder.
Charges, no pun etc., of elitism are a side show at this stage.
Nice dose of motivation Weka!
May I suggest an energising tune:
https://youtu.be/pqRD8BrRkDk
Weka, I agree. Don't back down. Make a real choice.
Two reasons. First, get the young engaged. If they turn out we win.
Second, the bloody Nats will change what they don'r like, anyway. Their billboard says it- "We will repeal and replace Three Waters". (Doesn't say with what, btw.)
A real choice between policies in action which reflect social and ecological realities, and reactionary blah!
I must admit that I've given up. Climate change has unfortunately become a political issue, which means at least half the populace isn't interested in changing anything.
I do not believe there is the political or societal will to make the changes necessary in the near term. We treat the planet as we treat each other.
That is why we must do everything to adapt. Sadly we are not going to stop what's coming. It's not in our nature.
https://twitter.com/hilaryagro/status/1413451772476100612
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/20/ursula-k-le-guin-national-book-awards-speech
Our 'nature' is not set in stone. Modernity has attempted to separate us from the 'natural' world, but at what cost; to the environment, to each other?
LeGuin's The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas