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Climate Change & Nature

Aotearoa

Protect.  Restore.  Thrive.

Climate Change & Nature

Protect.  Restore.  Thrive.

The climate is changing.  And we are not prepared.

“We have to realise that this is not playing games. This is not just having a nice little debate, arguments and then coming away with a compromise. This is an urgent problem that has to be solved and, what’s more, we know how to do it.” – Sir David Attenborough

We are facing an existential threat–literally a threat to our existence–so

Aotearoa has declared a climate emergency.

We know how to respond to the emergency. And we can afford to do so.

“Restoring a third of the areas most degraded by humans and preserving remaining natural ecosystems would prevent 70% of projected extinctions of mammals, birds and amphibians. It would also sequester around 465 gigatonnes of CO2 — almost half of the total atmospheric CO2 increase since the Industrial Revolution.” – Strassburg et al, 2020.

The climate is changing. And we are not prepared.

“We have to realise that this is not playing games. This is not just having a nice little debate, arguments and then coming away with a compromise. This is an urgent problem that has to be solved and, what’s more, we know how to do it.” – Sir David Attenborough

We are facing an existential threat–literally a threat to our existence–so Aotearoa has declared a climate emergency.

We know how to respond to the emergency. And we can afford to do so.

“Restoring a third of the areas most degraded by humans and preserving remaining natural ecosystems would prevent 70% of projected extinctions of mammals, birds and amphibians. It would also sequester around 465 gigatonnes of CO2—almost half of the total atmospheric CO2 increase since the Industrial Revolution.” – Strassburg et al, 2020.

The dual problem

The smart solution

Stop pouring greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere and mobilise the free ecosystem services provided by nature. This the most cost-effective and practical strategy to address the dual problem. We know it will work because it worked perfectly well before we broke things. The benefits include:

    • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
    • Drawing atmospheric carbon back into the ground
    • Reducing economic and social upheaval
    • Replenishing ecosystem services across multiple habitats
    • Restoring health to waterways
    • Restoring mahinga kai
    • Increasing agricultural productivity while reducing emissions
    • Creating new business opportunities
    • Reducing the impacts of climate change on our health & wellbeing

      This website:

      The world’s plan

      Part A: Keep shovelling more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere (global energy demand is set to increase by 4.6% in 2021) and hopefully slow the pace so that by 2050 everyone will be carbon zero….except our agricultural sector; they have exemptions.

      Part B: Start pulling excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and put it back underground, primarily though negative emissions technologies (most of which are not negative at all. In fact they return greenhouses gasses back into the atmosphere).

      Part C: Adapt. Fast. Because thanks to Plans A & B, dangerous climate tipping points are already being exceeded and natural ecosystems continue to be rapidly destroyed.

      We know there’s some great work underway to build a safer, healthier, and more resilient future. Contact us if you would like to share your stories about your native restoration  projects, including weed and pest control, so that we can add them to the ‘Our Places‘ section of this website.

      With a focus on Canterbury, this site includes resources relevant to all of Aoteaora.

      The climate is changing. And so can we.

      Explainers

      An emergency by definition is a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action. An emergency disrupts  our daily lives and our expectations for the future. So declaring an emergency can be justified only if:

      • The risk is high; and
      • The consequences of failure are unmanageable or unacceptable; and
      • Time constraints govern whether a response will be effective

      The evidence and intention of several governments to produce 120% more fossil fuels by 2030, even using a conservative analysis, declaring a climate emergency is the only rational and responsible action to avoid global social, economic, and environmental collapse within our lifetime and the lifetimes of our children and mokopuna.

      Mitigation, adaptation, or both?  IPCC reports state that irreversable climate tipping points could be reached between 1°-2°C. We have now passed 1.1°C above pre-industrial temperatures and dangerous tipping points are already being breached. Even if countries act on their Paris climate pledges to reduce emissions, we are on track for warming of more than 3°C. Some effects of climate change are now ‘locked in’, that is, they are unavoidable.

      “We have three choices: mitigation, adaptation, and suffering. We are going to do some of each. The question is what the mix is going to be. The more mitigation we do, the less adaptation will be required and the less suffering there will be.” – John Holdren, US Office of Science and Technology Policy

      How much time do we have? Climate tipping points are already being breached. New Zealand is one of the worst-performing countries, ranking 44th out of 45 of the world’s Industrialised countries, using more than six times our fair share of the carbon emissions budget aimed to keep global temperature increases below 1.5°C, with 47.8% of our emissions (from agriculture) given a free pass under the ETS.

      “The world is still heading for a catastrophic temperature rise in excess of 3°C this century.” – UN Dec. 2020

       Instructions for this interactive graph (Credit: The 2° Institute.)

      • Compare this to rising global temperatures by clicking the planet/thermometer icon at the top left corner.
      • Mouse over anywhere on the graph to see the changes in global atmospheric carbon dioxide over the last thousand years.
      • To see details for time periods of your choice, hold your mouse button down on one section then drag the mouse across a few years, and release it.
      • To see how this compares to the past 771,000 years, click on the ‘time’ icon on the top left.
      • To return the graph to its original position, double-click the time icon to the left of the thermometer/planet icon

      The annual ups and downs in the graph are because plants accumulate carbon in the spring and summer and release some back to the air in autumn and winter. As the northern hemisphere has more land and more plants, carbon dioxide levels go up in winter. Annual measurements of carbon dioxide are an average of these ups and downs.

      References and further reading