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Innovation

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

“You just need to do everything you can, with everyone you can, to change everything you can.” – Greta Thunberg

Image: Sonny Whitelaw

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“Changing our societal priorities hardly needs to be a capitulation to grim necessity. Human activity can be regenerative and our productive capacities can be transformed. In fact, we are seeing examples of that happening right now. Expanding those efforts now creates a world full of opportunity that is also sustainable.”  – KPMG Director Gaya Herrington

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Destroying biodiversity has destroyed the mechanisms for stabilising our climate. As dangerous tipping points already are being breached three critically urgent priorities must be enacted.

1. Stop emitting greenhouse gases including methane and nitrous oxide from intensive farming.

2. Draw down the excess and store it in natural ecosystems. Restoring oceanic and terrestrial biodiversity is the most cost-effective and climate-friendly way to do this.

3. Adaptation: prepare to live in a world with a rapidly changing climate; restoring biodiversity will buffer us from the worst impacts as it also provides us with life-supporting ecosystem services (food, clean water, nutrient recycling, buffers against rising sea levels and floods from rivers, etc.)

3a. Avoid maladaptation: Planting a sea of monoculture pines and investing in green-washed technology that re-emits carbon into the atmosphere destroys life-supporting ecosystems and the climate.

We can do adpt. And we can thrive. But it requires innovation, something we Kiwis are good at.

The links in the menu do not imply an endorsement of any product, technology, or strategy. Indeed, some engage in blatant greenwashing and maladaptation but nevertheless contain information that you may find useful.

For everyday personal innovation behavioural changes actions, we recommend David Attenborough’s Breaking Boundaries: how you can be part of the solution.

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Innovation