Criteria to examine the Climate Change Commission Report

The main criteria to judge the special report on climate change would be:   LESS!

Carrying that theme, some particular criteria to apply would be:

1.  Less:  The future lies with ‘less’.  Less consumption in general because our life style is so widely and deeply tied up with so many resources and processes.  We hardly know what all the connections are.   Areas to become smaller will need to be identified and quantified.  Is the CO2 reduction goal ambitious enough?
2. Transport:  In the cities daily transport releases much CO2.  The personal automobile is now mostly an unsustainable indulgence.  Will these recommended processes set a clear course toward a drastic reduction in the number of vehicles on the road?  In rural areas the agriculture industry, especially the feed-lot dairy industry, are the most polluting industries.  Long range rural area land travel must use less polluting modes, especially rail, within the general need for ‘less’ of everything.  Air transport has become mostly unsupportable.  The arrogant air travel industry (especially tourism) must be cut down to ‘less’.
3. Consumption:  Consumption CO2 must be accounted for as well as production CO2.  It means little just to be responsible for production, though production CO2 is important; it is often ignored that there is a consumption factor (production is elsewhere).
4. Neo-Liberal:  There must be accounting of the ego-dominated neoliberal forms and processes as to CO2 production as compared with CO2 production in more community based life styles.  Is the neo-liberal influence being reduced?  (Note: this is especially difficult because the neo-liberal was ideologized as the ‘end of history’ in the eighties and the world has in fact become mostly neo-liberal, including New Zealand, US, China, etc, and even including the Labour Party in NZ.)
5. Oceans:  Bottom trawling is an abomination which gives the impression that human systems are willing to forge ahead toward extinction.  Is there direct intervention to eliminate bottom trawling?
6. Billionaires:  The growth of these useless corporate-like entities is a sign that human systems are promoting exploitation with its extinction mentality.  Specific processes (see above) adopted to reduce CO2 creation will not be carried forward with sufficient vigour as long as there is growth in the billionaire class, or the neo-liberal continues to dominate.
7. Housing:  Is housing policy included, and tending toward the ‘taller and smaller’?
8. Exploitation:  Are the approaches applied less exploitative?  Evaluate the direction of inequality, reduction of industrial farming philosophies and practices (adoption of regenerative farming), and tending to eliminate the billionaire class (see#6), and reduction of the influence of the A-boys and the A-girls.

Macro economic tools:   Is direct reduction of CO2 kept at the fore, reducing the primacy of capitalist economic system preserving tools such as the ETS?  We must see the reduction and eventual elimination of the capitalist e

Response to Scoop article on airport $75M

The most important issue is to control the ambitions of the airport. There will need to be much less air travel in a carbon constrained world. Everybody knows this but people are terrified to admit the fundamental nature of change required to address it, hence the Post Truth Era where denial has become mainstream percolating up from the collective subconscious. (Longer discussion indicated)

Version 2

The Editor
The Dominion Post
Wellington
03/05/2020

What are the region’s mayors seeing at WCC? Here’s what they should be seeing. Cr Paul is suggesting an alternative to council officer’s advice on a Covid-19 recovery package from WCC. Read the rest of this entry »