Climate Change Commission advice from Rod Oram on Newsroom

Rod Oram comes at this enduring problem from the direction of what the Climate Change Commision must do to improve its mandate. Lots of good comments and this is my take.

“A paradigm shift means the abandonment of the beliefs, values, facts and assumptions upon which you built everything. And if we shift our paradigm then everything we’ve done in the past becomes suspect at least. “
This quote from Dr William Rees, as copied by Warren, describes a very challenging scenario. It is not a new perspective, probably creeping into public consciousness 25 years ago, although it was well evidenced in the desperate reaction to it in the neo-liberal coups by the 80s, and now widely understood.

I describe this realization as ‘the post truth era where denial has become main stream’. It goes a long way to explain the craziness that abounds, the ‘deep state’ accusations, the insurrection in Washington, DC, the occupation of parliament with a riot in Wellington, Fox (so-called ) News. Social media is more of a means than a deep cause.

The real debate is churning in the collective, the collective subconscious, where the relative importance of avoiding the worst of the coming apocalypse by implementing these massive changes is compared to the desire to stay the same consumerist ‘who we are’ which has a centuries long tradition, including the colonialist history of this place. Effects of this churning popping into the political consciousness may surprize, and while it will not be led by ‘government’ or ‘commission’, that all contributes to the churning.