Hotstuff Chillout Diary

Climate Change in New Zealand

erica.finnie@windowslive.com — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:59:10 +0000

In New Zealand the biodiversity of our native bush, wetlands and alpine areas could be threatened. Changing weather patterns are exacerbating droughts on the East Coast, impacting on the use of water for irrigation, cities and industry and altering farming. In the West, rainfall is increasing, causing flooding and putting strain on infrastructure. Not only is climate change affecting the environment, it has, agricultural, economic, social and sometimes even health impacts.

ONE THING IS CERTAIN - life as we know it is going to change

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:07:54 +0000

The New Zealand Climate Change Centre is a new outfit set up by New Zealand's Crown Research Institutes and two universities. Recently it held a fascinating conference that featured scientists from New Zealand, Australia and the US talking about the effects of climate change on New Zealand. The key message was that climate change is inevitable and we will need to adapt to it. The question is the extent of adaptation required. The conference explained that whatever steps are taken now to reduce emissions, there is still human-induced climate change in the atmosphere. Even with a low carbon future in which emissions were dramatically reduced, we could see New Zealand's climate warm by a 1 degree C by 2100 and sea level rise by several tens of centimetres. We would experience more severe weather events and there would be negative impacts on our biodiversity. The conference also looked at much more serious impacts for New Zealand under a high carbon future. In this scenario at some point during coming centuries the Greenland ice shelf would melt and sea level rise could exceed seven metres. In the shorter term, New Zealand would see more heavy rainfall and flood events, but also more droughts in the east with heightened stress on water resources and changes to patterns of agricultural production. More species would face extinction because they would not have enough time to evolve to a changed environment. Under both the low and high carbon futures, although there will be health impacts in the cities, the biggest adaptation challenge will be in rural New Zealand. This is ironic because farming groups tend to deny climate change is happening or argue that they shouldn't have to reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions - even though they constitute a whopping 50 per cent of our greenhouse gases. However, New Zealand is fortunate in being surrounded by ocean. It has a moderating effect and while we are still vulnerable, we will not experience the extremes that face Australia. There, the red centre is relentlessly expanding and the green coastal fringe contracting. The ability to grow food is being increasingly constrained. New Zealand's future could well be the food bowl for an increasingly arid Australia. In Southeast Asia and in the Pacific some countries are extremely low-lying and face inundation as sea levels rise. New Zealand could well face indirect impacts from those countries as displaced peoples seek somewhere to live: Climate change refugees are coming our way. www.nzherald.co.nz/climate-change/news/article.cfm

FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN

Sun, 31 May 2009 23:54:19 +0000

I think Climate Change brings fear of the unknown because we all know it's happening but it's hard to know how rapidly changes are occuring. Because Climate Change is a gradual process, some people don't realise the consequences and effects it is having on the earth without a smack in the face like a natural disaster. I think Climate Change brings opportunity to people all around the world. It is a chance for people to make conscious decisions to benefit the environment and to strengthen local, national and international communities because community should be the basis of climate change adaptation and mitigation.

a wonderful story

Thu, 28 May 2009 21:04:24 +0000

"The Lorax" by Dr Seuss is a wonderful story and tells us about the bad impact humans can have on the environment. The greedy "Onceler" chops down the "Truffula Trees" to make something called a "Thneed" (that no-one really needs). The "Lorax", who speaks for the trees, warns the Onceler about doing this but the Onceler doesn't listen, and.....well....you'll have to read the book to see what happens. But as the Onceler says at the end of the book - "UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not!" See this link for a video of the story: video.google.com/videoplay

Emission Trading Scheme

Thu, 28 May 2009 20:56:51 +0000

There are many articles about climate change appearing in NZ newspapers every day. They are given high priority because climate change, and the NZ government's response to it, are very important issues for New Zealanders. NZ is a country that produces a lot of agricultural products for export to other countries (lamb, beef, butter, milk). It is very dependent on these products but these products produce a lot of carbon emissions - especially methane. About 1/2 of NZ's total carbon emissions are from agriculture. NZ signed the Kyoto Protocol and is responsible for its carbon emissions. It is proposing to put in place an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to make the people that produce the country's emissions, pay for them. Lots of articles appear in newspapers about the ETS. One that caught my eye is a survey of public opinion about the ETS. 77% of NZers think that the people that create the carbon emissions should pay for them. But most people think that our farmers should only pay for 40% (or less) of their emissions. Making them pay more might make them uncompetitive with farmers from other countries - meaning we'd sell less and have less money. Lots of NZers support a tax on products imported into NZ from countries that don't make their polluters pay for their carbon emissions. See this link for the full article: www.nzherald.co.nz/climate-change/news/article.cfm

Kia Ora

Tue, 26 May 2009 08:52:55 +0000

Kia Ora My name's Todd Spencer. I'm the project coordinator for New Zealand. Many of you probably know very little about New Zealand. So here are some quick facts so you can understand more about us:

We're a small country made up of 2 main islands, about 2000km south east of Australia
Most New Zealanders are of European descent. However, the indigenous Maori make up the biggest minority
The Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa - or land of the long white cloud
We speak English
We are a democracy and have a Prime Minister (John Key) but the Queen of England is still our head of state
We're about the same size as Japan but have only 4 million people
Our highest mountain is Aoraki or Mount Cook 3754m - we have lots of mountains and lakes - and active volcanoes
Agriculture and tourism are our biggest export earners
We're mostly famous for the All Blacks (rugby team), Lord of the Rings movies and our butter! Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to climb Mount Everest, was a New Zealander
We have about the 11th highest carbon emissions per person in the world - mainly due to our agricultural emissions

I'm really pleased to be involved in the hotstuffchillout project! I hope you all really enjoy this unique opportunity! Todd