Now the climate crisis is self-evident, a common argument by those who STILL defend polluters is that “NZ is too small to make a difference, and so shouldn’t have to stop intensive dairy farming or driving Ford rangers to school in Auckland”
Rod Carr destroys it in this mic-drop moment.
Measuring climate change impact per captia is a ccp talking point and I cringe every time I see it mentioned. Population size does not give you the right to pollute more. The biggest polluters need to make changes immediately.
If you want to reduce our per captia carbon emissions bring another 5million people into the country. The value our farmers bring to the world far offsets the carbon output. We should do our best to reduce emissions where possible but forcing reduction in output does more harm than good.
Exactly what value do NZ farmers bring to the world?
If you are talking Dairy, most of their production is exported and consumed as luxury food - if it disappeared tomorrow, the world would not suffer!? (~3 percent of the world’s milk solids) Dairy is one of the most inefficient ways to produce “food”. We could do much better producing plant based food for export.
Considering the damage to our waterways, the environment in general, and Climate Change - there is NO value in that.
Per Capita is the correct measure to use in my, and many others’ opinion - there is no other fairer way to attribute the effects.
Bringing in another 5 million people into the country would see our Carbon Emissions rise… Removing a good portion of 5 million dairy cows would see a rapid and significant reduction!
I don’t think that’s the point he’s making. He’s just saying NZ may be a small percentage of emissions, but proportionally we emit more than our fair share.
Partly true. Everyone needs to make changes immediately. Big or small. Remember that a large portion of China’s emissions are from products exported to the West. That doesn’t get China off the hook, but it also means Western countries (including NZ) have to accept their responsibility in those emissions.
Source?
Not exactly sure what you mean by “forcing reduction in output”, but if you mean consuming less, then yes we will need to do that. Climate change will not be fixed with tinkering around the edges. It needs transformational action.
I’ve been waiting 6 years for transformational action from Labour, I still can’t get a good rental property for a fair price. No bike shed, constant changes to car parking arrangements with other tenants, just a disaster. They talk about climate change but they don’t seem to believe in it. Where is the dense housing, where is the walkable city? I still need a car to get to the laundromat.
Exactly. The fact that there are only five million people within our national boundaries doesn’t mean we should just be able to pollute more.
If that’s the case, any group of 5 million people can say they’re only zero point whatever percent of emissions so they shouldn’t have to do anything.
All that achieves is everyone pointing at everyone else being the problem and nothing gets done. The planet burns and the oceans boil