There’s been name calling aplenty between the South Waikato District Council and an international climate change activist group.
Extinction Rebellion Aotearoa New Zealand, a branch of the international climate change activist group known for gluing themselves to buildings, have been labelled “terrorists” by Councillor Peter Schulte while fellow Councillor Marin Glucina has said “there are no responsible people behind it.”
That’s been met with Extinction Rebellion Aotearoa New Zealand spokesperson Dr Sea Rotmann claiming the council is following a ” sociopathic” system.
The clash comes after the activist group, whose members blockaded the London Stock Exchange in April, sent a letter to South Waikato Mayor Jenny Shattock calling for the council to take a “lead role in pushing for a declaration of climate and ecological emergency in the region”.
It also called on the council to pressure the Government into doing more to address it, to request it give the council statutory powers to prevent any further increases in short and long-lived greenhouse gas emissions, and to fast-track initiative to drawdown atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Schulte said while he supports the aim of the group, the extreme ways it tries to get messages across was terrorism.
“They are threatening airports with drones and shutdown the London Stock Exchange by blockading the entrance,” he said.
“The press call them activists but I call them terrorists.”
Glucina said he was loathe to support the group without knowing who was behind it.
“We don’t know who these people are,” he said.
“There is no incorporated society behind it and there is no trust behind it. In other words there are no responsible people behind it.”
Shattock said enough work was already being done to combat climate change without bowing to the demands of the group.
“We already have central government working in this space. It might not be as fast as this group want but they are working in a measured, responsible and logical way to address climate change,” she said.
“It is an issue for all of us and local government is also working in this space and we as a council are very aware.
“My personal opinion is that we don’t have to sign up to something like this. [We will] continue to support where we can and contribute to the betterment of our environment.”
But Dr Rotmann disagreed.
“The Council, like all other councils in New Zealand, is clearly not doing enough to take both the climate and ecological emergencies seriously,” she said.
“In addition, it is out of step with the majority of New Zealanders who want the climate and ecological emergency declared.
“New Zealand actually has the highest proportion, 62 per cent, of its population already living in areas where these emergencies have been declared, so the South Waikato District Council is clearly not on the right side of history with its refusal to tell the truth about these emergencies.”
Rotmann disputed the group was carrying out terrorist activity.
“We could argue that the sociopathic, ecocidal capitalist system which our governments serve to uphold is the actual terrorist here,” she said.
“Extinction Rebellion is the fire alarm, here to wake up the inhabitants of our house, Papatūānuku, that is on fire.
“That means, having to use non-violent, a very clear distinction to terrorism, civil disobedience. This is based on long, successful traditions such as those used by the United States civil rights movement.”
Rotmann said Extinction Rebellion Aotearoa New Zealand was aiming to mobilise at least 3.5 per cent of New Zealanders to force the Government to take a stance against the fossil fuel and industrial farming lobby which it claims is “driving its criminally-cautious responses to this deadly emergency”.
“We hope that the South Waikato District Council will soon decide that it rather be on the side of its citizens, not multinational corporate criminals, and declare the emergency,” she said.
