The Election Roadshow for Climate, an initiative of Extinction Rebellion (XR) supported by Aotearoa Climate Emergency (ACE), has been making waves in Tauranga and Oamaru, in its attempt to put climate and ecological change at the forefront of this election.
The Roadshow, which started concurrently from Bluff and Cape Reinga on Monday, is promoting three election issues: the declaration of a national climate emergency; a Citizens’ Assembly on climate next year; and a green post-COVID-19 economic recovery plan.
In Tauranga, the North Island contingent of the roadshow visited Moturiki (Leisure Island) where they interviewed local resident and environmental activist Mary Dillon about her concerns for the future of the planet and, a little closer to home, the future of Tauranga. Tauranga is a special place for Mary who has lived here for 77 years. Mary has been a city councillor for 21 of those years as well as the Deputy Mayor for six years. She is currently the Chairperson for Envirohub, an umbrella organisation for all the conservation, green hands, and sustainable living groups throughout the Bay of Plenty.
“I think one of the special things about the Bay of Plenty is that it’s called the Bay of Plenty. We all came here because of that; because it was a plentiful place. And we stay here for the same reason. One of our tasks going forwards is to ensure that it remains this way. And I don’t think we can do that by constantly taking resources from the earth and not putting anything back.”
Mary is conscious of the urgency of the response needed to address climate change.
“We’ve still got time, but we don’t have a lot of it. If we haven’t made big steps by 2030 then we’re putting ourselves in the position of having to pay huge costs. Inevitably, these costs will fall on the people who are least able to bear them.”
Caril Cowan, one of the Extinction Rebellion roadshow members asked Mary what she thought needed to happen by 2030.
“We need to reduce our carbon footprint by 50%,” said Mary. “Tauranga is one of the worst emitters in all New Zealand when it comes to transport emissions. We have to change the “one person one car” culture. We have to manage our water, manage our waste, manage our biodiversity. All those things are part and parcel of saying that we need to rethink the way we live.”
When it comes to the way Mary thinks this culture change might happen, Mary is clear:
“We need a movement, like we had for Women’s Suffrage, or the Springboks tour, like we had for the Save Manapouri campaign. It needs to be individual by individual, street by street, community by community and then it becomes part of the way we live. We need to change the way people think. If we can’t get climate change right then the rest of it isn’t going to matter much.”
In Oamaru, activists gathered outside the iconic Steampunk museum and heard local organic farmer Jim O’Gorman, who has had gardens at Kakanui for 25 years, talk about the weather changes he has observed.
“We have a cool temperate dry climate here but this year has been particularly dry” he said. “I’ve measured 280 mls of rainfall for the year so far, well short of the average expected 650 mls.”
Jim went on to express his concern over the warm winters and how this has been affecting his crops.
“This winter was the warmest on record and I’m seeing aphids, white fly, green fly black fly and other pests already. I’m not able to grow brassicas at all any more, the white butterflies are like a snowstorm in the summer”.
Jim has also observed the increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and says it’s getting more difficult for the forecasters to warn farmers of stormy weather.
Gail May Sherman, who moved to New Zealand from the US thirteen years ago, told the crowd that she had witnessed pine forests in her home state of Colorado being decimated by pine beetle. She said pine beetle had always been controlled by cold winters but now the warming climate meant that was no longer happening and the forests were dying.
The roadshow continues in Hamilton in the North and Christchurch in the South.
For more information, contact Mathias Corwin, Election Roadshow Media Coordinator at [email protected] or 0204 022 7232.
