The Election Roadshow for Climate, an initiative of Extinction Rebellion (XR) supported by Aotearoa Climate Emergency (ACE), has been making waves in Hamilton and Christchurch, 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 (September 14), 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 Hamilton, the North Island contingent of the roadshow set up a “climate cafe” in Garden Place where coffee was served alongside discussions of the climate and ecological crisis. Caril Cowan, one of the Extinction Rebellion roadshow members interviewed Thames resident, environmental activist and mother Sheena Beaton. Sheena has been involved in environmental activism for fifteen years now, and in that time has worked primarily with Greenpeace. Perhaps her most daring action took place eleven years ago when she climbed the Sydney Opera House to hang a banner that begged the leaders at the COP 2009 conference to “Stop the politics & Sign a Climate Treaty NOW!”
Sheena is currently working as the Coordinator of Thames Coast Kiwi Care; a community led kiwi recovery group based in Te Mata. As Caril interviewed her it became clear that climate change and ecological extinction are both deeply personal and emotionally charged issues for Sheena, who worries about the future that her children are inheriting.
“We should be honouring and protecting and doing everything we can to protect our habitat as a species,” says Sheena. “I can’t even bear to think of the future for my children, because it doesn’t look anything like it should.
Sheena is already seeing the effects of climate change in Thames, particularly through her conservation work with Kiwi.
“Just the droughts that we were experiencing last year, those sort of climate change related effects have massive detrimental impacts on our wildlife. And in Thames and the Coromandel we’re very vulnerable to sea level rise – I’ve had a really hands on experience with that. In the storm of January, 2018 I was living in a waterfront rental property in Te Puru. I went out to go to work and the waves were coming over the seawall and crashing onto the grass. As the day went on and the tide rose there was literally waves breaking on my front porch. This is what climate chaos looks like. The cost of the cleanup was astronomical, the Thames Coast road repairs alone ran into the millions. My neighbours who had lived on the Thames Coast for over fifty years had never seen a weather event of this magnitude before.”
Sheena wants the incoming government to hear that we’re in an emergency.
“It is difficult, because everyone needs and expects all the social services we rely on to be a priority but at the end of the day everything else will be irrelevant if we don’t have a habitable country or world to live in.”
In Christchurch, activists gathered by the Cathedral Square chalice and heard from local resident David Goldsmith, a father of three who recently completed a month long vigil outside of parliament and a twenty-one day hunger strike. The hunger strike was a radical move undertaken by David to try and raise awareness of the climate and ecological crises happening in New Zealand and around the world.
“It’s not just climate change. It’s a climate and ecological crisis and ocean acidification all put together. We’re out here and the sun is still shining and the birds are still singing; it’s difficult to face this reality that we’re in a crisis, but the science is astonishingly clear.”
During David’s vigil there was one fact that stood out to David above the rest: that if all climate heating emissions are taken since the industrial revolution began, we have doubled those since 1990.
“In the last thirty years we have doubled all our emissions. We know the science but we’re not acting. In fact, we’re doing the exact opposite. We need desperate change because this is a desperate situation.”
The roadshow continues in New Plymouth in the North on Saturday and Westport on Tuesday.
For more information, contact Mathias Corwin, Election Roadshow Media Coordinator at [email protected] or 0204 022 7232
