We can all help with climate change

What is the atmosphere, exactly? A newly released Ministry for the Environment report describes it as ‘‘a blanket wrapped around Earth to keep it at the perfect temperature to sustain life’’.

It is a very thin layer. To put it in another way, the ministry suggests that: ‘‘If Earth were an apple, the atmosphere would be the film of wax coating its skin. However, this insignificant looking film is vital for our climate system and any changes to it will affect our climate and, to varying degrees, life on Earth, possibly forever.’’

These scene-setting comments were made at the start of Our Atmosphere and Climate 2017, which the ministry released on Thursday. It is a dark but not unexpected picture of environmental damage that showed that climate change is ‘‘already potentially irreversibly affecting New Zealand’s natural systems’’. The picture is expected to worsen even further, with ‘‘more severe effects on the environment and our human systems as the climate continues to change’’.

The damage to Earth’s thin blanket has already been done and most of it has not been done by New Zealanders. But we have done more than our share. While our contribution to global gross greenhouse gas emissions is tiny – just 0.17 per cent – we have the fifth highest emissions per person in the OECD. Our gross greenhouse gas emissions rose 24 per cent from 1990 to 2015, with road transport and agriculture doing most of the work.

As well as these and other dramatic headline numbers, the full report also offered some climate predictions. The average temperature could increase by between 0.7 and 3 degrees between 1995 and 2090, just as it increased by 1 degree over the past century. Expect a 30 to 90 per cent fall in frost days and a 40 per cent to 300 per cent increase in days warmer than 25 degrees.

Wind speed will increase and droughts will become more frequent. Rain is harder to predict. Sea levels could be 1 metre higher, with oceans both warmer and more acidic.

There has been some surprise that the report has stressed the role played by road transport. But as the authors of the report note, our emissions from road transport have increased by a remarkable 78 per cent since 1990.

That is a greater increase than agriculture, even though the latter still causes 48 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions, and transport creates 18 per cent of emissions.

Our car ownership is the highest in the OECD according to 2017 figures, while the cars we drive are relatively old compared to other OECD countries. That leads to ‘‘high fuel consumption for each kilometre travelled,’’ the authors say.

The report should lead us to put more emphasis on transport’s contribution to climate change and create an argument for better public transport solutions.