Environment groups see post-covid benefits
The way Covid-19 has changed people’s lives has created hope more could be done to improve the environment, in the eyes of several Palmerston North lobby groups.
Several submitters on the city council’s draft annual budget yesterday urged that resources should be shifted from growth and physical infrastructure projects towards those that reduce waste and enhance biodiversity.
Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman Beth Tolley said the council needed to act urgently to avert the looming climate catastrophe, because its current plans were not ambitious enough.
She said the council’s notion of ‘‘sustainable growth’’ was a contradiction in terms when we lived on a finite planet.
‘‘The words ‘sustainable growth’ should be taken out of the plan.’’
She said projects such as the airport terminal expansion, supporting the ‘‘huge guzzler’’ of aviation, should be removed in favour of those that encouraged less waste, better recycling and more active transport to reduce carbon emissions.
Tolley said the way the Covid-19 emergency had rapidly changed people’s behaviour in ways that were good for the planet provided hope for greater action against climate change.
In a similar vein, Stewart Harrex, from Environment Network Manawatu¯, said the pathway to recovery after Covid-19 provided opportunities to do better for the environment.
She said there were already plenty of environmental efforts, from pest control to resource recovery, ‘‘simmering away’’ in the community.
What was needed was greater co-ordination and communication so everyone felt they were part of supporting amore resilient future for people and the planet.
The network said the council’s ‘‘big-city ambition, small-city benefits’’ vision needed to be ‘‘recalibrated’’ for the post-covid environment.
It repeated its calls for council assistance to help set up an eco-centre in the city.
Manawatu¯ River Source to Sea spokesman Alastair Cole said there were opportunities to attract Government money for planting and enhancement around water ways, and pest and weed control.
City councillors will deliberate on submissions and debate howmuch the proposed 4.4 per cent rates rise should be adjusted on May 20.