The aim should be to not fail, and to not fail over the long term.

Change which is the result (not a cause) of our energy consumption without addressing over-consumption, depletion, replacement, maintenance and thwarted expectations.

I presume that would be classified as avoidance or denial or maybe ‘cognitive dissonance’ in psychologist-speak. We may also be hard-wired in another way, to value the short-term over the long. When I’m talking about this, I liken it to desiring a year’s supply of firewood but that’s of no use if you don’t avoid the oncoming lion, right here, right now.

Why do we prefer comfort today even if it trashes tomorrow? Can we out-think that? Can we de-wire it from our DNA? We don’t seem to have learnt from all the small-scale overshoot failures of the past. Is that another psychological failing? Sort of ‘it happened to someone else, somewhere else, a long time ago’ kindof thing, the inference being that now (presumably), we are so much smarter?

I think Dr Harre is right on two counts: that we ought to walk the walk/talk the talk, and that we should do so even if we are doomed to fail. There are, however, caveats to that. Firstly, the aim should be to not fail, and to not fail over the long term.

Ironically, as I wrote this, Auckland Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse was making comments about Local Government adapting to Climate Change, including managed coastal retreat. She left the distinct impression that Local Government was leading and central Government… wasn’t. Finance Minister Bill English promptly – the same weekend – announced the creation of The Productivity Commission inquiry into Local Government Planning, presumably with the pre-determined goal of removing red-tape. However, The Productivity Commission has a deadline that is so far away it’ll probably be overtaken by events.

Middle-class New Zealand has to think hard and think long about their little ones, and the children who will follow. We need to give a standing ovation to people like Nikki Harre who advocate the long game. We need to give another to people like Penny Hulse too. We need to jeer noisily – yes, even if some find it uncomfortable – when folk claim we can go on like this forever.

The Neanderthals of the past didn’t make it through their bottleneck, perhaps due to some psychological flaw in their DNA, and it is still the fate of all slow learners. ■