The best of causes

On March 15 New Zealand school students are being encouraged to walk out of school to tell politicians to take them seriously and start treating climate change for what it is — a crisis, and the biggest threat to the future of humankind. The action is being co-ordinated by School Strike 4 Climate Action NZ.

In February the journal Nature Climate Change published confident evidence that human activities raising the heat at the Earth’s surface had reached a “five-sigma” level, a statistical gauge meaning there is only a one-ina-million chance that the signal would appear if there was no anthropogenic global warming. The authors said that humankind could not afford to ignore such clear signals. The US-led study team analysed satellite measurements of rising temperatures over the previous 40 years.

Last November the same journal published a paper stating that future trends suggest that, by 2100, unless forceful action is taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions, human health, water, food, economy, infrastructure and security will be seriously impacted.

The increasing global impact of climate hazards such as heatwaves, precipitation, drought, floods, fires, storms, sea level rise and changes in natural land cover and ocean chemistry is already evident.

Given these warnings, it is frightening to think, given current life expectancy at birth for New Zealanders, that by 2100 a child born today will be younger than I am now.

If Northland school students elect to demonstrate in defence of their future prospects it is to be hoped that school administrations (or caregivers) will not attempt to block them or take punitive action for time away from classes. ROSS FORBES

Kerikeri