Gormless in the face of climate change

This Government will not bestir itself

The Government’s shameful nonreaction to climate change is a huge failure of leadership.

Whether you call it a moral imperative to do right by our children and future generations, or call it good old survival instinct kicking in, it hasn’t been a happening thing.

But the blame must fall more widely than the powers that be because, politically, we’ve been letting get away with it. This Government will not bestir itself, in any significant way, before we do.

Instead we soothe our consciences by telling ourselves that it’s all a bit contentious, we can’t do anything really significant, and we are at least reacting in a measured way. Much of the contention comes from the twin assessments that mainstream science is corrupt and big industry isn’t.

And, yes, we can at least mitigate the grief that lies ahead.

And when you actually measure our measured reaction so far, the gauge reads pitiful.

In place of achievement we have the illusion created by the tedious charade of fraudulent carbon New Zealand companies have been buying from Russia and the Ukraine. Carbon trading is not, inherently, the monumental con that some claim it to be, but roguery can intrude into it, and New Zealand companies have been in the market for a bit of that – without, it seems, breaking any laws.

Disgracefully, though the Government has been slow to ban the bogus end of the trading spectrum – acting only in the middle of last year – but still appears set on factoring them into the professed achievements that count towards its 2020 target.

The latest study into this, the Climate Cheats report published by the Morgan Foundation, will airily be dismissed in some quarters because of the provocative reputation of the funder. Getting tame scientists to say what you want to hear? Rubbish.

These are people formed from the ranks of the great majority of scientists who have, for so long now, been telling us something we haven’t wanted to hear.

Meanwhile, a Royal Society of New Zealand report identifies this country’s vulnerability to accelerating climate change. Coastal erosion and flooding, worsened by storm surges, rising coastal water tables, long-term inundation of low-lying areas, acidifying oceans, more volatile weather, and all sorts of disruption to the markets we rely on to earn our export living.