Climate change

The Mackenzie District Council has sidelined any action to deal with climate change.

When I visited Aoraki/Mt Cook in 1957 as a young man, the elevated plateau appeared to be a magical world reaching into the sky. The road to Cook was mainly gravel and little streams that crossed the road weren’t bridged. Cook seemed to reach into a realm out of human experience.

Since those days, the inland regions have been taken over by people and townships built near lakes for human pleasure.

This advance is typical of human action, build what you want, take what you want, but don’t be prepared to put back essentials to benefit nature or deal with the destruction that human caused changing climate will bring.

The inland plateau is subject to extreme heat and drought which will rapidly intensify over the next decade. If farmers who exploit the soil didn’t return vital organic matter to the soil it would soon become unproductive.

There is a way to live that acknowledges the environment and the human duty to preserve it. So it is particularly disappointing to witness local representatives obsessed with mundane human affairs but having no ideas or interest in the great environment they have inherited.

The land is the wealth of the region and government has a fund allocated towards carrying out essential planting and preservation of environments.

Online there is an eye-opening story of a young couple who set out to change and enhance a desolate area of farmland in America – ‘‘The

Biggest Little Farm’’. Farmers and councillors could do well to check it out to see what is possible if there is a will.

Terry Huggins Geraldine

‘‘Yay. About time. It had to happen for Timaru growth.’’ – keepitveryreal