Extinction Rebellion brings climate change campaign to Whanganui

Whanganui residents Athol Steward and Jill Burdett want action on climate change. Photo / Lewis Gardner

The Election Roadshow for Climate Change has passed through Whanganui, attracting a small group of supporters to hear its message.

Sunday's event was organised by Extinction Rebellion, an international activist group for the environment. Caril Cowan is one of its Auckland Central co-ordinators.

"We are rebelling against all the governments of the world who aren't doing what they have promised," Cowan said.

International agreements about the climate date back to the early 1970s.

"Environment groups have been petitioning, marching and protesting for 40 years and look where we have got."

Caril Cowan speaks at Extinction Rebellion's Election Roadshow for Climate Change. Photo / Lewis Gardner

The group is not urging people to vote for any particular party.

It wants the New Zealand government to declare a climate emergency that needs urgent national action. Media co-ordinator Mathias Corwin said 76 per cent of New Zealanders live in places where councils have made that declaration.

It pointed out that the Labour Party wants to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and the Green Party by 2035-50. It wants a Citizens' Association on Climate Change that will make the decisions governments are not making.

The roadshow is collecting stories as it goes. In Whanganui it planned to film an interview with Athol Steward, who has campaigned to prevent seabed mining in the South Taranaki Bight.

In Auckland it recorded the view of a 14-year-old girl, who said despair at adult inaction on climate change is affecting young people's mental health.

Extinction Rebellion uses non-violent direct action, and members are prepared to be arrested.

"In Auckland we shut down the BP headquarters for an afternoon and delivered them a letter saying they needed a new business model," Cowan said.

The group has also blocked roads, but she is not a fan of that.

"It's the wrong target. We are trying to target the decisionmakers."

In Whanganui the group planned to attach stickers to political billboards at the Cornmarket Reserve.