Necessary changes will become easier

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Our columnist today has many questions and points to make following yesterday's editorial, and fair enough. An overarching answer is that everyone's circumstances are different, and the goods we buy and infrastructure around us are going to change fairly rapidly towards helping us all have a lighter carbon footprint — principally through technological advances, businesses meeting demand, and government investment, incentives and regulations.

The price of electric vehicles (EVs) will keep falling just as their range will continue to increase; charging stations have been going up fast to make EV journeying most places around the country possible, and this network will continue to fill out and, gradually, accompany then replace fuel stations.

The suggestion to use power more efficiently was precisely because about 20 percent of New Zealand's electricity is fossil-fuelled. In the future our electricity market will be significantly larger, to power all those electric motors, and closer to 100 percent renewable.

Long before EVs become the majority of cars on our roads, Gisborne city will have an interconnected cycleway network that will make biking much safer. The council needs to prioritise this, especially the proposed Taruheru “spine” cycleway through the city; and NZTA funds most of this work.

As well as biking and walking more, and forgoing some trips we don't need to take, we can drive less by sharing more rides. Yes, people are choosing to fly less, too.

City-dwellers have limited scope to plant trees on their properties but can join community planting and weeding bees; those in the country can access grant funding for 1ha or more of natives, or 5ha and up (to a limit) of exotic trees.

As for New Zealand's red meat industry, it is well-placed in an increasingly climate-conscious market. Our pastoral-based farming systems are among the most efficient in the world. We are also leading global efforts to reduce methane emissions per animal, and will be the first nation in the world to bring agriculture into an emissions pricing scheme.

Many of us eat more red meat, and especially processed meat, than is good for us — so what's good for the planet is also good for the person. However, as diets change, real meat will remain a premium product; with New Zealand red meat deserving its spot at the top end.

As for detecting spin and hidden agendas, look at motivation and track record.