A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
I am often surprised many still believe climate change isn’t a threat.
I no longer receive continuous outright climate change denials, but despite the urgency of the climate crisis, many of the same defence responses continue to come. For example:
This is the coldest winter — just look out the window.
Climate change is natural — it has always happened.
There’s no consensus among scientists.
CO2 is good for plant growth.
It may be real but nought can be done — it’s too late.
That Earth is headed for a “mini ice age” is a reoccurring myth.
Yet last year was Aotearoa New Zealand’s hottest year on record. Globally 2020 tied with 2016 as the hottest years on record, and it seems 2023 will be worse.
The latest research suggests human intervention has postponed the beginning of the next ice age. Researchers suggest that even moderate human interference with the planet’s natural carbon balance, through activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, might delay the next glacial cycle by 100,000 years.
As an aged adult with the memory of a large number of decades, I have noticed some of the most obvious effects of climate change — increasing temperatures; more frequent droughts and heatwaves; storms of greater magnitude and frequency — and I have studied the science well enough to understand a warmer climate can hold more moisture and energy.
New Zealand, fortunately, has Niwa to provide the science needed to help us adapt to and mitigate climate change, and assist the public in making informed choices.
Yet some individuals see them otherwise. This is from a present online comment: “Niwa have shown themselves to be a sham organisation, making bogus & inaccurate claims.” Untrue.
The most likely disinformation source for this was, “in 2010 Niwa was challenged for its methodology and accuracy of its historical temperature records in court. The Climate Coalition challengers lost the case . . .”. Unable to pay costs awarded against them, the organisation went into liquidation. Yet that myth remains, sad to say.
Finally, it is an election year and a survivable climate is the most important issue to vote for.
See: www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2308/S00282/vote-for-a-party-thats-serious-about-climate-action.htm
Bob Hughes
Emergency services found him unresponsive on March 5 in Wairoa.