Perito Moreno Glacier calves into Argentino Lake. Photo / Patrick Poendl
Perito Moreno Glacier calves into Argentino Lake. Photo / Patrick Poendl
THREE KEY FACTS:
Fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are by the largest contributor to global climate change, accounting for over 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions.
Thirty-six small island developing states and their partners have come together to share strategies and galvanize momentum in the transition to renewable and resilient energy systems.
Indigenous Māori have an intricate, holistic and interconnected relationship with the natural world and its resources – mātauranga Māori – developed over thousands of years dating back to life in Polynesia and trans-Pacific migrations.
Dr Daniel Hikuroa (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato-Tainui, Ngaati Whanaunga, Pākehā) is a senior lecturer in Māori Studies, Te Wānanga o Waipapa, in the Faculty of Arts, University of Auckland, and is part of the executive team at Te Ao Mārama – Centre for Fundamental Inquiry. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Geology in 1996, a Postgraduate Diploma in Science in 1999, and a PhD in Geology in 2004.
OPINION
As the planet swelters under the hottest summers on record, glaciers and ice sheets melt at unprecedented rates, rising sea levels are drowning low-lying nations, communities endure droughts and extreme wildfires, massive devastating floods, and huge and violent storms wreak havoc, we need wake up and realise that if we keep doing the same thing, we will get the same outcomes.
Increasingly there is a realisation that indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing, as a part of the environment, not apart from it, offer much promise (eg IPCC, UN, Unesco, governments, science societies).
I suggest they may be our best hope.
Year 5 and 6 students from Pāterangi School rolled up their sleeves and got their hands dirty to make a difference in their local community and display kaitiaki – guardianship – planting more than 500 native plants. Coincidentally on World Environment Day, the Nikau class visited a locally owned Thistlehurst Dairy farm to help the managers, Sean and Katrina Gibson.
Locally, kaitiakitanga – the suite of practices informed by centuries of observation of achieving the principle of intergenerational sustainability – is providing alternative and enduring ways forward. Acting as kaitiaki (guardians), Māori were responsible for ensuring the viability of land and resources for the following generations, always seeking to “be a good ancestor”.
Practices which were informed by mātauranga – knowledge, culture, values and world view, were undertaken to uphold the principle. Knowledge was generated via careful and rigorous observation, prediction and experiment, from which guidelines and methods were developed to meet the needs and requirements of communities.
Nations and corporations are behaving in a way that is leading our children – and our children’s children and our children’s children’s children – into a bleak, unsustainable future that most of us don’t want.
The laws and governance systems justify their acts based upon Judeo-Christian ideals of dominion over all things, a Cartesian dualism of a nature and culture split that entrenches an illusion of separation and independence. For Descartes, the world was a mechanism, therefore precluding the possibility of entering into a relationship.
Philosopher Thomas Berry said: “This mechanistic view of the world as controlled by humans, for human advantage, sees the world as a vast assembly of natural resources put there for human use. With the vast extent of our knowledge and the power of our technologies came an arrogant assurance that we could manage any difficulty associated with our actions.”
It is hard to believe that in the past few centuries our species has been able to wreak such wanton destruction and havoc – all in the name of profit.
A key contributor to anthropogenic global warming is greenhouse gases, released through various activities including burning fossil fuels, agricultural practices and microbial decomposition in our rubbish dumps.
Whilst a faith that technology will solve all our issues is risky, and potentially flawed, there are already some amazing technologies that we could use to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Technologies already exist that could turn our municipal waste, and waste products of agricultural, silvicultural (forestry) and various industrial processes, into fuels to generate electricity to charge the private and public transport fleet in Auckland.
An approach that combines such technologies within a kaitiakitanga paradigm – being a good ancestor – has amazing promise.
Now is the time to engage.
Two projects that I’m currently involved with give voice to the awa (rivers) and whenua (land). They offer hope that if we are curious and willing to kōrero about the climate, then we will forge a pathway forwards. I’ve been delighted to advise an incredible group of young theatre makers who are presenting Scenes from the Climate Era, which opens this week at Tāmaki Makaurau’s Q Theatre.
This show grants access to people who may not be up to speed on all of the principles of kaitiakitanga and western science. It’s hard to think of climate change issues as entertainment but this play offers a flurry of thought-provoking scenarios, from the voices of everyone from climate activists to deniers. It’s a good entry point and will no doubt encourage robust post-theatre discussions and some good take-home thinking.
Dr Dan Hikuroa.
The second project is Let the River Speak, supported by the Marsden Fund, designed to foster globally innovative exchanges across different disciplines and ways of thinking, involving local communities including iwi, local and central government agencies, farmers, foresters, riverside residents, businesses and those who paddle, row, fish and swim in the rivers, and a range of practical interventions aimed at restoring river communities to a state of ora – prosperity, health and wellbeing.
Scenes from a Climate Era plays to August 24 at Q Theatre. Book at www.qtheatre.co.nz.
