Editorial: When convenience kills the planet - uncomfortable conversations about climate change

Northland has its fair share of natural beauty worth protecting. Photo / Julia Czerwonatis

Talking about climate change is uncomfortable. Especially when we realise it's happening because of what we've done and are still doing to the Earth.

It becomes yet more uncomfortable when we see that it is us who need to change.

It's easy to pass this responsibility to policymakers or big industry, the ones that are polluting our planet. They got us into this mess so it's their job to fix it, right?

Of course, it's not that simple.

Humanity has created this terribly beautiful world of convenience that we are snuggled up in with our single-use commodities and a screen tap away from getting everything we wish delivered to our doorstep.

And it is nice, not to worry. To think, it's all going to be okay, because someone will save the day and I can keep living without regard to what I am doing to my environment.

But that's not the way forward if we want to maintain this planet. If we want our kids to have a life worth living, we need to change the way we eat, move, consume, create and think.

Our rivers' ecosystems are bound to change but how exactly is hard to predict at this stage. Photo / John Stone

I'd like to invite you to read the Advocate climate change series to learn why all of this is relevant for us here in Northland.

The inspiring Niki Harré, a sustainability psychologist, will lead the introduction by giving us a bit humility: yes we need to change, but it's not on one single person to stop all emissions in the world.

She talks about where and how we can find agency to act, and what to do when it all gets a bit too much.

Niwa will then take the role of familiarising us with the scary stuff: sea-level rise, heatwaves and big storms.

But even in the scientists' report lies a message of hope. There are still a lot of "ifs" and "whens" because everything isn't determined yet which leaves us a scope of action.

Resilience for our water infrastructure will be important for the region to prevent our reservoirs like the Whau Valley Dam from running dry. Photo / John Stone

We'll learn from waste-savvy Kiwis how to make our households more sustainable and the incredibly energetic Murupaenga-Ikenn will explain why it's our human right to demand living in a healthy environment.

The industry will of course play a role. Northland's greenhouse gas emissions are high compared to other regions because of manufacturing and farming.

The series is having a closer look at what they are doing to adapt their production and what we need to understand about carbon sequestration.

Lastly, our youth are going to speak about their dreams and demands for the future.

I hope that you, our readers, will find a piece of information in this series that will help you along in the battle against climate change. And I hope together we can create a good life for us and generations to come.