In less than 20 years, "once-in-a-century" floods will become regular events. Photo / Dean Purcell
In less than 20 years, "once-in-a-century" floods will become regular events. Photo / Dean Purcell
OPINION:
I'll let you in on a bit of an open political secret. The over-egged debate we're having about wealth taxes and the lack of mainstream political interest in frightening climate change news are driven by the same forces: a long-time status quo bias for the rhetoric of "individual responsibility" over collective responsibility.
In a flood, you could have 10 people working together to build a boat big enough for all of them. Or you could have one person hoarding the materials necessary, scolding the others that they simply didn't work hard enough to survive. The boat wouldn't be built. Those rising waters won't care who held the most status or the most money.
While the usual characters were busy attacking any possible future of an economy that might rebalance grotesque wealth inequality this week, ground-breaking scientific research from Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington, GNS Science, Niwa, University of Otago and the Antarctic Science Platform told us that without immediate action, in less than 20 years, "once-in-a-century" floods will be knocking on the door of our capital city every single year.
One of these issues is about whether we have the guts to do anything about the fact, as discovered by renowned inequality researcher Max Rashbrooke, that 70 per cent of wealth is held by 10 per cent of people in this country. The least wealthy half – 2.5 million New Zealanders – own just 2 per cent. The top 1 per cent, meanwhile, own 25 per cent - or one in every four dollars of wealth.
National and Act say there's nothing wrong with this slide into aristocracy and want to supercharge it with a swathe of tax cuts paid for by low income earners and potential cuts to public services. Labour aren't yet sure if they're ready to do anything about it.
The other issue, which has got far less airtime and inspired many fewer opinion editorials, is about life as we know it. Global warming isn't something we can deal with in the future. It's here, now.
Unless genuinely urgent, radical policy choices are made, millions of New Zealanders, their homes and our lands will experience the catastrophically radical impacts of climate change. We saw it coming.
Netflix's star-studded black comedy Don't Look Up. Photo / Netflix
During Covid lockdowns, Netflix made a star-studded black comedy about two astronomers trying to warn humanity about an asteroid on a pathway set to destroy life on planet earth. It was an open metaphor for climate change, the tendency to label those requesting the survival of our species as fanatics, the wilful ignorance of political and corporate actors and the short attention span of media cycles. It went on to win a slew of film awards and is the second-most-watched movie on the streaming platform. It is funny how those who haven't seen it tend to already know how it ends.
We know that the rules of our economy are hurting people and the planet. We know that if someone has an extraordinarily large slice of the pie, there's less to go around for everyone else. We know that we have already extracted or discovered enough fossil fuels that if burned will tip us over 1.5C of warming.
We know that the wealthiest in our country and our world are responsible for the largest majority of climate-changing emissions yet maintain the resources to continue moving further and further up the proverbial hill, getting a better view of rising seas without much incentive to do anything about it. We know that the lowest-income, least-wealthy people, who have contributed the least in terms of climate-changing emissions by virtue of far lower consumption, are set to disproportionately suffer the consequences of rising sea levels, polluted air and food insecurity.
Wealth distribution is a matter of climate action. Poverty and rising sea levels are not inevitable. They are the consequences of political decisions that are built off of campaigns that encourage you to see fellow human beings as lazy, undeserving and worthy of suspicion; they're the product of suggesting someone else might be responsible for climate change while letting the 15 companies responsible for 75 per cent of our nations' emissions off lightly.
Just as our past would have looked different had Aotearoa New Zealand not created the welfare state and the tax system to pay for it in the 1930s, our present would have looked a lot different had those systems not been shredded with Rogernomics in the 1980s, and the Mother of All Budgets in the early 90s.
We've got a blueprint of a pretty scary future if we stay the present course. The good news is all of us get to decide if we want to avert disaster – please don't leave it to the politicians.
• Chlöe Swarbrick, Green Party, is the MP for Auckland Central
