Editorial: A howl of protest, but the planet is howling, too

A farm dog during the Howl of a Protest in Levin. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Phrases such as "the worst in living memory" have unfortunately become standard when attached to extreme weather events.

Expensive, intense and often lethal weather events are the new normal. Scientists and governments dealing with the data and the problems say climate change is the underlying condition behind them.

In just the weeks since the Canterbury floods in May to this weekend's storms, the world has been cycling through disastrous events in quick succession.

There's been record heat in North America and dozens of fires in the United States. Canada busted a Dust Bowl-era temperature record. The western US is into its fourth major heatwave in six weeks.

There's been "fire tornadoes" and huge "fire clouds" have been spotted — columns of smoke and ash up to 10km in the sky above blazes.

"We wouldn't be seeing this giant ramp up in fire activity as fast as it is happening without climate change," Park Williams, a climate scientist at UCLA, told the New York Times. "There's just no way."

The Russian area of Siberia has been burning, and Scandinavian countries have experienced an unusual heatwave.

A study reported that the Amazon rainforest is now producing more emissions than it is absorbing.

Deadly flooding in Germany, Belgium and other parts of Western Europe has killed more than 150 people, with many more missing, destroyed homes and swept away cars.

"The rainfall is extreme weather whose intensity is being strengthened by climate change — and will continue to strengthen further with more warming," said Friederike Otto from the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford.

As with the pandemic, societies' prevention planning has been woefully inadequate and people today are having to deal with the consequences.

The sense of injustice at the farmers' protests on Friday over suddenly having to deal with a range of reforms all at once is understandable.

Years of dithering inaction have resulted in sudden, radical change everywhere, not just here. The road has run out. It has left us having to carry the can.

Without doubt there is a basic unfairness across the globe to the response, which is general rather than targeted. Populations everywhere are being asked to do their bit.

Yet the United States, India, China, and the EU together account for almost 60 per cent of global carbon emissions. Just a handful of big cities produce the most emissions. And within the travel sector, business flights are a big slice of air traffic that is hard to justify in the time of video links.

Sudden major upheaval causes fear, uncertainty and anger.

The French Gilets Jaunes (yellow vest) protests were sparked by uproar in rural areas over a fuel tax meant to fund the country's move to a greener economy. It upset people in areas more reliant on vehicles for transport.

The protests forced the French Government to drop the levy and introduce billions of euros in financial support and tax breaks. President Emmanuel Macron held a series of public meetings that helped take the steam out of the movement.

Ironically, farmers here opposed to new environmental regulations would bear the brunt of future extreme weather such as flooding, fires and drought. Delaying action now will increase the costs of disasters.

Rural life and family farms are an important part of the country's culture and need to remain that way through environmental adaptations.

The Government should take care to properly explain the reasons for changes and to find practical ways of easing the burden on hard-hit sectors.