Conservation comment: Nature demands balance

AS I WRITE, the COP21 Climate Change Conference in Paris is in its second week. Everyone with a stake in it is there - the political leaders, the industry lobbyists, the aid agencies, organisations advocating for ordinary citizens and, of course, the negotiators who are trying to come up with goals and agreements which everyone can live with.

Everyone went through the same exercise in 2011 and pretty much failed. Why? The same reason this conference may fail - self-interest.

Most people and groups will be arguing for their own perspective, including New Zealand. Our representatives are saying we have a unique problem - the carbon emissions from our farming sector - and need special consideration. Of course, our situation isn't unique at all.

Other countries, too, have large farming industries. But it is an example of what the Paris negotiators are up against. Each nation or interest group is arguing that their position needs particular consideration. We can all recognise that problem.

We've all been in a conflict where we have argued for our particular perspective. There is a major difference, however, in the Paris negotiations - we're dealing with the laws of nature and with them there is no compromise.

Humankind has had this problem for a few hundred years now. We've expected nature to fit in with our interests, our needs, our convenience. For a long time, it seemed like it worked. We could pour our waste into the rivers, the ocean and the sky; cut our forests down if we needed the timber or if they got in the way; exploit our soil and water, take all the fish we wanted. And then we discovered coal and oil. These cheap sources of energy revolutionised our whole way of life. Burning them enabled us to achieve much of what we now take for granted, and have come to depend on.

But now, we have learned that our activities (and our sheer numbers) have upset the balance of nature so much (climate change) the future of our species and many others is in doubt.

The negotiators in Paris have a huge task. We want to keep doing what we've been doing but without the ill-effects. Many of us are arguing the problem doesn't exist at all, or we can look to technology to solve it, or someone else will have to compromise so we won't have to suffer.

The primary point here is nature isn't going to compromise. We have to change our strongly held attitudes and learn how to live within its laws, or we won't survive. It's as simple, and as difficult, as that. Will we think of our children and grand-children enough to change? Will we consider the needs of others as much as our own?

There are growing numbers of people all over the world doing just that - living more simply and in harmony with nature - and who are calling for the rest of us to do the same. Will you join them?

-Philip McConkey has worked in the helping professions most of his life, as a social worker, counsellor and family therapist. He is the father of three daughters and has five grandchildren. He is active in the Green Party because it accords with his primary values.