Horizons Regional Council’s Rachel Keedwell: We need politicians to properly address the climate crisis

Rachel Keedwell says floods and droughts aren’t going to wait while we have political arguments about the best way to deal with things. This photo of homes in Esk Valley, north of Napier, was taken in February. Photo / Warren Buckland

OPINION

I don’t know about you, but I am really looking forward to this whole election thing being over. The electioneering period can bring out the worst in parties and people.

To me, it highlights the divisiveness that seems to be so entrenched in our society, where things get categorised as either black or white and the reality that there are multiple shades of grey gets ignored. This makes it more and more difficult to have a conversation with others who hold a different viewpoint.

One party will toss out an idea and vehemently disagree with a proposal merely because the other party suggested it. Where is the willingness to find a bipartisan way forward on the big issues? Not everything has to be about politics – sometimes it has to be about achieving the best outcomes for our communities and our country.

I want to know that we have people in Parliament who will concentrate on the important stuff and on the best way to get that stuff done, but I’m not convinced that is who we will end up with.

Climate change is a massively important issue that will continue to impact our communities regardless of how people vote. Floods and droughts aren’t going to wait while we have political arguments about the best way to deal with things, and it is our communities who will suffer the damage while nothing is being done.

This lack of understanding of the seriousness of the climate crisis could not have been more blatantly obvious than during the leaders’ debate last week between Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luxon. Both men agreed climate change was a critical issue, but when asked what they are personally doing to address it, they both talked about doing their recycling! In my opinion, this shows neither of these two potential leaders of this country has a real grasp on what the reality of the climate crisis is.

Why did neither of them point out how irresponsible it is to put this crisis back on the individual when it is political choices, corporate greed and systemic failures that have got us into this crisis? Why did neither of them talk about the huge job in front of us to make our communities resilient to flooding and droughts and other severe impacts of climate change coming our way?

Where was the conversation about how all parties could work together to ensure food security and water security for Aotearoa in the face of this looming disaster? They chose instead to talk about doing their recycling, thereby perpetuating the myth that solving the climate crisis is as simple as doing your recycling.

Unfortunately, our economy is set up to only recognise the dollar cost and not the environmental, societal and cultural costs which are playing out in real-time, to our detriment.

I watch these parties promising to cut taxes and raid the climate fund and pretend there is no environmental catastrophe unfolding in front of us. Watching this crazy carry-on, watching people behave like it is normal to destroy the very environment we depend upon for our lives, I start to wonder if I am the crazy one because so few people are sitting up and paying attention.

So, I will wait out the next couple of weeks and hope that once the election is done, we have a government that will put politics aside and address the climate crisis properly.

Dr Rachel Keedwell is chairwoman of Horizons Regional Council.