‘Green shoots’ are a false dawn

Better sentiment 'not new dawn'
Businesses are leaner, more resilient and eager for good news but "the new dawn" of economic recovery is still far away and vulnerable to further international crises, economists say. A mildly improved quarterly survey of business opinion from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research heralded a lurch back from historically poor business sentiment. Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O'Reilly was hesitant to confirm the worst had passed, speculating that there could be some "bouncing along the bottom" yet. "There is a lot in the international community that could get in the way of New Zealand's economic growth and cause us to fall back over again."

Here’s my beef, what would we consider a ‘win’ here? For far too long the West have fuelled a consumer culture that is utterly unsustainable, and by 2050 the global population is expected to double. The West borrowed vast sums from the developing world to pay for Bush’s war in Iraq and to slosh cheap money into the credit markets. Money from the developing world was blown on a western lifestyle of SUV’s, plasma TVs and cosmetic surgery all paid for on credit cards, in America financial weapons of mass destruction in the uber-unregulated economy allowed for banks to create fairy tale Credit Default Swaps that still have $62 Trillion in Enron-esq financial transactions still hidden off the books. This meltdown was fuelled in America with the AAA rated sub prime mortgage fiasco where most of those given this cheap money America had been flooded with were given that money under equations that Former Fed Boss, Alan Greenspan confessed couldn’t understand. People were given money on the flawed belief that property prices would continue to increase by 6% every year forever and ever.

So a vast bubble built on naked and venal greed has been popped but the very eco-system that has been raped and plundered for these consumer excesses have created a toll on the environment that now threatens to bend the ability of the climate to sustain our civilization.

So what exactly is our ‘win’ here? Governments have pumped massive amounts of money into the economy to try and get consumers to start spending again, because our growth is rated purely on expansion and consumption, but that’s akin to a crack addict needing another hit when the crack addict can’t take one more hit.

The false dawn of green shoots should not eclipse the reality that we have pushed our luck within a planet of finite resources. Our ability to ruthlessly exploit our natural resources for a wasteful consumer culture that is utterly unsustainable is a challenge that goes well beyond Government’s getting consumers back into spending to restart the very system that has brought us to the brink.

Trying to answer some of those questions was the point of the Government’s climate action meeting last night in Auckland at the Hyatt. The Government’s Dr Nick Smith made a presentation to a packed meeting, but to give Auckland, a city of over a million 90minutes to ‘hear’ what Aucklanders had to say about climate change in itself was a suggestion of how much this tour was simply spin rather than consultation.

I have to admit feeling a certain sympathy for Dr Smith. He is a man who from his presentation shows he understands how difficult climate change is, he accepts the science and understands the science and he is as ‘liberal’ as National gets but as Dr Smith listed through the Government’s environmental ‘achievements’ I couldn’t help but think how pitiful they were. The $700 million tax rebate for research in our Agricultural sector could have been a massive spring board for the science needed to come up with solutions for our largest sectors emissions, but National shut that down and blew it all on tax cuts for the rich.

Speakers on the night pointed to issues on soil and organic techniques that could reduce our carbon footprint and a large majority called on a 40% reduction target for our emissions by 2020.

As part of the open mike question format I asked Dr Smith a question.

“Thank you for coming along tonight Dr Smith and talking to us on an issue many here are passionate about, but with all due respect, how can anyone in this room take your Government seriously on the subject of climate change when within your Government is ACT who have said a 2degree rise in global temperatures would be ‘beneficial’ to NZ and that C02 is a misunderstood nutrient. How will you marginalize ACT?”

Dr Smith smiled a tight thin lipped smile and said that with a Parliament of 120 there were many viewpoints. I cut him off,

“But this goes to your credibility as a Government on this issue, you are in Government with a party who effectively believe global warming is a hoax, how will you marginalize ACT”.

Dr Smith tried to suggest that National were a minority Government, but the crowd laughed him down because pretending that National and ACT aren’t in bed together wasn’t an issue the crowd were going to let Dr Smith try and get away with. The point was made, this Government’s credibility on climate change IS compromised by the ACT party and for Dr Smith’s efforts to go beyond greenwash he must show the Government is serious about climate change with proposals that can do something Labour never seemed able to do in 9 years as Government, to stand up to big industry and force them to change. Seeing though that this week the Government handed water standards over to the Dairy Industry, the biggest polluter of water ways in NZ, those hopes of standing up to big business have quickly faded away already.

As one speaker on the night said, “Thank you for coming and showing me that you can’t or won’t make the changes necessary, that it is in fact up to us to force those changes.”