A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
Our U3A discussion group focused on “Climate Tipping Points” this month. One tipping point, which seems even more serious than sea level rise, is deforestation. According to the World Resources Institute, if “Tropical Forest Deforestation” were a country it would rank only behind China and the USA in the amountof greenhouse gases released each year. This is a double blow because destroying these forests also reduces the amount of CO2 absorbed by forests, which would otherwise have acted to offset the effects of fossil fuel emissions.
Each year forests globally are reduced by the equivalent of the size of Great Britain. Much of this is tropical forest, destroyed by ranchers and farmers. Every year, though, large areas are burning accidentally, as temperatures increase and dry periods become longer. This not only increases GHG emissions and reduces carbon sinks; it also makes it much harder for our wildlife to survive.
What can we do? Our group watched a video by the “Eco-Tipping Points” organisation, showing how a Thai village was able to reverse deforestation and improve their livelihoods at the same time. Our government, with its Billion Trees programme, is also working to restore carbon sinks and help to offset some of the fossil fuel emissions this country creates each year. One of our group mentioned how the Ethiopian government is sponsoring tree planting and that 350 million trees were planted in one day.
It is not enough, though, to plant trees. Unfortunately forests are becoming more stressed as the planet heats up. The three worst years for wildfires in US history have been since 2012. Also, bugs such as mountain pine beetles don’t die off in winter and are destroying larger areas of forests. We cannot therefore rely on massive planting to counter the effects of ever-growing GHGs.
New Zealand and every other country must work to reduce emissions to zero and also work to remove emissions from the atmosphere so as to reduce global warming. I know NZ emissions are tiny compared to the big emitters, but unless we act ourselves we cannot expect that our voice will be listened to on the world stage.
Gisborne District Council must play its part, just as all of us must, by declaring a Climate Emergency and ensuring that every action it takes either reduces emissions or at least does not increase them. The Government must get on with passing the Zero Carbon Act quickly, and then rapidly change the way New Zealand does business by cutting transport emissions, ensuring buildings are as energy efficient as possible (both new and existing), and helping farmers transition to a lower carbon footprint. We must all play our part, whether it is walking to work or school, eating less meat, or just buying less stuff. And the good thing is we will all be better off from doing the right thing.
