Brent Barrett's Home Planet: Ounce of prevention worth the pound of cure

Totara Reserve is a beautiful spot even in winter. Photo / Horizons Regional Council

OPINION:

Exclusively yours, a twin billing review of local highlights as council budgets and plans are shaped for the years ahead. While some might find this rather droll, it's most intriguing.

For starters, it's a snapshot of your and more than 200,000 of your neighbours' best efforts at local democracy and community-based decision-making. Link that with the challenges we face in restoring nature and solving the climate crisis, and it's all rather exciting. Are we facing up to reality? Are we being ambitious enough?

Good questions to ponder as Earth's winter solstice starts a new lap around the sun and into that most glorious season, summer. As for the twin billing: in June the region gets a look, and in July it's the city's turn.

First up, I really like Horizons' new tag line: tō tātou rohe – taiao ora, tangata ora, mauri ora. I'm told it translates to our place – a healthy environment where people are thriving. Perfect, striking the right tone and celebrating their lead mandate as environmental stewards. A most welcome refresh, with related budget and plans to clean up our rivers, activate a regional climate response, and boost nature-based education in local schools.

Looking at the global climate crisis through a regional lens, it's all too clear that years of burning coal, oil and gas have already baked real troubles into our future. Locally, we're facing even lower summer flows in the Manawatū River. And, ironically, even more drenching rain pushing our rivers and drains to their limits.

These downpours risk dragging ever more of our rich farming soils into the Tasman Sea. And possibly through our lounges along the way. Overall, warmer weather year round will invite new pests to call our region home. And then there's that pesky sea level rise. All up it's a clear call. The smart money says we adapt and manage down emissions, sooner rather than later.

So, how to move beyond a century's addiction to fossil fuels? I'm pleased to report Horizons is leading region-wide planning to manage down emissions, linking nicely with the city's own efforts. It's good sense to be getting on with the job now. The faster we switch to cleaner energy, the lower the impact and costs of climate change. The ounce of prevention worth the pound of cure.

With transport by far our city's biggest source of emissions, filling more bus seats is a prime way to manage our emissions down. In the latest budget, you'll discover Horizons is planning to improve bus services in the city. These improvements are set to roll out in the next couple of years, after gathering community views on the options. It's easy to see our bus network needs dramatic improvement, so this is a golden opportunity.

Looking across the region, the time is ripe to better protect public spaces for nature. For starters, we need a no-take marine reserve. All our regional neighbours have a patch of coastal water fully protected and thriving as nature intended, without hooks killing the biggest fish. It's time we had one in the pipeline.

On land, we've a splendid regional park at Totara Reserve, nestled at the foot of the Ruahine ranges. A must visit if you love nature, or just fancy a stroll. It's a beautiful spot even in winter, especially if you love fresh mud! Wonderful as it is, Horizons should start the ball rolling to create another regional park. Ideally located in the wind-blown dunes near the Tasman coast, a mud-free slice of nature's wild splendour.

And that's a wrap, thanks for reading. Next month the city takes centre stage.

• Brent Barrett is an environmental advocate, city councillor and scientist. The views expressed here are his own.