Conservation Comment: Inaction will cost us more

John Milnes

FOR SOME years now I have been optimistic that the Governments of the world would come to their senses and actually do something about climate change.

Our Government finally acknowledged that human-influenced climate change was real, although there are some in the National Government who still seem sceptical.

In spite of the predictions about global warming being increasingly obvious, they have been ignored by those who have some other agenda.

We have seen this self-interest displayed most obviously by the fossil fuel industry, which eventually accepted climate change is real. Not that this has slowed their enthusiasm for exploring for more oil, albeit at a slower pace as oil prices stay low.

But back to the politics of climate change, and the golden-haired elephant in the room, Donald Trump, who doesn't believe in global warming, and the bizarre reason he gives is that it is a Chinese plot to destroy the US economy. I suppose it is another idiotic "fact" from the deniers who also claim that climate scientists are being paid to produce the masses of global warming data.

This would mean that more than 2000 scientists who are involved with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are being bribed by some unnamed entity. Surely, if the deniers are so convinced that this massive bribery is taking place, they must know who it is, and if so why don't they name them?

What scares me most is that this flood of misinformation is wasting time, extremely valuable time, to reverse our CO2 emissions. The latest figures for warmest years show that 2016 was the warmest ever recorded, 16 of the 17 hottest years have occurred over the past 17 years, and temperatures are rising 10 times faster than during the "bounce-back" from the last ice age.

Climate change is the biggest threat to the planet. It isn't just the increasing temperatures that are a problem, there are other events that will occur, such as less predictable and wilder weather, rising sea levels and increasing ocean acidification. Any one of these is serious and they will become increasingly expensive to deal with.

The earthquakes we have had over the past few years have cost billions of dollars, but these quakes will pale into insignificance if global warming isn't reversed.

For example, sea-level rise over the past century has been 10-20 centimetres, but the annual rate of rise over the past 20 years has been 3.2mm a year, roughly twice the average speed of the preceding 80 years. This rise, exacerbated by probably wilder weather, will mean that more coastal housing and roading will be vulnerable. The cost of reinstating the road around Kaikoura is high, so just imagine what will happen as the sea erodes or covers low-lying land around our entire coast.

In the past, one of the silliest arguments for doing nothing about global warming was that "It will cost too much".

Doing nothing could cost us one hell of a lot more, and the cost of the quakes will seem insignificant.

We can change this scenario by each doing our bit and also letting those who have other "more important priorities", like personal wealth, know that our planet, our future is more important.

�John Milnes was the Green candidate for three elections, and is a trustee of Sustainable Whanganui and promoter of Whanganui bicycle user group and Plastic Bag Free Whanganui.