Arriving home after an intense week in the big city, the first thing I notice is the birdsong. Welcoming nature back to our settlements, towns and cities, so that we hear birdsong above the traffic noise, has to be one of the most valuable actions we can take for good mental health. I certainly felt it as I walked around the garden and watched the wind in the trees.
Making space for nature, delivering zero emission mobility and reshaping our communities around the needs of people, not cars, are actions that will provide a cleaner, greener, safer future. We all have choices, and the future depends on our actions now.
Yet it can often feel as if we are heading in the wrong direction.
Remember the 2009 film The Age of Stupid, where real-life footage of climate disasters is portrayed as historical footage being viewed by one of the last survivors of the human race, living alone on a remote outpost? He’s alone in his metal tower surrounded by a raging ocean, reflecting on humanity’s stupidity in not taking action while there was still time.
I’m not sure I’d call us stupid, but I would say that, sometimes, when the cost of living is weighing heavy on a great many of us, it can be hard to see the forest for the trees. What is clear, however, is that addressing the cost of living doesn’t mean foregoing climate action: cutting fossil fuels and producing and owning our own energy, being able to take public transport will all save households big bucks.
The increasing intensity and frequency of heavy rainfall and flood events are all examples of climate impacts. Now is certainly not the time for us to make any moves to back out of our Paris Agreement commitments, which, unfortunately, both minor coalition partners appear to be asking for.
However, here in Ōtepoti Dunedin I’m somewhat heartened by local action — when even our own government is in climate denial mode.
In the face of the inevitable sea-level rise and increasing flood risk, the most recent reports from the South Dunedin Future programme (The "South Dunedin Risk Assessment" and the "Potential Adaptation Futures" reports) provide a number of positive pathways forward for our community. A great number of their suggestions, like creating space for waterways and wetlands, just make sense. Coastal set-back and/or relocation to safer, higher ground are actions that communities beyond South Dunedin are considering as well, like the Buller District Council-endorsed work to prepare for the future of the West Coast town of Westport.
Meanwhile, here in Ōtepoti Dunedin both the Dunedin City Council and the Otago Regional Council, by majority votes, have endorsed the South Dunedin Future reports and have approved moving to the next stage of community engagement and consultation. This collaborative mahi involving the Dunedin City Council, the Otago Regional Council, Aukaha, GNS Science and the University of Otago, with the South Dunedin Community Network presents a wonderful partnership opportunity for government.
The valuable lessons for the government are in the South Dunedin Future approach, with community and iwi involved at every step of the way, and the multi-disciplinary research involving both the physical and social sciences. The South Dunedin Future programme is essentially a blueprint for how to engage in dynamic adaptive pathway planning for success. It is time for the government to invest, and follow the lead of local communities.
Yet there are other challenges. While a majority of Dunedin city councillors recently approved the South Dunedin Future work continuing, earlier in January, the council, by a slim majority, voted to deny people information on the investment options for the city’s zero carbon plan in the Long Term Plan consultation. Mitigation is just as important as adaptation, and people have a right to have a say. Thankfully, a new "Zero Carbon Dunedin" initiative has kicked off, to encourage people to submit on the long-term plan.
Democracy doesn’t just happen on one day every three years. It happens every time we engage. It happens through submissions and in everyday conversations. As my friend Chloe Swarbrick said in her State of the Planet speech in February, "Nobody is coming to save us. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. It’s time to claim your hope — to claim your power. Look to your fellow New Zealanders with curiosity and kindness. The pathway to our freedom is intertwined."
Let’s enjoy the birdsong, but not take it for granted. We need to speak up just as loudly to deliver a cleaner, greener, safer future for our children and grandchildren.
Scott Willis is an Ōtepoti-based Green Party MP. Each week in this column, writers address issues of sustainability.
