RUGBY WORLD CUP - DON’T COME
AN ISLAND BAY WORLD SERVICE CAMPAIGN
At the 2010 ECO AGM a motion was passed “that Island Bay World Service inform ECO member bodies of its Rugby World Cup, don’t come campaign”. Here is that information, introducing the campaign.
Rugby fans across the world must stay home and watch the games on television, and thus refuse to waste valuable oil and produce tonnes of greenhouse gases just for a game. That unambiguous call will send a clear message to the world to announce that we understand, we care and we are taking action.
The world that we all live in is changing rapidly. The global human population reached 1 billion in 1800 and has since exploded, to 3 billion in 1960, 6 billion in 2000 and on to 9 billion in 2040. From 1850 on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have grown at an increasing rate, from around 280 ppm to the current 390 ppm. Now the ice shelves are breaking apart at the edges. The oil peak-plateau, with an end to growth in production and considerable price instability, has been with us for 5 years. The unstable global economy came close to collapse in 2008. Forecasts of shortages of water and food, leading to population collapse (i.e. starvation and disease), disruption and war are proving robust as the world moves steadily along the expected path towards the coming storm. Other species are being driven into extinction by the spread of human numbers and activities.
This is serious. The possibility of a natural balance between humanity and nature disappeared thousands of years ago. Any chance of universal well-being at a comfortable standard of living passed a century or so ago. The concern is now that human numbers, and human activities have grown to the extent that the survival of billions is increasingly at risk.
The New Zealand record is outrageous. The spin on clean-green hides a reality of waste and carelessness. There has been a considerable increase in road transport and the size of vehicles since the 1990 Kyoto agreement, with an increase in greenhouse gas emissions of 69% from 1990 to 2008. Emissions from the electricity sector have risen an astonishing 91% - so much for clean electricity for green cars. The current policy for unthinking and foolhardy ‘growth’ reflects a determination to continue resolutely down the wrong path. The Ministry of Tourism continues to produce absurd forecasts of increasing visitor numbers, reflecting a wish for growth rather than the reality of an uncertain stability. Considerable efforts are put into encouraging peoples across the world to fly here. The national effort is to worsen climate change.
Each flight is significant. World emissions of greenhouse gases total about 4- 4.5 tonnes per year for each person in the world’s 6.7 billion population. Suggested targets to deal with climate change are around 1.3 tonnes per person per year. One person flying round the world contributes around 10 tonnes in that one act. That one trip then contributes more than the high annual emission from energy use of an average, wasteful New Zealander, around six times the targeted annual personal carbon footprint. Calls for increases in tourism are just greenwash spin, presenting images of sea, rivers, bush and mountains but leaving the fumes out of sight. That policy asks for a continuing destruction of the environment under the guise of a celebration of the natural world. This is hypocrisy.
The situation is serious and it is time to take firm action. The hoped-for 85,000 visitors would produce something like 425,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in international travel (10 tonnes round the world from Europe, halved since some would come from nearer). The costs to the environment far outweigh any economic benefit, and environmental groups must make that point.
Yet all we get from environmental groups are displacement activities and the games of street theatre. Recognition of the extent of the problem demands more. This challenge is for a tougher stance, more robust and challenging of the status quo. It asks groups such as the 350 campaign and Transition Towns to drop useless calls to plant trees or break ground on a community garden, neither of which do anything to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (replace a gorse with a kowhai and what is the change?), to move away from minimal suggestions like get on your bike to a campaign to reduce car numbers and size, to reduce air travel by everyone (including a recognition of their own foolishness of flying off to Copenhagen). We need to break the logjam, to open up the issue, to stop dodging hard questions. The demand must be for concerted national action.
One motion passed at the ECO AGM is “that ECO reiterates its support for New Zealand adopting a 40 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 over 1990 levels”. Since energy greenhouse gas emissions are now around 170% of the1990 level, that target demands a huge reduction of 65% in the next ten years. That cannot be achieved without extremely tough measures and positive action. The contribution from tourism must be tackled and not considered as an externality to New Zealand.
The groups that we have approached raise a concern that the public will not buy into a robust and meaningful campaign. At the ECO AGM, Greenpeace NZ said this would send a very provocative message to the rest of the world. The Green Party finds it too radical. We find the opposite, that many people we talk to on the street are willing to face the reality and support a strong action. They want to know more. We invite all concerned people and groups to consider this campaign, to debate where you disagree with us and to join us if you agree.
This “Rugby World Cup, don’t come” campaign lays down a direct challenge. This country is doing its best to burn oil, create more greenhouse gases, and destroy our planet home. We must raise our voices against that foolishness and start the debate of how to adjust the economy – and jobs – to a sustainable post-oil age. We can join together in meaningful action to face this enormous challenge and to show the idiocy of the current growth ideology. Or are you comfortable with your head in the sand?
The Island Bay World Service website is http://www.ibws.blogspot.com/
Contact is:
Dr John Robinson
131 Eden Street, Island Bay, Wellington
Tel 9345936
Email johnrob@paradise.net.nz
Thursday, 19 August 2010
