350.org‘s planetary day of action is well under way, with schools actions happening all over New Zealand — that’s Remuera Intermediate above, taking their jumpers off for climate action. Tomorrow’s the big day, with over 130 350 Aotearoa actions scheduled all round the country. You can find one near you at 350.org.nz. Lend a hand. Send a message.
This is Jane Filemu, a 9 year-old Samoan girl taking part in 350 Islands For Change, an Oxfam-organised action at Takapuna beach in Auckland today. With Pacific Island nations being hung out to dry by the developed world, islanders waded out to a giant washing line and hung up 350 tee-shirts, each printed with the name of an island. Jane hung up the final shirt, recited a poem and then told the crowd:
“I have a choice to be one of many, to make a better world for the future of Aotearoa, Pasifika, our planet. Everyone has the power to choose wrong or right. Family, we can work together, we can make a change. Alofa, Aroha, Peace!â€
My action? Colin King MP is turning up to open Amberley Farmers Market’s summer season. I’ll be having a chat to him about climate reality. 350 words, at the very least (and the mayor won’t escape either). 😉
“the low-lying islands of the Maldives, though poor, have begun saving a portion of each year’s national budget to buy a new homeland if and when their current home sinks beneath the waves…”
This is the same Maldives where it is illegal for citizens to practice any belief system except islam. I suggest when this micro-theocracy becomes the first submarine member of the Umma, that we offer to sell them a portion of the Ross Dependancy.
As ever, Wrathall the master of bad taste, pollutes another comment thread. Do you ever think before commenting?
130 actions isn’t bad going for little old NZ, especially population wise.
Didn’t know you lived near Amberley Gareth. Should have told the grandparents to head on down to the farmers market and have a few words with the local MP as well.
They should visit the farmer’s market as a matter of course. My aged parents are regulars…
Mr King got rather more than 350 words… He played a very straight bat running the government line. I challenged him to do 10% in 2010, and he agreed to try. I won’t be holding my breath.
Well I hope you keep on him about 10:10, though I wouldn’t hold my breath either. The irony being that for many people (and I’m going to assume Mr King would fit this category), 10% in 2010 would actually be fairly simple.
Steve Wrathall, it appears you deny AGW, but expect sea level rise and don’t think much of Islam.
Has it occurred to you that the most populous Muslim nation on Earth inhabits an archipelago to the north of us, from whence we can expect very many climate refugees unless concerted action is taken to mitigate AGW?
There is no evidence that global sea level is rising any faster than the 2-3 mm/year that it has since the end of the last ice age. For comparison the Ruahines are rising 4 mm/year. Tectonic uplift and subduction in many parts of Indonesia even more vastly overpower this negligible effect.
Re the Maldives quote from 350DotOrg. Once again we have a parade of 3rd world rent-seekers, siezing on this latest scam (AGW) to blame all their problems on the West. The proper responce is to give them no respect, and demand they sort out their own indemic corruption, superstition and ignorance.
There are many reasons why people end up as refugees from these shit-holes, but climate ain’t one of them.
“There is no evidence that global sea level is rising any faster than the 2-3 mm/year that it has since the end of the last ice age” – Steve Wrathall
The Wrathall bullshit never stops, repeating the same debunked garbage. Typical denier.
http://www.cmar.csiro.au/sealevel/sl_hist_intro.html#fewthousand
http://www.vcc.vic.gov.au/coasttocoastproceedings2/WHITE_Neil%200830%20Thurs%20L5S1-2.pdf
From the sound of this vulgar rant, your politics stink as much as your ignorant denialist views. I think you should have a corner of your own, like that other intellectual giant.
Denialists such as Wrathall are now turning their venom on developing nations afflicted by SLR because those countries so clearly give the lie to the denialists’ previous story that AGW was just a “new Western religion” of misguided liberals and climatologists greedy for research funds.
Just another variant on the old scam of blaming the victim, I guess.
Dappledwater, from your so-called debunking website “…Satellite altimeter measurements show a rate of sea-level rise of about 3 mm/year since the early 1990s”
How does this produce catastrophic metres of sea-level rise this century? Do the maths.
RT” turning their venom on developing nations …”. I’m sure that if we send our economy down the toilet, our Pacific brothers will be the first to complain about the subsequent lack of aid cash.
Meanwhile, back in the real world: The 21 years since CO2 passed 350 ppm, has proved completely NOT incompatible with the largest increase in global freedom, wealth and health in history. This despite 1.7 billion extra mouths. If the world had followed Al Gore and Jim Hansen’s advice in 1988 and imposed global energy restrictions, then the billions of people you claim to care so much about would never have lifted themselves out of poverty.
“How does this produce catastrophic metres of sea-level rise this century? Do the maths.” – Steve Wrathall.
Just as well you don’t have anything do with teaching science, math, or common sense for that matter.
An intelligent person would reasonably expect that once the polar ice melt accelerates (as projected) so too would sea level rise. Of course it’s graphically demonstrated in the pdf document.
Also the first link (Church and White being world authorities on sea level research) shows your ice age sea level comment was simply just a lie. Shock, horror!
Steve, past glories are no predictor of future survival – have you still got all those Equiticorp shares?
The dinosaurs, the Roman Empire, the Inca, Enron, Bernie Madoff and a host of others were all fantastically successful until, suddenly, they weren’t. Physical reality, if ignored, always gets to cast a veto.
Steve, are you a free-market man? If so, how do you account for your strong defence for ongoing significant market-failure (being the inability of the economic system to account for carbon emissions)?
This is a form of child abuse. Indoctrinating school kids with unproved assumptions of approaching climate doom. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves for endorsing it. I go out of my way to undo this brainwashing by informing school kids AGW is a load of old bollix. I encourage kids to think for themselves and to be wise to fads, to be sceptical and questioning of everything from science to religion (in this case they are the same thing!). Some moron has squashed the natural instinct to question such things out of the kids shown here.
FORTUNATELY there’s a light at the end of the tunnel of insanity, and some sense in the world: “China-India Accord to Scuttle UN Climate Treaty”
EXCELLENT! A scuttled climate treaty sounds like a splendid idea to me.
But wait! There’s even more common sense from China: “It is easier to stay independent of the climate paranoia if one does not believe the planet is in peril. Xiao Ziniu, director general of the Beijing Climate Centre, told the British Guardian newspaper recently that “There is no agreed conclusion about how much change is dangerous….Whether the climate turns warmer or cooler, there are both positive and negative effects….In Chinese history, there have been many periods warmer than today.” He disputed the disaster warnings of the UNIPCC, saying, “The accuracy of the prediction is very low because the climate is affected by many mechanisms we do not fully understand.”
How refreshing!