We are contributing to climate change, and we must do better - Stuff

We are contributing to climate change, and we must do better | Stuff.co.nz

We are contributing to climate change, and we must do better

Dr Siouxsie Wiles is a microbiologist and associate professor at the University of Auckland

OPINION: Last week saw the release of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “Synthesis Report”. This is the short version of the panel’s sixth assessment report of the impact we humans are having on the climate. It details how climate change is affecting us now. It also shows the likely future scenarios, depending on how we act now.

The irony isn’t lost on me that I’m reading this report while waiting for someone to assess the damage done to my home by the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.

I live partway up a very steep hill, so I must admit I didn’t have being flooded on my personal climate change bingo card.

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But that’s the thing about climate change. It’s making extreme weather events– like several months’ worth of rain falling in a few hours – more likely. And when they do happen, they’re even more extreme. What we are experiencing now is a result of global surface temperatures rising just over 1 degree Celsius above what they were 150 years ago.

With an election coming up, its crucial we all engage with the IPCC Synthesis Report.

The people who form our next government will have some difficult decisions to make if they are going to seriously tackle New Zealand’s contribution to climate change. Because we are contributing. In fact, we are currently one of the largest emitters per capita in the OECD. And to put it bluntly, right now we aren’t pulling our weight when it comes to reducing the future impacts of climate change.

To make our next vote count, we need to understand what’s at stake. Which is where the IPCC report comes in. You don’t even need to read the report, it’s all captured in just seven figures easily accessible on the IPCC website.

The first figure shows the changes in global surface temperatures since 1900 and the impacts that’s having. Like flash flooding. It also shows how temperatures will change out to 2100 when the children born today will be in their seventies. Another figure shows how much hotter our hottest days will get and how much wetter our wettest days will get.

But perhaps the most important figure is the final one, which shows the solutions available to us right now, along with how feasible they are and their likely costs.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, New Zealand did something bold and unexpected – we followed an elimination strategy. If you had asked me in 2019 whether I could imagine us ever shutting our borders and staying home to stop a virus, I’d have said no. But we did. We acted together and followed a path that studies show gave us one of the best outcomes in the world.

It’s time for us to be bold again. And no, I’m not talking about us “locking down” for climate change. I’m talking about us acting in our collective best interests and embracing the solutions that already exist. I’m talking about us doing what seems impossible. Because it isn’t.