Letters: Dragging the chain on climate change
Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read. Environmental and community groups hand in a 140,000 signature-strong petition, calling for the Government to abandon its fossil fuels agenda in favour of a clean energy future. Photo / file A truly wonderful, radical question is posed by Conservation Comment in Monday's Chronicle. Rosemary Penwarden asks this question: How is it, that faced with the threat of a virus that will cause the death of many of our elderly and some younger people, Governments of every country are taking extreme measures to limit its spread, yet faced with an existential threat to every person on earth, Governmental response has been disproportional and ineffective? She refers to the contrast between the speedy response to coronavirus and the sclerotic response over the past 50 years to climate change - in the face of increasingly specific scientific data. This is a question that lingering survivors in a largely uninhabitable world will be asking themselves in years hence as they contemplate the ruins of civilisation. It is a question we might all ask of ourselves now, in the context of our collective responses to Covid-19. I hope that everyone who notices this letter, will take the time to find Conservation Comment on page 8, in the Chronicle of Monday, March 16 and read or reread it. Seems to me to be worthy of serious attention. DAVE CAMERON Whanganui The coronavirus pandemic looks like it's going to be presenting ever-increasing challenges for us all in our day to day living. I guess one could ask, and perhaps some have, is this the "hand of God", challenging us to greater things as a species, as a timely intervention in a clearly dysfunctional world. Whether or not we take such a view, as things unfold into largely uncharted territory and the systems by which we've lived are forced to take what appears to be a nose dive and perhaps will continue to do so, I think that we do need to see this as an opportunity for kindness and love towards our fellow beings. After all, it is those slowing, dollar driven systems that have mostly impeded displays of humanity towards our own kind in this "God of money" world, which has prevailed until now. So, far from scrapping over toilet paper in supermarkets, shouldn't we now more than ever, as systems and the components of those systems falter and perhaps threaten to fail, be looking out for one another. Dog eat dog will not work here. Sharing in the spirit of kindness just may see us through. PAUL BABER Aramoho Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read. Elected members are busy in and out of chambers.