Crimes against Humanity
I have been asked by concerned and well meaning, often young, New Zealanders ‘so what can I do to make a difference to the environmental damage of greenhouse gas emissions?’
The changing climate is already impacting our energy intensive and resource depleting civilisation. The 250 year Industrial Revolution that harnessed the energy stored over hundreds of millions of years in fossil fuels, the management of disease that increased life expectancy and the green revolution that fed billions of people, has led to the healthiest, wealthiest, and largest population ever. But natural capital, while abundant, is finite. We are reaching planetary boundaries.
In my liturgy of personal action I start with the obligation each of us has to know what is going on. That requires an open and curious mind and, in today’s world, the need to identify trusted sources, vested interests and independent experts.
Secondly, each of us has a responsibility to talk about how our action impacts the environment generally and the climate specifically. Most people today gather information from friends and family as they always have. There was a time when trusted third parties created journals of record – facts were facts and opinions came with clear warnings. Now everyone has a printing press, a megaphone, radio station and a TV channel. Silence is acquiescence. Choosing to be ignorant is complicity. We must broker a truce in our war on nature, it is after all a war on ourselves with future generations held hostage. We must respect the opinions of others, support dialogue but above all, we must take action to reduce the impact we have on our habitat.
Thirdly, each of us can execute mindful purchasing. The economic system is designed to replace what you buy with another product or service like that. Every purchase is a vote for more of the same. Don’t buy and they won’t supply. Demand to know the environmental footprint, especially greenhouse gas emissions, of every product or service you consume and insist those representations meet standards we expect for food labelling, drugs, and other goods and services that impact our health and safety. Those who seek to mislead and deceive or do so through ignorance, negligence or recklessness should be liable. Don’t wait for the United Nations to impose sanctions on those who produce goods and services to profit at the expense of you, your children, grandchildren, and humanity. Impose your own sanctions. Withhold your purchasing power.
Fourthly, leverage your employment. Young, talented people can have disproportionate influence on their workplace emissions and environmental impact. It is likely you have limited control over your personal emissions which, compared to your place of work, are likely to be small. Where you choose to work, what is produced and how it is produced does matter. Every tonne of greenhouse gas emitted counts the same, whether emitted in China, India, Europe or North America, The argument that every tonne saved in one place is offset by a tonne emitted in another place, an argument called ‘leakage’, is at best highly uncertain and increasingly unlikely. Save a tonne of emissions and the planet is highly likely to be better for it.
Finally, empower our elected leaders. In democracies we get the leaders we vote for. The politicisation of climate science and polarisation of climate policy should be a wasteland for politicians, devoid of voters. There are few votes to be won in New Zealand for advocating for the disenfranchising of women, the mutilation of criminals, the criminalisation of homosexuality or the decriminalisation of child abuse. It is time to rethink our war on nature before we lose. If the fossil fuel industry wants to hold us personally accountable for the emissions from the products they supply, we should hold their directors, chief executives and employees personally responsible for the products they supply which they know when used according to directions, are causing rapid changes in the climate that impose very real costs and risks on us all.
We need to transition from the combustion of fossil fuels in the open air as soon as possible, by as much as possible. The fossil fuel sector should be humanity’s partner in the transition to low emissions energy, not humanity’s undertaker. Denial, delay and obfuscation by those who know the facts and promote the combustion of fossil fuels in the open air without carbon capture and permanent storage are, in my opinion, perpetrating a crime against humanity.