Now the climate crisis is self-evident, a common argument by those who STILL defend polluters is that “NZ is too small to make a difference, and so shouldn’t have to stop intensive dairy farming or driving Ford rangers to school in Auckland”
Rod Carr destroys it in this mic-drop moment.
Measuring climate change impact per captia is a ccp talking point and I cringe every time I see it mentioned. Population size does not give you the right to pollute more. The biggest polluters need to make changes immediately.
If you want to reduce our per captia carbon emissions bring another 5million people into the country. The value our farmers bring to the world far offsets the carbon output. We should do our best to reduce emissions where possible but forcing reduction in output does more harm than good.
I don’t think that’s the point he’s making. He’s just saying NZ may be a small percentage of emissions, but proportionally we emit more than our fair share.
Partly true. Everyone needs to make changes immediately. Big or small. Remember that a large portion of China’s emissions are from products exported to the West. That doesn’t get China off the hook, but it also means Western countries (including NZ) have to accept their responsibility in those emissions.
Source?
Not exactly sure what you mean by “forcing reduction in output”, but if you mean consuming less, then yes we will need to do that. Climate change will not be fixed with tinkering around the edges. It needs transformational action.