Columnist Duncan Garner is suggesting that one way of contributing to slowing climate change is to give up celebrating Christmas. “Christmas is killing us. Mad consumerism, rubbish by the planet load and dirty air travel that dumps pollution on us like no other industry. So no presents. No holidays. Just stay home and plan the future.” Read more
This week, Caritas Director Julianne Hickey will launch their 2019 report: State of the Environment for Oceania: Seeds of Hope. On Thursday, 3 October at 7 pm: there will be the launch of the report at St Mary’s Catholic Church, Papakura, followed by Liturgy for the eve of St Francis Day. The next day, Friday, Read more
Is it just me or has climate change become a religion? I ask this because I opened the newspaper this morning to be confronted by a campaign that virtually all the major news outlets have signed up to for this week: Covering Climate Now. It’s an international campaign. 170 odd news organisations around the world Read more
AIG is the principal sponsor of the All Blacks. Climate change activists are putting pressure on the All Blacks to cancel the sponsorship deal with the insurance company. This followed a tip-off from an AIG staff member which revealed that AIG is insuring the on-ground works at the Adani Carmichael mine site, in northern Queensland, Read more
Fiji’s Archbishop Peter Loy Chong says Fiji is facing several serious concerns caused by environmental degradation. According to a report by the World Bank published in 2000, on the potential effects of climate change on the Pacific region, Fiji faces numerous risks. These include: higher rates of disease as average temperatures rise increasingly destructive storms Read more
Greta Thunberg’s high-profile “eco” crossing of the Atlantic hit choppy waters tonight when it was revealed a crew will have to fly to New York to bring her boat back. The Swedish climate activist, 16, is crossing the giant ocean in a racing yacht to join protests in the US and take part in a Read more
The purpose of the Climate Change Response (Zero-Carbon) Amendment Bill (the Bill) is to provide a framework and process by which New Zealand can achieve its existing commitment under the Paris Agreement to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels. In its oral submission to Parliament, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand voiced its support Read more
The government is investing $3 million in the creation of New Zealand’s first 100 percent recycled plastic food packaging range. Ms Sage said recycling plastics for food containers was part of an effective response to China’s National Sword policy that restricted the amount of waste imports it accepted. Read more
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has recently toured the South Pacific to discuss climate change. In Fiji last week, he told a crowd about “a kind of coffin” built by the US in the Marshall Islands to house the deadly radioactive debris from the 1980s. The “coffin” is the product of a belated American response to Read more
Churches in New Zealand have a long history of taking strong positions in the public square on social justice. In a well known example, William Rutherford Waddell found great inequalities and deprivation in the St. Andrew’s parish of Dunedin during an economic downturn in the 1880s. He was determined the church should make a difference Read more