Where in the world are you?
Dunedin, New Zealand What do you do in the world? Masters student and part-timer at Thankyou Payroll In one sentence, what is climate change? A cesspool of short-sighted decision making, powerful lobbying and a great big opportunity to do things better. How does climate change affect your life? It makes me pretty scared. I often don't know what the future will hold for us and find it hard to make life decisions because of that. It makes me wonder what could I do that would make a difference, in a hopeful way not a hopeless way. It was also the catalyst for a whole heap of skill development which made me a more useful human, so maybe, in a weird way- thankful? What do you feel you can do about it? Depends what day it is honestly! Good days I want to take on our top decision makers and get them to take more urgent action on climate change. Bad days I want to hide in bed. Do you feel there is more you could do? If so, what is stopping you from doing those things? Yes I could do more. Whats stopping me is how long it takes to see change happen and being OK with that (given the urgency with which we need to transition to more sustainable energy systems). What's your favourite Sunday afternoon activity? Having a delicious beer and talking with friends. Walking around in my pyjamas all day. Extra for experts: Do you remember how you first became active in climate change? Was there something specific that triggered you to act? How old were you then? How old are you now? I was 22 and we had just learnt about eco-system collapse in the ocean due to climate change and ocean acidification (in class). It was really terrifying, so I joined Generation Zero. From there I slowly discovered the political side of climate change and how influencing this part of the issue could create some momentum in our political system, so that NZ could be zero net carbon by 2050.
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Where in the world are you?
Dunedin, New Zealand What do you do in the world? I'm the director of the Centre for Sustainability, a research centre of the University of Otago. In one sentence, what is climate change? Climate change is shorthand for the many environmental changes that are the result of increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and includes warmer and rising seas, melting ice sheets and glaciers, more extreme weather events, changing weather patterns, and a hotter globe. How does climate change affect your life? It permeates my thinking all the time - how the actions of people today are shaping a devastatingly different future for my grandchildren. My city Dunedin will be the worst impacted by sea level rise in New Zealand, with around 10,000 people living in homes that are less than 50cm above sea level. The impacts are already starting to be seen here with warmer winters and more extreme weather. What do you feel you can do about it? It's part of my work - I do research on how people and businesses change to adopt lower-carbon energy and mobility - see http://energycultures.org/. Also I was one of the authors of a recent report for the Royal Society of New Zealand "Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy for New Zealand". In my own life, I try to make low-carbon choices - walk to work, eat vegetarian food, heat our home with renewable fuel, and drive a (small and old) hybrid car. Do you feel there is more you could do? If so, what is stopping you from doing those things? I'd like to have a fully electric car, because in NZ our electricity is 80% renewable, so this means minimal GHG emissions. Retrofitting our hybrid to fully electric is the next plan. One thing I would like to do is to fly less, but my work (ironically) involves quite a lot of flying, and at present we are not able to offset the emissions. I'd like to rectify this. What's your favourite Sunday afternoon activity? Going for a walk up a steep track that starts a couple of kilometres from my home, and goes up 1000 feet into alpine vegetation with a glorious view of the city and mountains. |
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