December 15, 2023
Science denial cop out as world burns
A Māori tourism operator attending the United Nations COP 28 climate summit in Dubai says the actions of the New Zealand Government back home were highly embarrassing and undermine the continued existence of humanity.
Potiki Adventures founder and Climate Action member Bianco Ranson from Waiheke says the summit’s final text was a significant step forward in recognising fossil fuels are the major contributor to global warming.
Meanwhile in Aotearoa, Energy Minister Shane Jones was talking up the coalition Government’s intention to reopen the country to oil and gas exploration.
“A lot of the korero here was that it was really unhinged and it was steeped in climate denial and science denial, saying we are going to open up coal and do more mining and oil and gas and all of these things which he believes he knows more on than the thousands of climate scientists who are informing the reports we are using here at COP to make the decisions to avoid an existential crisis,” Ms Ranson says.
Bianca Ranson says what was also incredibly embarrassing were the comments made in the House by MP Shane Jones saying they were going to do more mining and oil and gas exploration.
She says this was really unhinged and steeped in climate and science denial with him saying he knows more than the thousands of climate scientists who are informing the reports being used at COP to make decisions to avoid an existential crisis.
It was really interesting to see what was happening back home and the korero coming out of the government as opposed to the actual reality that we are facing for the continued existence of humanity.
On the first day of the conference New Zealand won the network’s Fossil of the Day Award for the country doing the worst on climate change.