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Grahame Peck's avatar

Good read as always. As regards climate change it doesn't matter if you beleive it or not there is only one logical response. As follows.

If climate change is anthropogenic then if we try to take action we might just mitigate it.

If its not anthropogenic then any actions we take will have no effect.

Therefore logically taking action is the only course of action.

Add to that any reduction in current over consumption must reduce output pollution so is a logical way to live.

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MystrD's avatar

I think your point about the reality of sweeping water from your garage is a good one. Whether somebody believes in climate change or not, even those with their heads stuck in the sand are going to notice the sand is far more wetter than it ever used to be.

People are sense checking the air temperature rather than the marine temperature, which is the one we actually need to worry about.

The cyclone currently heading for NZ is picking up moisture and energy from the warmer than normal ocean. This is going to become a recurring pattern and sadly people will start considering that to be the norm.

On the point about tagging the environment, we volunteer to pick up rubbish from our local beaches.

Even when the beach looks “clean” we can still fill a 60L sack with plastic waste and other rubbish every single day!

I would argue that boaties are the worse offenders based on the type of rubbish we find. Anglers run a close 2nd. The amount of nylon line and tackle we pick up is terrifying.

Day trippers in a single day can produce a week’s worth of trash. Anything from spoiled nappies left for others to deal with, to food waste left in packaging at the beach.

If everybody was made to do trash duty in the community for just one week, they’d almost certainly change their behaviour as they witness first hand the impact on the environment.

That’s part of the problem in my mind. So many people have disconnected from the natural environment, they simply have no notion of what’s going on.

Maybe not until a big enough storm washes their house from its foundations and directly impacts them.

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