february 2025

INTRODUCTION -

I have thought long and hard about this newsletter, about what I should include and exclude. Everything is a value judgement formed by our view of the world and my perspective is no more valid than anybody else's. Each three months between newsletters I keep a record of different items that I come across or that get sent to me by others and then I have to choose what to include in the newsletter that might be of value to those who read it. At this point in time I'm acutely aware of the growing disruption, conflict and polarisation happening around our planet. It appears to be quickening and feels like a boil coming to a head ready to burst. With Donald Trump and his entourage of loyal courtiers openly and defiantly abandoning any semblance of efforts to address the impacts of the growing environmental polycrisis, and with shifting geopolitical alliances in many parts of the globe it seems that we are becoming more and more preoccupied with building empires and power rather than focusing on more important matters. There are many who know and understand that the maintenance and saving of our planetary life support systems must be our first priority but so often those people don't hold the power to effect the necessary changes. So, in a perverse way I see people like Donald playing a critical role in this struggle for survival. If the boil has to come to a head and burst before we truly face the magnitude of the predicament we need to confront urgently, not sometime in the near future, then so be it. Who am I to question how this drama will play out?

Some CKM members have read and discussed a book written by Dougald Hine called "At Work in the Ruins" in which Dougald challenges the readers to face up to the reality of the existential emergency glaring us in the face. We have exceeded six out of nine identified planetary limits. We may not want to face this reality but there are indeed Limits to Growth and for those who wish to see, the proof is evident all over our living planet. I believe we no longer have time to fix the economy first or improve our standard of living first.

Dougald says -

"...we don’t get to choose whether or not there is an ending. We only get to choose what kind of ending we have, and therefore what we have left to build from."

You can find in item 17 below a quote from a recent discussion between Dougald and Nate Hagens and the YouTube link, if you wish to listen to the full discussion.  

Item 13 is about a report from "risk managements experts" and therefore is from a totally different perspective to Dougald Hine but a quote from the article gives a very similar warning. "[They] do not recognise there is a risk of ruin. They are precisely wrong, rather than being roughly right.”

In Item 15 George Monbiot expresses some of my thoughts better than I can so I recommend checking out that item.

Budyong.

LOCAL

1) Media articles written by CKM members since the last newsletter. 
 
07/12/2024 - Climate change: Expect to get angry.

"We are going to need to be strong and united in order to deal a world of ever worsening weather, and its economic and geopolitical consequences. As history teaches us, divisiveness and destitution often lead to conflict and conflict can lead to failed government and societal breakdown. For many around the world, their way of life is already threatened, leading to migration and conflict, ripping the social fabric of communities.

So, before we get angry, let’s think about how best we, as a community and a country, can prepare for the disasters yet to come. What would we do if we were hit by flooding, like hit Auckland, Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti during Cyclone Gabrielle? What about a wildfire, like the 2000 Wither Hills Boxing Day fire? Are we ready?

Rather than get angry, we need to get prepared."

01/02/2025 - Are we smarter than yeast?

"Some might say we have an advantage over yeast in that we can think (the “sapiens” part of Homo sapiens). Whereas yeast will blindly consume available sugar until their waste poisons themselves, we can see what’s coming and change course. We’ve done it before, banning pesticides like DDT and ozone-eating CFCs in refrigerants, and cleaning up acid rain. Humanity, working together, across borders, has fixed a number of environmental problems. We can do it again. Even though yeast regularly poison themselves in their own waste, they have one advantage over us.

When their home gets too toxic to live in, their offspring can blow in the wind to the next piece of rotting fruit. For us, there is no Planet B. We need to address these environmental crises head on and the sooner the better. The future of humanity depends upon it."

28/02/25 - Is growth, growth, growth really the way to go?

"It is common for people to think of the climate and environmental crises as being problems to be solved. Unfortunately it is not that simple. The situation is better thought of as a predicament. A predicament does not have clear answers or ways to be resolved. This is the quandary we find ourselves in now. Do we want to face the reality of our predicament? Can we choose to discourage tourism and helicopter flights to view the vineyards, or the multitude of other high emissions discretionary activities we can manage without? Can we have an informed debate about what an ecologically and socially sustainable future might look like? If this is too big a step to take then we will be left with the consequences of our collective actions and unfortunately that means increasing extreme weather events, environmental breakdown and damage to our social fabric."

2) CKM submission on Treaty Principles Bill.

Thanks goes to Don Quick and others for their efforts in putting together our submission. Below are a couple of extracts from it. You can download a copy of the full submission if interested.

"CKM submits that the Treaty Principles Bill be withdrawn and scrapped at the earliest opportunity.
Our reasons for so submitting are multifold. We are in unanimous agreement that in itself and in the context of the many changes proposed by the current Coalition Government the Bill will contribute adversely to the changes that are essential for Aotearoa New Zealand, both as a land and as a society as we know it, to adapt to the overheating of our planet.
For the present and Immediate future effects of climate change to mitigate and perhaps reverse, it will take much more and much longer than our present and immediate future technology will manage. We cannot keep going as we are or as the present government proposes.
CKM opposes the Bill in its entirety from legal, social, environmental and climate justice viewpoints and in recognition of the need for a cohesive and resilient society the better to face the challenges of climate adaptation ahead."

AND - "Climate Karanga Marlborough vigorously opposes the Treaty Principles Bill, including the stance adopted by the leader of the National Party. We see his stance as one of political expediency, not wanting to upset his coalition partners, placing more importance on a temporary political coalition agreement than on the Waitangi agreement at the foundation of our nation.
Historically, Westminster-style governments have treated te Tiriti o Waitangi expediently, ducking the issue whether the land and waters belong to us or we belong to the Land and Water. Climate breakdown is adding urgency to the matter of our belonging."

3) Climate Action Week.

Climate Action Week organised by Climate Action Marlborough this year was from February 24 - 28. The focus for the week was "Resilience in Action: Building Regenerative Communities through Climate Innovation and Nature-Based Solutions." Catherine van der Muelen and her team at Climate Action Marlborough organised a wide range of speakers and immersion experiences for the participants with the topics for the five days being -

• FINANCING OUR TRANSITION TO A CLIMATE POSITIVE ECONOMY, 
• RENEWABLE ENERGY FOR IMPACT, 
• NATURE BASED SOLUTIONS,
• CIRCULARITY, 
• CLIMATE POSITIVE FUTURES: the BIG shifts we need to take to take action.  

The International Keynote Speaker was Jonathan Foley, sustainability scientist and Executive Director of Project Drawdown. His topic was Global food production — from meat to grains. Food production accounts for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions. He presented a portfolio of data-backed solutions to build a better food system world-wide, starting with four key steps to cut emissions.

Tom attended 4 of the 5 days and has very helpfully put together a summary of the week for us.

Catherine also worked with the local Marlborough Express again this year who dedicated a whole edition to Climate Action Week with 14 different Opinion pieces published on the topic of resilience.

4) NDC2 announced.

The announcement at the end of January of the government's second Nationally Determined Contribution was pretty underwhelming. This statement is from the Ministry for Environment website.

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are at the heart of the Paris Agreement. NDCs are how countries contribute to the global temperature goal of the Paris Agreement, to hold the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.

The Ministry for the Environment sought feedback to inform the Government’s decision on its international climate change target (second Nationally Determined Contribution, or NDC2) for 2031–35. The Government announced NDC2 in January 2025.

New Zealand's NDC2:

•     Aims to reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels by 2035
•     Covers 2031 to 2035,  the same period as our third domestic emissions budget
•     Is a progression on NDC1.

This brief analysis from Lawyers for Climate Action NZ gives a stark appraisal of the complete lack of ambition from our current government. They conclude by saying - "The climate does not care about our clever accounting choices, it cares about actual emissions reductions. And our failure to walk the talk will be apparent to our trading partners, some of whom are already adopting much more ambitious targets."

Tom put in a submission on behalf of Coal Action Network Aotearoa, which you can check out if interested.

5) Restoring the Marlborough Sounds: An Ocean Reform Case Study.

A presentation was given to the MDC Environment and Planning Committee on January 30th by Raewyn Peart from the Environmental Defence Society (EDS). She provided a summary of their report entitled ‘Restoring the Marlborough Sounds: An Ocean Reform Case Study’ that they completed late last year.

“In 2021, the Environmental Defence Society (EDS) embarked on a project to explore options for reform of Aotearoa New Zealand’s oceans  management system. Phase 1 was completed in May 2022 and examined the current system, identified problems with it, and developed  options for reform. EDS is currently undertaking Phase 2 of the project which is focused on developing concrete recommendations for oceans  reform. As part of that work, the Society is undertaking a series of case studies. This report sets out the findings of the Marlborough Sounds case study which is based on an extensive literature review and discussions with 40 people with associations with the area.”

You realise just how important this very thorough and detailed report (100 pages) is once you hear and see what is covered in it. It does leave  me feeling thankful once again to NGO’s like EDS who do such important work advocating for Te Taiao. It seems that the really critical  investigation and analysis required for such a comprehensive report, which government departments should really be doing, has to be  undertaken by NGO’s. The plus side of that is NGO’s usually have their priorities more aligned with those of CKM and place high value on  the needs of the environment and nature. At the beginning of Raewyn’s presentation she summed up the urgency of the situation with this statement - “there is a small and shrinking opportunity to halt decline and build resilience...”.  Where have we heard that before I wonder?

Here is the summary from the report, which makes very clear what the challenges are, if the health of the Sounds ecosystem is to be improved.

“The Marlborough Sounds is an iconic and unique marine system, which has a long and fascinating history of Māori and European  occupation, and is suffering severe and ongoing degradation. Key stressors are high levels of sedimentation, damage to seabed habitats from bottom trawling and dredging, over-harvesting of fish stocks and climate change. Reversing this long-term degradation will require a concerted and integrated effort which includes passive marine restoration, active marine restoration and land-based efforts. All users of the Sounds will need to play their part, in a combined effort, if the current situation is to be turned around. This report seeks to identify some ways in which this might be achieved.”

Listening to the report brought home the reality that without some big changes to management of the land and the ocean environment we are headed towards the likelihood of complete collapse of the marine ecosystem in the Sounds. Raewyn made the point that building back from its very fragile current state is at least a better option than trying to restore an ecosystem that has collapsed. Current natural beds of green lipped mussels are about 3% of their historic coverage and the severely depleted pilchard population is an example of the long term damage the  Sounds have sustained. In the early 1940s, there were enough fish to supply a pilchard cannery in Picton, but catches dropped quickly from almost 300 tonnes in 1942 to 11 tonnes in 1949 and the cannery closed. Pilchards play a critical role in the marine ecosystem being one of the main links between plankton and fish higher up the foodchain. Raewyn made the very salient point that managing fisheries as single stock units completely fails to address the cumulative stressors on the marine environment in general and particularly in the Sounds. I was interested to hear from her that MDC is seen as a leader in Aotearoa with its active support for research to learn more about the issues facing the Sounds and what solutions there might be. The Council’s policy of making the results of research that they have contributed to open source, is sensible and wise. I understand the EDS work on NZ’s oceans management system was jointly funded by MfE and some philanthropic money. She emphasised how essential a good plan is if trying to attract philanthropic funds. A regional “State of the Sounds” report driven by Council would be an important part of getting consensus from all Sounds users, commercial and recreational, and that this consensus would be a critical component of getting political buy in, to make the major management decisions required to achieve sustainable improvement. She also referred to the possibility of eventually getting a Local Act of Parliament to consolidate those changes.

Several Councillors made heartfelt statements after the presentation and the committee chair, Gerald Hope made a plea for there to be a long term forward focus on what might be the best solutions. He noted, over the last hundred and fifty years there had been large economic rewards for NZ from the Sounds, and that now is the time to get a future focus on restoring them to their former glory. Long-term committed funding will be critical if that is to happen. Nadine stated that “at scale” restoration work is clearly required and to tackle this will require a collaborative effort from all interested parties.

For anyone interested in more detail you can download the meeting agenda and/or the full report from the Council website.

There is also a very informative article from NZ Geo in 2020 that is worth checking out if you’re interested in this topic. It’s titled “How to fix the Marlborough Sounds”.

NATIONAL

6) Climate Action Campus.

"The Climate Action Campus Ōtautahi is the first of its kind in the country. It’s designed to help students understand, know about and take action on climate change. As a children’s rights issue, the Climate Action Campus aims to support children and young people in their response to the climate crisis.

Climate change places an incredible responsibility on all of us; we are the ones who can ensure the planet remains livable for people and all other living things. For children and young people in particular there is a clear sense of urgency. They face unprecedented changes in the climate that will affect every aspect of their lives. This reality can induce a sense of hopelessness and despair, a sense that there is no future- a sense of climate anxiety or angst.

It is essential there are opportunities for children and young people to not only understand climate change, but to be part of the collective response to its impacts through participation in climate change planning, decision making and action. There is a need for children and young people along with their whānau, kaiako and wider community to be aware of possibilities and actions."

You can learn more about this innovative campus on their website.

Climate Action Campus is satellite campus of Ao Tawhiti school. If you're interested you can also listen to a brief interview between Jesse Mulligan school and director, Anita Yarwood.

7) David Seymour floats pulling out of Paris Agreement after 2026 election.

"Act leader and senior minister David Seymour has floated taking a policy of pulling New Zealand out of the Paris climate agreement to the next election, potentially making Paris withdrawal an Act election promise. Labour’s Climate Change spokeswoman Megan Woods has called on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to recommit to the deal and not allow Seymour to pull New Zealand out of it. Luxon has been approached for comment.

Last week, the Government published its target for the second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) — the name given to a target under the Paris Agreement. The new NDC will commit New Zealand to reducing emissions by 51% to 55% below 2005 levels by 2035. The current NDC is for a 50% cut by 2030. The call disappointed observers on both sides. Energy and climate expert Christina Hood described the target as “shockingly unambitious” in a post to LinkedIn, while Federated Farmers meat and wool chairman Toby Williams said the new target signed New Zealand up to a decade of planting pine trees on productive farmland."

Check out the full article in the NZ Herald.

8) Methanexit – Should NZ be subsidising our largest gas user?

This is an informative analysis provided by 350 Aotearoa. It clearly explains the folly of using gas to make methanol at the Methanex plant in Taranaki.

"The Methanexit report focuses on one major player in the New Zealand energy sector, a company called Methanex New Zealand Ltd, which is the biggest user of fossil gas in New Zealand. Throughout the last decade, Methanex used between 30 per cent and 45 per cent of all gas produced in the country. Methanex uses the gas to produce methanol, a product which is used to create other chemicals, such as formaldehyde and plastics.

Methanex New Zealand Ltd has a parent company in Hong Kong and the main Methanex Corporation is headquartered in Vancouver (British Columbia). Both places receive an eye-watering amount of money from Methanex NZ each year. The New Zealand branch appears to have used complex transactions to shift $257.4 million profit offshore, reducing income tax paid to the government by more than $46 million over the last decade. All the while, it is now operating a more emissions-intensive plant in New Zealand than the rest of its portfolio, to the detriment of the climate.

To make matters worse, Methanex gets a lot of help from our government to maintain its business model in the form of subsidies. Methanex received $60 million worth of free carbon credits last year under the Emissions Trading Scheme to subsidise its pollution. These are like special coupons the government gives companies to make pollution cheaper for them. We estimate Methanex’s free carbon credits over the last decade add up to about $300 million. That’s $300 million that our New Zealand government is giving to a wealthy overseas company to continue their polluting industry and shift profit offshore- outrageous!"

You can check out the full article on the 350.org website if you want to know more.

9) All of Govt’s 2024 coal earnings spent treating damages at a single mine.

"New Treasury figures show last year the Government spent more than $3 million treating damage caused by coal mining at a single site on the West Coast – more than it collected in royalties for all coal mining nationwide the same year. The Stockton mine is the country’s largest open-cast coal operation, and a fast-track listing would see its licence continue for another 25 years. Remediation efforts for historical mining are still underway.
Despite efforts by the mine’s operators to restore the health of nearby waterways, acid mine drainage poses a lingering and considerable threat to the freshwater ecosystems. According to the company’s annual report, DNA data appears to show “spectacular recovery” in nearby waterways. But publicly collected data from the surrounding area paints a different picture."

You can check out the full Newsroom article for more info.

INTERNATIONAL

10) The Acid Test: Global Temperature in 2025.

Readers of this newsletter will know that I follow the occasional reports produced by James Hansen and his team. They are always fascinating if you're interested in the latest science and their take on it. Their analysis and conclusions are sometimes seen by others in the science community as being a little extreme but in my humble opinion I think it highly likely they are closer to the reality than many others. Their latest report released on February 23rd has the following to say.

"The unprecedented leap of global temperature in 2023 and early 2024 exceeded 0.4°C (Fig. 1). We and coauthors interpret that uniquely large warming as being due about equally to a moderate El Nino and reduction of ship aerosols, with a smaller contribution from the present solar maximum. An “acid” test of our interpretation will be provided by the 2025 global temperature: unlike the 1997-98 and 2015-16 El Ninos, which were followed by global cooling of more than 0.3°C and 0.2°C, respectively, we expect global temperature in 2025 to remain near or above the 1.5°C level. Indeed, the 2025 might even set a new record despite the present weak La Nina. There are two independent reasons. First, the “new” climate forcing due to reduction of sulfate aerosols over the ocean remains in place, and, second, high climate sensitivity (~4.5°C for doubled CO2) implies that the warming from recently added forcings is still growing significantly.
What is the importance of these high global temperatures and the acceleration of global warming? Along with growing impacts on society and ecosystems caused by increasing climate extremes, our main concern is the danger of passing the point of no return, when the warming induces shutdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and that, in turn, locks in sea level rise of several meters. If accelerated warming (Fig. 1) is not arrested, it will accelerate ice melt and freshwater injection onto the North Atlantic. Such increased freshwater injection, rising temperature of the ocean surface layer, and increased rainfall over the North Atlantic Ocean – all certain to occur if accelerated warming is allowed to continue – are the elements that are predicted to drive AMOC shutdown within 2-3 decades."

In their report they address the issue of climate sensitivity and how using different sensitivities has significant impacts on the conclusions reached using different climate models. They say -

"Why are we confident that climate sensitivity is high? We have shown that in three independent ways: (1) climate sensitivity 4.8°C ± 0.6°C based on comparison of glacial and interglacial climate states, (2) sensitivity of 4.5°C ± 0.5°C based on temperature from 1750 through 2024, (3) the large “darkening” (reduced albedo) of Earth between 2000 and 2024, which implies a strong cloud feedback – and strong cloud feedback implies high climate sensitivity."

If you wish to get into further detail of why James and his team are convinced climate sensitivity is higher than the IPCC uses then check out the previous two reports on their website dated February 6th and 12th, as well as this latest one dated February 20th. You can download the full pdf files from their website.

11) New Research Led by James Hansen Documents Global Warming Acceleration.

This article from "Inside Climate News" discusses their reports and also has a very good global temperature animation, which shows how the average annual global temperature increases above the pre-industrial average have increased in recent years, especially in 2023 and 2024, at the end of the video, when the annual jumps were the biggest on record.

Kevin Anderson, a professor of energy and climate change at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, who was not involved in the new paper, also emphasized that it’s important to look at the science within the political context.

“Otherwise it’s just an interesting academic discussion,” he said.

“Whether we align with the more conservative forecasts of the IPCC or the more challenging warnings of Jim Hansen, the policy implications are strikingly similar,” he said. “We are rapidly blasting through the 1.5-degree Celsius commitment.”

The IPCC’s path to stay well below 2 degrees Celsius of warming requires 7 percent emissions cuts annually worldwide, starting now, he said, which would be an even bigger drop than occurred during COVID lockdowns.

“In this context, the policy process has abdicated its responsibilities, opting instead for short-term acquiescence with business as usual, rather than offering strong, transparent and cogent leadership,” Anderson said. “After decades of half-truths, delusion and outright lies from those in positions of power, and often from their advisers as well, we now find ourselves facing severe risks of disastrous outcomes.”
Much climate damage has already been done, he added, mostly to people who didn’t cause the problem.

“We are not sleepwalking into the apocalypse, we’re charging toward it with full awareness of what’s at stake,” he said. “Even more damning, we can already see the devastating effects of our actions tearing apart the livelihoods, and even the lives, of vulnerable, often poor, low-emitting communities far from the high-emitting areas where we live, and frequently comprised of people of colour.”

12) The world has been warming faster than expected. Scientists now think they know why.

This paper is related to the previous two items as it addresses "darkening of Earth", the third way James Hansen and his team have shown climate sensitivity is higher than the IPCC believe. It also addresses the issue of reduced sulfate aerosols because of the reduction in emissions from shipping over the last few years, which is a significant contributor to the current increased warming rate according to the Hansen reports in the previous item.

"Last year was the hottest on record, oceans boiled, glaciers melted at alarming rates, and it left scientists scrambling to understand exactly why. They know the extraordinary heat was fueled by a number of factors, predominantly planet-heating pollution from burning fossil fuels and the natural climate pattern El Niño. But those alone did not explain the unusually rapid temperature rise.

Now a new study published Thursday in the journal Science says it has identified the missing part of the puzzle: clouds. To be more specific, the rapid surge in warming was supercharged by a dearth of low-lying clouds over the oceans, according to the research — findings which may have alarming implications for future warming. In simple terms, fewer bright, low clouds mean the planet “has darkened,” allowing it to absorb more sunlight, said Helge Goessling, a report author and climate physicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany."

You can read the full article on the CNN website

13) Global economy could face 50% loss in GDP between 2070 and 2090 from climate shocks, say actuaries.

This article from the Guardian discusses a report released in January by risk management experts at the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA). I've believed for some time now that we can learn plenty about our predicament by observing what insurance companies are thinking and what they are concluding from their constant assessment of the risks their businesses face from increasing environmental disruption.

The report states -

"The climate risk assessments being used by financial institutions, politicians and civil servants to assess the economic effects of global heating were wrong, the report said, because they ignored the expected severe effects of climate change such as tipping points, sea temperature rises, migration and conflict as a result of global heating.

“[They] do not recognise there is a risk of ruin. They are precisely wrong, rather than being roughly right,” the report said. If these risks were taken into account the world faced an increasing risk of “planetary insolvency”, where the Earth’s systems were so degraded that humans could no longer receive enough of the critical services they relied on to support societies and economies.

“You can’t have an economy without a society, and a society needs somewhere to live,” said Trust.

“Nature is our foundation, providing food, water and air, as well as the raw materials and energy that power our economy. Threats to the stability of this foundation are risks to future human prosperity which we must take action to avoid.”

The report, named Planetary Solvency – finding our balance with nature, criticises the dominant economic theory used by governments in the UK, US and across the developed world, which focuses on what humans can take from the planet to create growth for themselves and fails to take into account the real risks from nature degradation to societies and economies."

14) Street art.

I recently came across a piece of street art done by an Italian artist called Blu in 2015. I thought some of you might like to check it out on this street art website. It gives some food for thought about our current predicament and how, after four and a half billion years of Planet Earth we have ended up where we are right now.

15) There are many ways Trump could trigger a global collapse. Here’s how to survive if that happens.

George Monbiot had this article published in the Guardian recently, which expresses well some of what I've attempted to address in my introduction to this newsletter.

In the article George says - "Though we might find it hard to imagine, we cannot now rule it out: the possibility of systemic collapse in the United States. The degradation of federal government by Donald Trump and Elon Musk could trigger a series of converging and compounding crises, leading to social, financial and industrial failure.

There are several possible mechanisms. Let’s start with an obvious one: their assault on financial regulation. Trump’s appointee to the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Russell Vought, has suspended all the agency’s activity, slashed its budget and could be pursuing Musk’s ambition to “delete” the bureau. The CFPB was established by Congress after the 2008 financial crisis, to protect people from the predatory activity that helped trigger the crash. The signal to the financial sector could not be clearer: “Fill your boots, boys.” A financial crisis in the US would immediately become a global crisis."

He goes on at the end of the article to talk about what we might do to prepare ourselves better for the growing challenges resulting from our unsustainable lifestyles and expanding geopolitical upheaval.

"Every government should hope for the best and prepare for the worst. But, as they do with climate and ecological breakdown, freshwater depletion, the possibility of food system collapse, antibiotic resistance and nuclear proliferation, most governments, including the UK’s, now seem to hope for the best and leave it there. So, though there is no substitute for effective government, we must seek to create our own backup systems.

Start with this principle: don’t face your fears alone. Make friends, meet your neighbours, set up support networks, help those who are struggling. Since the dawn of humankind, those with robust social networks have been more resilient than those without. Discuss what we confront, explore the means by which we might respond. Through neighbourhood networks, start building a deliberative, participatory democracy, to resolve at least some of the issues that can be fixed at the local level. If you can, secure local resources for the community. From democratised neighbourhoods, we might seek to develop a new politics, along the lines proposed by Murray Bookchin, in which decisions are passed upwards, not downwards, with the aim of creating a political system not only more democratic than those we currently suffer, but which also permits more diversity, redundancy and modularity.

Yes, we also – and urgently – need national and global action, brokered by governments. But it’s beginning to look as if no one has our backs. Prepare for the worst."

16) Outcry as Trump withdraws support for research that mentions ‘climate’.

I've included this article because it highlights the incredibly simplistic and basically irrational decisions being made by the Trump administration, the consequences of which all inhabitants of Planet Earth have to live with. I have no doubt that there will be plenty of people and organisations that double down and put more effort into trying to bring about the changes we need to maintain a liveable planet but the extreme polarisation and overbearing distraction resulting from actions such as this make the task so much more difficult.

"The Trump administration is stripping away support for scientific research in the US and overseas that contains a word it finds particularly inconvenient: “climate.” The US government is withdrawing grants and other support for research that even references the climate crisis, academics have said, amid Donald Trump’s blitzkrieg upon environmental regulations and clean-energy development.

Trump, who has said that the climate crisis is a “giant hoax”, has already stripped mentions of climate change and global heating from government websites and ordered a halt to programs that reference diversity, equity and inclusion. A widespread funding freeze for federally backed scientific work also has been imposed, throwing the US scientific community into chaos."

You can check out the full article if interested.

This Guardian article titled 'Cruel and thoughtless’: Trump fires hundreds at US climate agency Noaa, (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is another example highlighting the theme of this newsletter.

17) Art and Storytelling for Systemic Change with Dougald Hine.

"How can we foster emotional resilience in the face of ecological overshoot and the death of modernity? What role do art and storytelling play alongside science and data in responding to our collective human predicament? And how can we strengthen our communities and plant the seeds for a different way of life, starting in our own small corners of the world?"

If this quote has any meaning for you and you wish to put aside some time to listen and learn then I recommend watching the YouTube discussion between Dougald and Nate Hagens from February 13th.

"When we started Dark Mountain what we were doing in a sense was creating a campfire around which is possible to gather if you had got to the point where the story you had been inhabiting no longer made sense to you, the things you were saying in your speeches or articles or whatever it was no longer rang true to you and you didn't know what was worth saying or worth doing and here was a space to which it was possible to come where you could wait for a while, being in conversation with others, not be judged for or feel rushed into action or to answers and for a lot of people who I worked with in those years it felt like Dark Mountain was a journey to the far side of despair. Sometimes despair is not a thing to be fought of at all costs but a dark night of the soul you need to go through but you go through it and the answer is not be stuck doom scrolling for the rest of your life, the answer is actually that you let yourself be changed by that and as you say you come through and emerge with your world view reconfigured, reshaped. Things that you weren't taking seriously before are marked on the map now. There's other kinds of work worth doing and that's why this book is called "At Work in the Ruins", the sort of two claims in the title. On the one hand there are ruins around and ahead of us that's not a thing that can be avoided if we make the right choices, on the other hand there is work to do. I say near the end of the book I don't think any of us know and I don't think it's helpful to talk as if we could know exactly how all of this plays out. We know enough to have a sense of how deeep the trouble is, but it may worth working on the assumption that what we're in, what's around and ahead of us is one of those great bottlenecks within the history of this living world and that in different ways we may have a chance of affecting how much comes through that bottleneck and in what shape including how much humanity and in what shape, what forms, what ways of being human together."