Fridays For Future Aotearoa, Te Upoko o te Ika (Wellington, New Zealand)

National Climate Change spokesperson Scott Simpson says that Climate Change is an issue, not an emergency. Simeon Brown thinks building roads will reduce emissions, because cars will spend less time idling.

WTF?

Watch an animated video essay on Youtube, about the National Party’s climate policies for the 2023 general election.

Or, read the words on the Imagine My Relief blog.

We’ve had a few gusty days recently, as you’d expect in the springtime. But winter was noticeably calm and sunny.

NIWA figures for wind and sun over the winter months show that:

·        Average wind was just 17km/hour, with 80% in the moderate band or lighter.

·        Over this last winter we had over 400 sunshine hours

A 500,000-people-strong coalition launched election scorecards, assessing the ability of the major parties to respond to the social and environmental crises facing Aotearoa.

Compare political party’s commitments for the General Election 2023. How do parties rank in categories of Justice, Housing, Climate, Taxation, Workers, Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Fairness?

Download the election scorecards, showing which parties have committed to improving the wellbeing of all people in Aotearoa

The scorecards are designed to be shared through your social media – but you can also print them out as a PDF or just read them for your own vote decision-making pleasure.

The water was very cold, and we were standing in it up to our knees. But it made a great image.

Read the Stuff article about the event.

Come to Oriental Bay (where the picnic tables are) on 23 September at 11am.

SS4C Welly needs people to hold up letters, making up the phrase “VOTE CLIMATE ACTION!”.

There will be a practice before the action at 12 noon.

That doesn’t sound like we need a lotta people, but we want some back-ups in case some can’t make it at the last moment. Also, supporting extras are great! You could always bring your own sign and make it a protest party.

Photos will be take, and media should be present to capture the moment and spread the message.

If you are interested, please email admin@fridaysforfuture.nz and we will pass on your name and email address to the organiser. Or just turn up at 11am.

Aotearoa Climate Strike Coalition is a coalition of climate activist groups around New Zealand. They have organised a series of events for Climate Action Week 18 – 24 September.

Depending on where you are, these range from:

• a Tarras Airport die-in
• attending candidate meetings (to ensure political candidates have to answer questions about climate change policy)
• chalking the town (Kapiti)
• climate rallies to
• tree planting

Find out what’s happening near you, on the Aotearoa Climate Strike Coalition website.

Climate Shift is a joint initiative between Greenpeace, Forest and Bird, Fridays for Future Aotearoa and many other climate groups, to campaign for urgent climate action in this year’s general election.

Local groups (including us) are hosting events around the country.

Find out what’s coming up near you.

It was lovely to see some young people join us at our Parliament protest last Friday.

Joined here by students from Tawa College

Friday 25th we will be at Midland Park for our fortnightly protest against Fonterra – see you there!

In the latest Climate Club e-newsletter there’s a link to some great advice on how to make sure climate is talking about at election campaign meetings.

These are where candidates meet the public (that’s you!), talk about their plans for the election, and answer questions from anyone in the audience.

This is where we come in. As members of the voting public, it’s important that politicians know there are lots of people out there who are keen to vote for strong climate action.

Find out the most effective ways to ask candidates about climate.

Or you can just turn up with an appropriate placard!

You can also subscribe to the Climate Club on the same link – it’s well worth it.