As you may be aware, on Friday 15 March 2019, school children in over 40 countries around the world (including NZ) will be striking from school in order to raise awareness of the actions that need to be taken to mitigate the effects of climate change.
To show our support for the intent of the organisers and participants of the School Strike for Climate NZ, the Patron and Council of the New Zealand Antarctic Society have issued the following statement (which can also be downloaded as a pdf – New Zealand Antarctic Society – Antarctic support for the voice of youth):
Antarctic support for the voice of youth
The Patron and Council of the New Zealand Antarctic Society here express their support for the intent of the organisers and participants of the School Strike for Climate NZ on Friday, 15 March, 2019. We see them as providing much needed encouragement for our political, business, religious and community leaders to commit themselves to working together and legislating for an ambitious and effective emissions reduction regime that ensures NZ emissions do not exceed carbon neutrality by 2050.
We do this because it’s relevant to the second of the five objectives of our Society, “to seek the protection and proper management of the Antarctic environment”. In recent years we have become aware through reports from the climate science community that the ice sheet has begun to melt as a consequence of greenhouse gas emissions. The best scientific advice to date indicates measures negotiated thus far through the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention process are not yet adequate for meeting the Paris agreement target, carbon emissions neutrality by 2050, which would also preserve the ice sheet. We must do our share and are grateful to our young people for reminding us we must do better.
Emeritus Professor Peter Barrett (Patron), with Linda Kestle (President and Auckland Branch chair), Gigi Green (Secretary), Pantelis Rousakkis (Treasurer), Lester Chaplow (Editor), Nicholas O’Flaherty (North Island Vice-President) , Bill Nye (South Island Vice-President), Robin Falconer (Wellington Branch Chair), Shirley Russ (Canterbury Branch Chair), and Christoph Kraus (Website Content Manager).
14 March 2019
Contact: [email protected]
URLS: https://antarcticsociety.org.nz/news https://www.facebook.com/NZAntarcticSociety/
