In an opinion piece, David Round (University of Canterbury) writes in The Press about the disastrous effects of climate change, and how we will live with them.
He expects that New Zealand will be less affected than some other countries, but believes that our future will nonetheless be less pleasant than our present, with conservative lifestyles and self-reliance key factors in our survival.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“So the pressing second question is: how will we survive? What will we eat, and how will we obtain it? How will we make a living? Where and how will we live? Who will keep the peace and who defend us?
“The simple answer is, that like most communities throughout human history, we will have to do most of these things for ourselves. This will not just be a matter of growing our own meat and vegetables, although that will be challenging enough. We will not be able to rely nearly as much on paid professionals – teachers, policemen, nurses, social workers, administrators and so on. We will have to return to older social arrangements whereby most necessary social services were provided by what Professor David Korten calls the “love economy”. Money may be involved, but these services are provided by community members, rich and poor, out of their sense of obligation to their fellow citizens.”