#83: Flippers and flipsides

On the other side of the tipping point story

Mōrena, and happy Tuesday!

This week I’ve been lucky enough to spot some rare critters down on the Otago Peninsula. I watched sea lions taking a nap on the beach, the Otago Shag resting on their towering nest stacks, albatross chicks testing out their fluffy new wings and kororā (little penguins) coming home from a long day at sea. 

A band of kororā going home for the night

All of this is thanks to one solid effort to save the Royal Albatross, which ended up providing a safe area for so many more species - cascading benefits which have resulted in an explosion of wildlife on the whole peninsula. 

This reminds me of a new concept I’ve just been learning about: “social tipping points”. 

When we talk about tipping points in a climate context, we often think of the bad ones. Greenland ice sheets, the Gulf Stream reversing, permafrost melt. 

But did you know that there are good tipping points too? It’s new but beautiful - researchers are increasingly finding positive tipping points in our social systems. Pressure for change builds up until it becomes unstoppable, tipping us into a new normal. With enough pressure applied at the right points we could tip our society into a state where low carbon lifestyles are the norm, via a cascade of important societal and policy changes that rapidly address climate change.

Some examples of potential social tipping points, where one small nudge in the right direction could lead to a wave of rapid change, are:

• Energy production: Renewables are already more cost efficient than their fossil fuel equivalents. Relatively small policy decisions to remove fossil fuel subsidies and redirecting financial and government support for clean energy could lead to rapid decarbonisation.

• Infrastructure choices: Normalising public transport, e-bikes, cycling, and walking over being stuck in cars can rapidly reduce transport emissions while improving public health and air quality

• Societal norms: As social beings our behaviour is shaped by the examples we see and hear. Social scientists have long noted how a committed group can create significant change in public opinion, leading to huge social movements like votes for women and LGBTQ+ rights. This concept of social contagion has already been noted in the individual adoption of solar panels and EVs. 

So the fight to get there will be hard, but the result will trigger a more beautiful world than we could have expected from our efforts. Just like the run-on effects for our precious birds, in Otago positive change might spread faster and farther than we expect.

What can we do today?

The most-clicked link from last week’s issue was this petition to tax private jets.  

🐝 If you have 5 minutes: Say no way to climate delay! 

• Last week the Government announced a proposal for another two year delay for pricing emissions from agriculture. Remember that agriculture makes up 50% of our emissions, and with methane being 25 times more potent at trapping heat, we can’t afford delay.
  Action: Send an email using this template to submit on the delay

• Today, 12pm onwards: Today is the launch of the Vote for Climate 2023 campaign! This is a non-partisan election campaign aimed at encouraging Kiwis to vote for a party that’s taking climate change seriously. We want this campaign to reach every voter in the country, and we need your help.
  Action: Boost the launch by visiting VoteForClimateNZ’s socials at 12pm today (Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook) and sharing the launch posts with your friends & networks.

🐇 If you have 15 minutes: Stop the west from going south

• As our cities grow, we need better public transport options to help communities and to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. More people taking public transport can trigger that social tipping point we mentioned above. West Auckland is a classic example of an area which needs more accessible, reliable public transport. You can still weigh in if you don’t live in Auckland!

  Action: Have your say on Waka Kotahi’s quick survey on PT plans for West Auckland.

💃🏽 If you have 30 minutes or more: Be a poster child for climate

• Want to help our Vote for Climate campaign reach your local communities?
  Action: Print your own Vote for Climate posters and put them up in your workplace, school, or community space (the files are A0 and A1 size but you can download and scale it down to A4 or A3 in the printing settings).
  Action: Do you have a fence near a busy street, and want one of our signs on it? We’d love to send you one! Fill out the form here.

• Climate Shift (the 10 point climate action plan) have a great list of upcoming events across NZ for you to get involved with. You’ll find everything from protests to community events and debates. 

  Action: Check out a climate shift event near you.

Wins!

• Ecuadorians have voted to halt all new oil wells in Yasuní National Park in the Amazon - one of the first countries in the world to set limits on resource extraction through democratic vote. This was the result of a referendum at their presidential elections over the weekend - a sign of how important voting can be!

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That’s all for today, folks 👋🏽 Thanks for taking action. Enjoy this brilliant article which thinks beyond the individual vs structural change debate and how synthesising them could bring radical transformation. 

See you next week, 

Cathy & the Climate Club team

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