Issue #5: How to grow a better system 🌿
On intensive dairying & helping policy research
Kia ora friends and happy Lunar New Year! May the Year of the Water Tiger bring fresh courage and strength to you 🐯
The most clicked link in last year’s finance issue was a call for fund managers to use our money as a force for good. Nice work! 💸
The theme of this week is Kaitiakitanga, stewardship or guardianship. Taking care of the earth and our land is key to a healthy climate transition, and we want to support that here. Let’s support our farmers as they move away from intensive dairying towards regenerative agriculture, and continue the effort to fight the ongoing battle against new mines in Aotearoa.
What can you do today?
🐝 If you have 5 minutes: Grow a better system
Synthetic nitrogen: Synthetic nitrogen is used as a fertiliser, and is used to keep plants growing at the speed needed to drive intensive, industrial dairy farming. Synthetic nitrogen fertilisers also contribute more than twice the amount of CO2-equivalent emissions as our domestic aviation industry! Let’s start by calling on the government to lower the legal nitrate rate in our drinking water for the health of our people and awa.
Regenerative agriculture: With the disruption of Covid-19 comes a chance to rebuild our farming systems to work with the environment rather than against it. Greenpeace is calling on the government to set up a fund to help farmers shift from industrial to regenerative agriculture - kickstart the regenerative farming revolution today!
No more mines: In 2017 the Prime Minister promised no more mines on conservation land, but four years later we are still seeing resource consents being given out to do just that. Click here to demand that the Government honour the promise to ban new mines on DOC land!
🐇 If you have 15 minutes: Have your say in a survey
Help climate policy research: The University of Auckland is conducting research on perceptions of climate justice in Aotearoa. They’re looking for survey participants to get an idea of what New Zealanders think constitutes fair and effective climate action. Questions will be based around your personal experiences of weather events, your views about environmental issues, and what actions you are or would like to see being enacted in Aotearoa New Zealand. You don’t have to be a climate expert. Help them out by taking a 10-15 minute climate change survey!
Take it further → If you enjoyed the survey and want to contribute further to this project, the researchers are also looking for people for 1:1 interviews via video call. Email Grace May (gmay134@aucklanduni.ac.nz) or Bethany Waller (bwal247@aucklanduni.ac.nz) if you are interested.
That’s all for today, folks 👋🏽 Thanks for taking action. Check out this gorgeous virtual background available on Google Meet to celebrate the incoming Year of the Tiger, designed by Deb Lee! Try it out in your next video conference, just follow these instructions.
See you next week,
Dhanya, Emily, and Jenny from the Climate Club
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