Greenpeace Aotearoa says that the damage caused by this
week’s Canterbury floods is yet another reminder of the
risk of continuing to ignore the climate crisis fuelled by
the intensive dairy industry.
This week, devastating
floods swept through the Canterbury region, causing many
at-risk areas in the Selwyn District to evacuate, and
leading to the declaration of a state of emergency in
Christchurch City and Banks Peninsula.
Greenpeace
Aotearoa spokesperson Will Appelbe, who is based in
Canterbury, says: “The damage caused by this extreme weather
event is real, and will impact communities in Canterbury
into the future. But neither is this the last time we will
see flooding like this in our region.
“As the climate
crisis continues, we can expect to see storms like the one
that battered the country this week increasing in intensity
and happening more often – unless we take action to stop
climate change from getting worse.
“Here in Aotearoa,
the worst climate polluter is the intensive dairy industry,
led by Fonterra. The oversized dairy herd is belching out
huge amounts of superheating methane gas, which heats the
climate much faster than carbon
dioxide.”
“But as we’ve seen repeatedly
in Canterbury, farmers are also among the first to directly
experience the consequences of the climate crisis – with
extreme weather events flooding their farms, or droughts
leading to dry pastures.”
“The way
farming is done in Canterbury has to change. We need to
transition away from intensive dairying that harms the
climate and pollutes waterways, towards more ecological,
plant-based farming practices. And Fonterra and our
Government need to support that transition.”
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Since the
2023 election, Christopher Luxon’s Government has rolled
back numerous policies that would have reduced New
Zealand’s impact on the climate crisis, including several
in the agricultural sector.
“Cantabrians are seeing
the consequences of inaction on climate change today,” says
Appelbe. “This Government’s decisions have prioritised
profit for a select few over a liveable future for us
all.”
“Luxon must show some leadership and reverse the
anti-nature decisions he has made, particularly when it
comes to our country’s worst climate polluter – the
agricultural industry. Otherwise, the climate crisis will
only get worse.”
Greenpeace says that some of the
communities being evacuated in the wake of this flood are
also dealing with nitrate-contaminated drinking water as a
result of intensive dairying.
“If we change the way
farming is done, we can prevent the worst of the climate
crisis by reducing methane pollution from intensive dairy,
and we can protect drinking water, lakes and rivers here in
Canterbury, which are under threat from intensive dairy
pollution.”
