Climate Change: Vote for the climate

Local body voting papers went in the post on Friday, and should be arriving over the course of this week (mine arrived today). And if you care about climate change, I urge you to vote. While local government seems irrelevant and out of touch (like a whine of old white dudes promising to "focus on fundamentals" and "keep rates low"), local authorities, and especially regional councils, are on the front line of the fight against climate change. While central government is doing the big stuff, like setting national targets and national level policies like the ETS and EV feebate scheme, what local government does on this matters. They're the ones who decide if your local school or dairy factory gets to run on goal or natural gas, or has to use electricity. They're the ones who decide whether we can build the wind and solar farms we need to decarbonise our energy supply. They're the ones who set limits on nitrogen, effectively deciding the level of dairy farming and fertiliser use, and therefore agricultural emissions. And they're the ones who are going to be deciding whether we're all going to be buying out rich wankers who "invested" in coastal property, in the full knowledge that it would wash away in 50 years, or we're going to leave them to carry their own can for once.

As for knowing who to vote for, there are a few people able to help. The Spinoff has compiled a list of the climate deniers, fudgers, and prevaricators running in our local elections, which tells you who to avoid. Stuff has quizzed local body candidates around the country, and presents their answers in the voting climate. And Generation Zero and the Common Climate Network are working on climate scorecards for the major cities, which will be going up this week (note: they're not up yet).

If we want change, we need to make it happen. So, vote, and vote for candidates who promise real action on climate change. And avoid voting for climate change deniers, foot-draggers, or people who foolishly aren't interested in the giant train heading down the tracks towards us. instead, vote those fuckers off the island, and into the sea where they belong.