The government needs to act on this warning

Over the weekend devastating floods hit the South Island. Half the population of Westport were forced from their homes, and it looks like hundreds have been made permanently homeless. Its a taste of what we can expect in the future due to climate change, and things are only going to get worse. The only way they stop getting worse is if we stop spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

In this context, the government's plan to flood the market with carbon and allow polluters to emit an extra 7 million tons this year in order to keep carbon prices low looks wildly irresponsible. Every ton of carbon matters. Every ton makes it worse. While how bad things ultimately get depends on total global emissions, its trivially obvious that us allowing extra makes things worse, not better. And to do it because essentially you can't be arsed stopping it is a perfect illustration of the banality of evil.

We've had a warning here, and the government needs to act on it. And if they don't, if they just continue sleepwalking us deeper into the apocalypse because its just "too hard" for them to do otherwise, we need to hold them accountable for it.