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| A SOCIALIST WORLD |
Pacific Islanders are trying to raise greater global warming
awareness in New Zealand through a “Climate Tour” to Auckland, Wellington and
Christchurch. Among those speaking out, is the general secretary of the
Christian Church of Tuvalu and founder of the Pacific Islands Climate Action
Network, Rev Tafue Lusama. His homeland, Tuvalu, is projected to be underwater
in less than 50 years. At its highest point, Tuvalu sits four metres above sea
level and a 2012 Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment (PIRCA) report
predicted many negative impacts of climate change on Tuvalu over the coming
years, including depletion of freshwater supplies, an increase in coastal
flooding, erosion, coral bleaching, ocean acidification, ocean patterns and
rising sea levels. The nation of 11,000 inhabitants has already watched at
least three of its islands disappear, with no sign of slowing down unless
significant climate action is taken globally.
He is calling for New Zealand – which he refers to as
“Tuvalu’s big brother” – to take the lead in climate change action and help to
save the sinking country. Suggestions of relocating Tuvalu’s population are
plentiful, but Rev Lusama said evacuating Tuvalu isn’t an option in the
short-term.
“Relocation to us carries a lot of risks. It means we have
to throw in the towel. If we relocate, we put our identity in question, because
you cannot create a country within another country. You cannot create a Tuvalu
within New Zealand or Australia or anywhere else,” he said. But Rev Lusama is
not oblivious to the reality of the situation. He said his people, when
presented with no other option but to leave Tuvalu, will prefer to be called
“forced climate migrants” rather than “climate refugees”. “It’s always good to
migrate, to go somewhere else, as long as there is somewhere you can go back to
and point at and say ‘I belong to that space’,” said Rev Lusama. “But what
happens when you are relocated, and then you have no space to refer to? We will
become roaming homeless people on the face of the planet. I don’t want my
children, my grandchildren, to carry that identity with them.” Rev Tafue
Lusama’s referred to climate change effects in the Pacific as an injustice. “We
live very sustainable lifestyles, taking very good care of our environment and
our surroundings. I always look at this as a punishment of the innocent, we are
being punished for being innocent.”
WWF senior campaigner Alex Smith said that while Tuvalu
looked to New Zealand for help, the nation was part of a “small gang” of
developed countries which had yet to commit to climate targets and reduced emission
schemes – in fact, he claimed New Zealand’s emissions were rising.
“We’re a regional leader and at the moment we’re blocking
progress in international negotiations and letting down our neighbours,” said
Smith. Alex Smith said that where possible, New Zealand needed to help make
sure that Pacific communities could stay on the islands where they have lived
for thousands of years. “Unfortunately in some cases that’s not possible, but
we really need to start taking action where we can, to save some of the
countries that can still be saved.”
The director of environmental studies at Victoria
University, Ralph Chapman, said New Zealand had been running a “reactive”
policy position on climate change and the Pacific rather than thinking of
long-term solutions.
“It’s not unusual for this government. It has been really
unwilling to take a forward-looking view on climate change. The net impact on
vulnerable Pacific Islands like Kiribati, Vanuatu and Tuvalu – particularly the
low-lying ones – is pretty clear. What’s not clear is that the government is
doing enough to mitigate climate change, which would be my main concern, or to
address the impacts of climate change.”
When the time comes, Rev Lusama said the country won’t go
down without a fight, in an effort to stop other countries suffering the same
fate.
“Even if Tuvalu goes down tomorrow, we will still keep
fighting. We don’t want to go down for nothing, because if we do nothing now,
then Tuvalu goes down, Kiribati the next day, and Bangladesh the following day.
Then millions of people will be homeless, and that will create a big problem
for our Earth.”
Trish Tupou, a postgraduate student in Auckland University’s
Pacific Studies programme, spoke at the event about how easy it was to feel
overwhelmed and powerless living in New Zealand.
“However, part of our privileges of living here in New
Zealand is being able to be vocal on these issues of land erosion, rising sea
levels and cyclones.” She believes part of the solution lies in New Zealanders
rallying Australasian banks to pull out of fossil fuel investments. “Our banks
are funding the fossil fuel projects that are sinking the Pacific. As
customers, our banks care about what we have to say and we have the power to
stop them,” said Tupou. Since 2008, four Australian banks that dominate New
Zealand’s banking – Westpac, Commonwealth, National Australia Bank and
Australia New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) – have loaned over $20 billion to new
coal and gas projects in Australia and New Zealand, said Tupou. “These
investments threaten our climate and precious ecosystems. At the same time,
these banks also have strong sustainability policies, but they are literally
funding climate change and contributing to the impacts of climate change on our
Pacific people.”
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| A WORLD TO WIN, A PLANET TO SAVE |
While the members of the World Socialist Movement and the
World Socialist Party (New Zealand) can admire the commitment and the sincerity
of environmental movement campaigners to do something about climate change
and global warming, the solution is not through reforms and appeals to the “better
nature” of the capitalist class and their banks. To aim for a better world, we
first have to understand and explain how our present society is arranged. Political
parties other than the WSP(NZ) support the basic way society is structured, or
just assume it’s the only way things can be. They say that it can be improved
from within, by changes to the law, or finding more funding from the public
purse. Palliative policies and more government investment may help in the
short-term but they only last as long as they fit in with the economic and
political wishes of the ruling elite. The needs of the people aren’t important.
The WSP(NZ) would say that to solve society’s problems, we
have to change the way society is structured. This means going from our world
where the means to produce and distribute wealth are owned by a minority, to
one where those resources and facilities are owned by everyone in common. Then,
goods would be produced and services would be run directly for anyone who wants
them, without the dictates of the economic market. Industries and services
would be run just to satisfy people’s needs and wants. Our natural resources
could be managed in a sustainable way, as the waste and short-term
profitability which lead to environmental damage wouldn’t be there. This means
voluntary, co-operative, creative work, with decisions and responsibilities
agreed through everyone having an equal say. This would mean a much broader and
more inclusive use of democracy than we’re used to. The World Socialist Party
is using what limited democracy we have in our current society to advocate a
better world for everyone.
WSP(NZ) website:
E-mail: wsp.nz@worldsocialism.org
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| ONE WORLD, ONE PEOPLE, ONE PLANET TO SHARE |
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