Sherry Zhang has her weekly talk with Green party co-leader James Shaw on the recent budget announcment, which includes 1.1 billion investment into nature based jobs. They also talked about essential service workers, and how the budget may be addressing climate change. James touches on the controversial COVID-19 Public Health Response Act, which is currently being reviewed by the select committee.
This week Sherry Zhang talks to Green Party co-leader James Shaw on criticisms brought up Dr Rod Carr from the Climate Change Commission, regarding concerns that the budget does not adress climate change concerns adequetly. Greenpeace has also been outspoken in the lack of climate change mitigation projects. James also talks on how NZ is looking in regards to reducing carbon emissions, and meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement and the Zero Carbon Bill.
This week on The Green Desk, Bronwyn Wilde spoke to Dr Kēpa Morgan about mauri modelling - a framework for decision-making which measures sustainability trends. Unlike a purely economic view of sustainability, the model recognises four dimensions of wellbeing, environmental, cultural, social and economic. Kēpa first invented the mauri-o-meter in his 2008 thesis about municipal waste water management, but since then it has been applied throughout the country to a number of ecosystems, including the clean-up following the Rena oil spill. Bronwyn and Kēpa spoke about the model, how it compliments and even improves on western science, and why we value certain knowledge over others.
He began by shedding some light on the concept of "mauri".
This week on Green Desk, Bronwyn talked about climate anxiety with Michael Apathy, a psychotherapist, ecotherapist and activist from Lucid Psychotherapy in Christchurch. The American Psychological Association defines climate anxiety as "a chronic fear of environmental doom". As predictions for the future of our planet grow increasingly dire, this fear manifests itself for many in a range of emotions from grief to anger. Michael talks about how he encourages his clients to deal with these emotions in a productive way, our collective amnesia when it comes to the climate, and how we cope with multiple, overlapping crises.
He started by explaining ecotherapy which, despite having been around for a number of years in the professions of counselling, psychology and psychotherapy, is still not well defined.
The Waitematā Harbour is an intertidal ecosystem inhabited by clams, cockles, crabs, algae, and microscopic worms.
In a recent University of Auckland study on the effects of microplastics in the Waitematā Harbor PhD Candidate Sam Ladewig found that plastic pollution is fundamentally altering the natural cycles of life in the harbour's waters.
The investigation found that microplastic pollution is altering the flow of oxygen through the systems, and the long-term effects of this are currently unknown.
This week on The Green Desk, Troy spoke to Ladewig about the study and the harms of plastic pollution on New Zealand’s oceans.
Sometimes you can't see the forest from the trees but spare a thought for the wilderness beneath the waves. Kelp forests are found in shallow ocean waters off a third of the world's coastlines, and, according to new research are worth hundreds of billions of dollars to society.
Marine ecologist Dr Aaron Eger led the study and is also the founder and director of the Kelp Forest Alliance – a research-driven not-for-profit dedicated to accelerating the protection and restoration of kelp forests worldwide. Today he's on The Green Desk to discuss his work putting a dollar value to the kelp forests below the sea level.
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