WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

About me:

Hi

I’m Dave and I have a science background and more than five years’ experience in climate change policy and sustainability, mainly in central and local government. This work complements my earlier roles that have included scientific research, quality management and operational policy. My key strengths are my pragmatism, my ability to analyse issues, to communicate effectively with stakeholders and meet business and organaisational needs.

In the climate change space, I have a granddaughter and believe that, as a matter of urgency, we must address the impacts we are facing from climate change process that is now running and that will (and increasingly so) impact businesses, communities, and so our lives, in future. A continued failure to recognise, and act, in this matter is not acceptable as it passes the increasing consequences and costs, for our inaction onto future generations.

Introduction - why this site was developed

As part of my on-going “journey”, over the past 5 years, to learn more about science-based climate change I have found, on occasion, that I needed to leave the main path and explore some information side-trails in order to help me better understand some issues and to clarify my thinking about a number of climate change related topics.

In order not to forget these, sometimes meandering, trips, I have written down some of the knowledge I have acquired along the way. The information contained in these, occasional, research articles, may be of use to those interested in learning more about climate change but who do not have the time to research topics themselves .

In addition, I will regularly publish blogs on topical climate change issues. These are intended to stimulate discussion and action.

While the site has a New Zealand focus, some of the information provided may well have a broader application. Also, as with many things in life, caveats apply. The first is that climate change science is a rapidly evolving area and so some knowledge I have gained and provided here will date relatively quickly, as will some of the links provided, though I will endeavour to keep the material (and links) current. The second is that the analogy, above, comparing my learning experiences around climate change to a journey should be understood for what it is; a literary convenience.

The rate of climate change that we are now experiencing is unprecedented in our species lifetime. To assume or pretend however that we humans, by travelling along a “climate change path/trail/journey” are driving this process is to mistake activity for agency. Humans have set this climate change process running and our actions, or inactions, will absolutely have an effect on the magnitude of the future impacts that we and our descendants will experience. However we are no longer driving this process; climate change is now well and truly in the driving seat, in a vehicle with an Earth-sized, solar-powered, heat pump for an engine. We now know there is going to be a crash - the best we can do is to minimise the impacts on our businesses and communities and decide who will pay for the global repairs.

We have ignored the impacts of our activities on our environment for generations and, worse, continued along this path for decades after the nature of the problem, and effective solutions, were identified. It is therefore ironic (or, depending on your mind-set, cosmic justice) that the set of environmental processes we have set running is similarly indifferent to our wants, needs and even our existence. The ‘climate change’ processes and forces that are operating are simply responding to the changing physical environment and the resulting planetary level, energy imbalances, that we have created.

I strongly believe that my generation (I am a “Baby Boomer” ) while by no means solely responsible for the creation of the climate change issue we now face, is primarily responsible for the failure to adequately address the problem as the solutions have been known to us for decades. If we do not act, now, to change this situation, we are abdicating this responsibility and expecting our children, grand-children and subsequent generations to address and pay the huge costs that our cupidity - and stupidity - have caused.