Media Release

15 September 2016

Why Climate Change is About Justice

Tackling the Issue of Climate and Equity

World-renowned climate scientist Jim Salinger and veteran business journalist and author Rod Oram, will team up at New Zealand’s inaugural Justice Conference on October 28 and 29 (Auckland), to discuss why caring for our environment is an issue of justice.

Dr Salinger, based at the School of Geography, University of Otago, has been one of the foremost voices on climate change in New Zealand. For more than 35 years he has studied climate change and variability in New Zealand, linking climate trends with natural and human causes. Among his many achievements, Dr Salinger has examined future impacts of climate and climate change and edited the book – Living on a Warmer World.

Dr Salinger said New Zealanders should be worried about climate change and be pushing for bigger reductions in climate emissions. “Alarmingly, 15 of the 16 highest monthly temperature departures on record, globally, have all occurred since February 2015. This tells us that temperatures are rising quickly to critical and unsustainable levels.”

He said New Zealand’s ice caps were a great indicator of the impact that climate change was having here. “Due to global warming, New Zealand has seen a decline of a staggering four-fifths of its permanent snow and ice since the 1890s.”

Oram will speak on issues of sustainability in business. “People all over the world are beginning to make the most profound shift in thinking in human history and hopefully soon we will achieve a critical mass of people who realise that the health of our natural environment is critical to our survival,” said Oram. “Cleaner technologies can play a part in environmental protection and sustainability and the shift worldwide was well under way due to changing behaviour by consumers, investors and companies.”

However, he believed the change in New Zealand had been slower.

“Over the next 20 years we'll experience transformations of a speed, complexity and scale unprecedented in human history. We need such radical change if we are to meet our environmental, social and economic challenges.”

The Justice Conference NZ is being held in Auckland on October 28 and 29 at the Salvation Army Auckland Corps Centre in Mt Wellington. Speakers include, international speakers Micah Bournes, Eugene Cho, Danielle Strickland, Joel McKerrow, and conference founder Ken Wytsma. Key New Zealand speakers include, Bishop Justin Duckworth and Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft.

The Justice Conference is presented by Tearfund. For more information or to book tickets for The Justice Conference, please visit http://www.thejusticeconference.org.nz

ENDS

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