Symptoms too serious to ignore - Wise Response appeal launched
Wise Response has just been launched by Sir Alan Mark (Emeritus Professor at Otago University). It is an appeal to parliament, asking for a dispassionate and non-partisan risk assessment of the “unprecedented threats to our collective security” facing the country as a result of climate change, fossil fuel extraction and economic uncertainty. There are five risk areas:
1. Economic security: the risk of a sudden, deepening, or prolonged financial crisis.
2. Energy and climate security: the risk of continuing our heavy dependence on fossil fuels.
3. Business continuity: the risk exposure of all New Zealand business, including farming, to a lower carbon economy.
4. Ecological security: the risks associated with failing to genuinely protect both land-based and
marine ecosystems and their natural processes.
5. Genuine well-being: the risk of persisting with a subsidised, debt-based economy, preoccupied
with maximising consumption and GDP.
This appeal recognises that caring, informed people are now accepting that a healthy sustainable environment is integral to all life and that our future depends on having genuine sustainability as our core goal.
Signatories include (among many others - for full list see here: Signatories):
- Keri Hulme, Kai Tahu/makyr/writer, Okarito
- Morgan Williams, Former Parliamentary Commissioner, Nelson
- Alan F Mark, Professor emeritus, Botany, Dunedin
- Wayne Smith, Former All Black and assistant coach, Hamilton
- Lloyd Geering, Professor Emeritus, Religious Studies, Wellington
- Tamsin Cooper, Fashion Designer & TV Presenter, Dunedin
- Rick Boven, former Director of the NZ Institute, Auckland
- Celia Wade-Brown, Mayor, City Council, Wellington
To read more about Wise Response and to sign the appeal go to: http://wiseresponse.org.nz/
And to help collect signatures - download the petition form
Posted: 13/03/2013