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Let’s build a fleet of electric vehicles and call it Kiwicar? Either that or we hit the iceberg – Stuff.co.nz


OPINION: “If we don’t adapt to change, we’re going to be like Kodak,” said James Cameron, the Oscar winning film director and Wairarapa farmer this week.

He was in Taranaki, home of New Zealand’s last big economic leap forward into the fossil fuel business. He was at a summit exploring our economic possibilities of a zero carbon future, and he was imagining a world that might not want our climate-harming farm produce.

Bear in mind, this is a man who knows what can go wrong when you hit an iceberg you weren’t expecting.

A charging plug connects an electric vehicle (EV) to a charging station in London, England.

GETTY

A charging plug connects an electric vehicle (EV) to a charging station in London, England.

The Zero Carbon Act sees us being a net zero emitter of carbon by 2050 or sooner. You might say it looks a bit toothless. You might on the other hand say that what gets measured gets managed and boy do we have a need to get this thing managed. We need to emit less carbon, we need to emit less methane. We need to be doing things in new ways.

Specifically that means we have to get out of our fossil-fuelled vehicles, we have to stop using fossil fuels to make power, and we have to do something about our ruminant animals.

You can see this as sacrifice, you can see it as opportunity. It’s mostly a question of how much imagination you’re willing to use.

Good ideas come more readily to some of us than others. James Cameron can imagine a world where people have blue skin and tails and look extremely sexy and he can make millions out of the idea. He can even get you to wear 3D glasses in public.

We could be heading for  titanic trouble if we don't act to save the planet, says David Slack.

We could be heading for titanic trouble if we don’t act to save the planet, says David Slack.

But his powers of imagination might be more of a leap than the rest of us can manage, especially if your idea of thinking outside the box is to buy a rental in Matamata.

According to the the zero carbon website we can get most of the way to net zero using solutions that are already available: “moving towards 100% renewable electricity, improving our energy efficiency, electrifying our transport and heat systems, making more use of wood as an energy source, and converting more land to forests.”

But why settle for a little when there could be the opportunity to do a lot?

At the summit, James Cameron and his partner Suzy Amis Cameron enthused about emptying our paddocks of livestock and filling them with crops. They were thinking food, but I was immediately thrown back to a fond old dream: cannabis plantations from one end of the country to the other, with tourists riding through them down a 2,000km cycle trail, enjoying the birdsong.

David Slack dreams of cannabis plantations from one end of the country to the other, with tourists riding through them while enjoying the birdsong.

JASON DORDAY/STUFF

David Slack dreams of cannabis plantations from one end of the country to the other, with tourists riding through them while enjoying the birdsong.

New Plymouth’s mayor Neil Holdom talked about reinventing our energy system and the possibility of large private sector investment – tidal power perhaps, hydrogen, maybe. Bring it on.

I also like the idea that before long the world will be mostly driving electric vehicles and wonder: why not close the door on cheap Japanese imports? You may ask: what about the people who can only afford cars at that price and I will say: I’m glad you asked.

Once, we had the very good idea of getting the state to build houses and rent them to people at affordable prices. How about we buy or build a fleet of electric vehicles and do the same thing. Maybe call it KiwiCar. Maybe promise 100,000 of them.  I’m just rolling ideas around here.

The point is: if you’re going to do things in a new way, why not ask larger questions the way Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is doing with her Green New Deal.

Why not consider the larger ramifications of creating new clean-tech industries and new jobs on better terms and wind back the excesses and inequities of the past thirty years?

James Cameron, with his wife Suzy Amis Cameron, have advocated for emptying the paddocks of livestock and filling them with crops.

SIMON O’CONNOR/STUFF

James Cameron, with his wife Suzy Amis Cameron, have advocated for emptying the paddocks of livestock and filling them with crops.

We could settle for gradualism, and inertia and the possibility that things first have to get worse. But can’t we do better?

My wife works with smart people who spend a lot of time thinking about the future and investing in new possibilities. It’s a good place to be.

But she found herself a while ago writing about climate change possibilities and imagining a future in which we failed to do enough, and she thought about our daughter and her generation and what they might have to face and she sat at her computer and she wept.



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