The Crucial Decade - Nelson Arts Festival

Kim Hill invites Paul Tapsell (Te Arawa, Tainui), Mike Joy, Dave Lowe and Kera Sherwood-O’Regan (Kāi Tahu) to explain how we can respond to the climate crisis and transform our lands, waterways and communities.

Our four panellists all agree that, when it comes to climate, there is no time to delay and we must act now, but what does action look like?

In Kāinga: People, Land, Belonging (BWB Texts) Paul Tapsell looks at the legacy of colonisation and how alienation from traditional Māori settlements and whenua (land) has become part of a wider story of environmental degradation and system collapse. He argues that only a complete step-change, one that embraces kāinga, can transform our lands and waterways, and potentially become a source of inspiration to the world.

In both Inherited Pollution and Mountains to the Sea (both published by BWB Texts) leading freshwater ecologist in Aotearoa Mike Joy calls for governments to listen to climate scientists and explores how we all need to play our part in supporting a shift away from growth at any cost.

Pre-2020, an alarmist was someone who exaggerated a danger, thus needlessly causing worry or panic, while today it describes someone who justifiably raises the alarm about a global danger to the Earth’s biosphere. In The Alarmist: Fifty Years Measuring Climate Change (THWUP), which won the E.H. McCormick Prize for a best first work of General Non-Fiction, Dave Lowe explains what he’s learned from 50 years of climate research and why he’s hopeful young people can make a difference.

Disability activist Kera Sherwood-O’Regan (contributor to Climate Aotearoa, published by Allen & Unwin) invites us all to consider how climate change will impact on health and community participation, particularly for those who are already marginalised.

This event is part of the 2022 Nelson Arts Festival.