Greenpeace Aotearoa says that the damage caused by this week’s Canterbury floods is yet another reminder of the risk of continuing to ignore the climate crisis fuelled by the intensive dairy industry.
This week, devastating floods swept through the Canterbury region, causing many at-risk areas in the Selwyn District to evacuate, and leading to the declaration of a state of emergency in Christchurch City and Banks Peninsula.
Greenpeace Aotearoa spokesperson Will Appelbe, who is based in Canterbury, says: “The damage caused by this extreme weather event is real, and will impact communities in Canterbury into the future. But neither is this the last time we will see flooding like this in our region.
“As the climate crisis continues, we can expect to see storms like the one that battered the country this week increasing in intensity and happening more often – unless we take action to stop climate change from getting worse.
“Here in Aotearoa, the worst climate polluter is the intensive dairy industry, led by Fonterra. The oversized dairy herd is belching out huge amounts of superheating methane gas, which heats the climate much faster than carbon dioxide.”
“But as we’ve seen repeatedly in Canterbury, farmers are also among the first to directly experience the consequences of the climate crisis – with extreme weather events flooding their farms, or droughts leading to dry pastures.”
“The way farming is done in Canterbury has to change. We need to transition away from intensive dairying that harms the climate and pollutes waterways, towards more ecological, plant-based farming practices. And Fonterra and our Government need to support that transition.”
Since the 2023 election, Christopher Luxon’s Government has rolled back numerous policies that would have reduced New Zealand’s impact on the climate crisis, including several in the agricultural sector.
“Cantabrians are seeing the consequences of inaction on climate change today,” says Appelbe. “This Government’s decisions have prioritised profit for a select few over a liveable future for us all.”
“Luxon must show some leadership and reverse the anti-nature decisions he has made, particularly when it comes to our country’s worst climate polluter – the agricultural industry. Otherwise, the climate crisis will only get worse.”
Greenpeace says that some of the communities being evacuated in the wake of this flood are also dealing with nitrate-contaminated drinking water as a result of intensive dairying.
“If we change the way farming is done, we can prevent the worst of the climate crisis by reducing methane pollution from intensive dairy, and we can protect drinking water, lakes and rivers here in Canterbury, which are under threat from intensive dairy pollution.”
