{"id":4956,"date":"2019-01-03T18:45:52","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T06:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/new-zealand\/?p=4956"},"modified":"2024-07-12T09:02:15","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T21:02:15","slug":"in-difficult-times-hope-is-an-act-of-courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/in-difficult-times-hope-is-an-act-of-courage\/","title":{"rendered":"In difficult times, hope is an act of courage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flooding in Japan, unprecedented\u00a0monsoons<\/a>\u00a0in India, a nearly 30% increase in\u00a0rainfall<\/a> throughout the Americas and 40% across Europe. Africa is seeing deadly droughts<\/a> across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. Australia, Greece, Sweden, Portugal and the American Northwest\u2019s horizons glowed red with\u00a0wildfires<\/a>\u00a0because of heatwaves and drier seasons. The Philippines and Fiji were battered by some of the worst\u00a0cyclones<\/a>\u00a0in history and the Maldives and the Marshall Islands are gradually drowning by\u00a0sea level rise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This was our reality in 2018.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\"California<\/p>\n

A Super Scooper firefighting plane makes a water drop during the Holy Fire near Lake Elsinore, California. \u00a9 David McNew \/ Greenpeace<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The reason is simple: burning fossil fuels creates climate changing emissions. Climate change exacerbates extreme weather events. Yet, we continue to burn fossil fuels like\u00a0never before<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0forests are disappearing<\/a>\u00a0at a rate of roughly 27 football (soccer) fields a minute. In real and frightening numbers, that\u2019s 18.7 million acres to create more farms to feed more livestock and plant more palm oil.\u00a0Cutting down trees<\/a>\u00a0not only deprives us of a natural way to absorb carbon dioxide, it decimates local communities who rely on the forest for survival.<\/p>\n

Coastal populations are being pillaged by industrial fishing fleets, hell-bent on catching anything that moves in the sea. 127 million tonnes of fish \u2014 not to mention bycatch, like dolphins, sharks and sea-turtles \u2014 \u00a0was\u00a0taken out of our oceans<\/a>\u00a0in 2016 alone.<\/p>\n

\"Fathers<\/p>\n

Due to industrial and illegal overfishing, Senegalese fishermen now have to venture farther and farther out to sea, risking their lives in the process. \u00a9 Cl\u00e9ment Tardif \/ Greenpeace<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The science is crystal clear,\u00a0we have 12 years<\/a>\u00a0to turn things around.<\/p>\n

We need to ask ourselves, as a species and as part of a global and interconnected planetary ecosystem; what is our role in all of this? Suicide by consumption, or stewards of a healthy and prosperous future for all species?<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s the latter, we will need to accept three grim but simple truths:<\/p>\n