Climate change doesn’t care for politics
This is an article written by our Pat Baskett and Joanna Santa Barbara. Click here to read it on Newsroom.
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This is an article written by our Pat Baskett and Joanna Santa Barbara. Click here to read it on Newsroom.
No posts
The government doesn’t have the financial resources to build new motorways estimated at $50-60 billion, without making significant cuts to other budgets.
However, the actual financial cost may be minor in comparison to the environmental and health impacts from emissions of continued dependency on private vehicles.
Marine researchers now understand that driving is also contributing to New Zealand’s single largest source of marine microplastic pollution, according to Dr Samantha Ludwig, a marine microplastics researcher at the University of Auckland. “Now among the World’s most pervasive pollutants, microplastics are fragments smaller than five millimetres, formed as everyday materials break down into ever-tinier pieces, turning up in our rainwater, food and air”.
The recent reduction in emission controls by the coalition government has also led to people increasingly opting for heavier vehicles, like SUVs and utes, that increase the rate of particle shedding.
Simply choosing smaller, lighter vehicles could make a difference. But the biggest opportunity that the current Government is ignoring is shifting trips to buses, rail and active modes, which could enable people to go car-free, reduce congestion and slash emissions and per-person tyre pollution, and with it the microplastics washing into our harbours.
Yes, indeed, thanks. I have written a 'comment' on this article and also put it onto my blog:
lettrersbyrwk.wordpress.com