Newsletter September 2025
Tēnā koutou katoa
In this Newsletter:
We’ve been busy producing some excellent webinars…
New Webinar on 18 September
Book review: “Less is More”
We’ve been busy with some excellent webinars over the last few months about the ever-growing climate emergency, and broader issue of ecological overshoot. If you’ve missed some of these webinars, they are on the OCD website. If you have seen them, please tell your friends and family about them. Spread the word!
We’ve covered how the actuarial profession (a very conservative group) approaches the existential risks we face from a deteriorating biosphere, how our national climate targets are aligned with what’s actually needed, and the latest research about how much worse the climate situation is than previously projected. There’s a consensus from various independent experts that things are getting worse and that policy makers are greatly underestimating the risks we face.
Some of our webinars have also looked at actions that both governments and communities can take to release the pressures we’re putting on natural systems, so they, and we, can thrive. Our September webinar will continue this trend, focusing on how art and creative thinking can help with the radical changes we so badly need.
September Webinar:
HOW CREATIVE THINKING AND CREATIVE ART POWERS CAN ACHIEVE RADICAL CHANGE
Jo Randerson, Founder and artistic director of Barbarian Productions (theatre company). See www.barbarian.co.nz for more information.
Date: Thursday September 18, 2025
Time: 7:00 PM
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83099304037?pwd=a3VOjsAYPaOvzuFZswEI2YZDznPhUk.1
For more information, go to
Book Review
Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World - Jason Hickel.
I read this book at the behest of another member of Our Climate Declaration. I’m glad I did.
Early on, Jason Hickel writes:
“Fredric Jameson once famously said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.” Then he describes in all its starkness, the terror we are facing as we destroy this planet and all that is on it. Buried in there is this statement:
“This is not a book about doom. It is a book about hope. It’s about how we can shift from an economy that’s organised around domination and extraction to one that’s rooted in reciprocity with the living world.”
Hence the title – “more is less” is the capitalist society that we all can’t imagine living outside of. “Less is more” is divided into many pathways, all of which lead to a post-capitalist world.
I finished this simple book with a completely different notion about what is normal and what is possible.
Perhaps Jason Hickel’s ability to make an existential crisis into a heart-warming story, has something to do with his childhood in Eswatini, much closer to the Rift Valley where we all emerged from, and adapted time and time again, as civilisations moved from one ecosystem to another completely different one. They told stories to one another, all the way.
You will enjoy reading it, and the one thing I took away most vividly is that the 500 years of taking more than we give back - has to end.
- Beverley Short
Join us
We need friends with inspiration, a passion for the future and some time to devote to behind-the-scenes work. We meet for about an hour by ZOOM every three weeks, but in between, we plan, and share ideas and information by email.
Join us, as an observer at our 3-weekly meetings. Email us at info@ourclimatedeclaration.org.nz so we can send you the link.