Tue, 03 Aug 2010 5:03p.m.
By Abby Ward
Environmental activism has always affected my social life. Dubbed one of the ‘Green Teens’ by Nelson’s local media at the tender age of 13, my two friends and I became subject to verbal abuse both from our peers and through letters to the editor.
Our project, ‘Plastic-Not So Fantastic’ saw us spending more time with local supermarket managers than our friends. In 2005, our checkout chick mates begrudgingly wore bright green, frumpy tops with our logo on it. But despite our decreased popularity at school, we continued to increase our efforts for the environment, and one day dreamed that eco-awareness could be ‘in vogue’.
Why, I ask myself, has the label ‘environmentalist’ often been viewed as a euphemism for a tree-hugging hippy only too happy to chain themselves to native flora? This stereotype has often been employed to undermine our group’s environmental campaign and is ever-present in the climate change debate.
However, as was displayed by the 50,000 participants in the Auckland mining march, protecting our planet is becoming an increasingly mainstream issue. Arriving at the protest expecting the usual crowd of familiar faces, I was delighted to join a diverse mass of people, from drama groups imitating mining workers, to mathematical representations of the futility of the national park proposal. Cited as the ‘biggest protest in a generation’ by the New Zealand media, the flock filling Queen Street demonstrated the centrality of environmental issues to everyday New Zealanders, the importance of our ‘clean green’ image and gave me hope that my social status might just be on the rise.
Equally, climate change is not an issue simply to be addressed with diluted legislation and then put on the political back-benches.
Extreme weather patterns are already evident in the recent flooding on the East coast, which has destroyed roads, cut off power lines and provoked landslides. Climate changes will undoubtedly affect many areas of our lives, from a surge of Pacific Island refugees, the vulnerability of our land-based economy, to altering weather trends.
Instead of dismissing the issue as solely of concern for environmentalists, the problem must become mainstream in people’s minds, and mainstream on the political agenda. The more everyday New Zealanders that speak up, the faster we can smash the ‘green box’ of stereotypes and show real commitment to combating climate change.