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Tough times in utopia

23 Jun 2021 | OP ED Watch

Swiss voters just rejected a carbon tax, confirming that, as the Wall St. Journal editorialized without pulling punches, “Climate alarmists continue to have a big problem: democracy. Every time voters are presented with something close to the actual costs of achieving draconian CO2 emissions targets, they say no.” But the alarmists’ problems don’t end there. Down in New Zealand, whose aspirations to cut GHG emissions are as vast as its achievements in this regard are tiny, the local chapter of Thunberg-inspired School Strike 4 Climate just disbanded because it realized it was a “racist” and “white-dominated space”. The revolution notoriously devours its children. But it’s not quite so often that they eat themselves. And even less likely to inspire trust that after dissolving because of their appalling personal and social failings they can save the rest of us from ourselves.

“‘BIPOC communities are disproportionately affected by climate change, so the fight for climate justice should be led by their voices and needs, not Pākehā [white New Zealander] ones,’ the group wrote on Facebook. ‘We are disbanding because, since 2019, SS4C AKL (as well as the wider national group, though we can’t speak on their behalf) has been a racist, white-dominated space.’” Then they accused themselves of “years of systemic and systemic oppression.” Or of “actions on top of” same. Or something.

The national group, School Strike NZ, which calls itself “the New Zealand movement of Greta Thunberg’s strikes in Europe” and on whose behalf the Auckland chapter cannot speak except to confess that they are smugly loathsome bigots, responded somewhat gingerly. One of the founders, coordinator of the group in 2019, told Britain’s Guardian that “There is a real need to cede space to Indigenous-led kaupapa [policy] and to transform the movement so that it can properly uphold the collective aspiration of climate justice” but “I’m a little concerned that this sends a message of division or that not everyone is needed.” Or that you’re a bunch of lunatics.

If there’s a need for you no-good Pakeha to “cede space” to some kaupapa, why aren’t you doing it? If the planet needs saving, why go about wailing “We’re not worthy” instead of getting behind someone with the right genetics? And if by some mischance the most appropriate leader at the moment happens to be melanin-challenged, for instance ardent climate alarmist Jacinda Ardern, why not save the planet and then do the social justice thing after lunch? Did it turn out reality was just too hard for you?

Possibly. School Strike NZ also approvingly noted that “Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern claimed that climate change is ‘our generation’s Nuclear Free moment’”. Which might reveal more than it intended, since going nuclear-free in the face of the rising menace from China and Russia just means sheltering behind the American, British and French arsenals with sanctimonious hypocrisy. New Zealand, a somewhat lonely outpost of freedom a long way from help, has an air force with no fighter planes, a navy whose nine ships include a hydrographic survey vessel, and an army with under 5,000 full-time soldiers. Maybe Australia can save them.

5 comments on “Tough times in utopia”

  1. New Zealand seems to be the woke-hypocrite country of the southern hemisphere that Canada is on the northern one. Just to keep the world in balance, I suppose.

  2. Really, you couldn't make this up, and if you did people just wouldn't believe it. Is the Auckland chapter of School Strike for Climate saying that Greta is a racist, or are they saying that racism is a bigger problem than climate change?

  3. Always the little countries that have a big country close by to protect them should the real world cause any problems.

  4. My country continues to embarrass me. New Zealand, which was always of a socialist bent, got seriously taken over by the Marxists through the universities from the 70's and 80's onwards and is now a living, breathing cringey meme of epic proportions.

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