Climate rescue bus Oamaru bound

PRESS RELEASE: November Monday 12 2007

A new national campaign aimed at inspiring thousands of New Zealanders to help tackle climate change rolls into Oamaru on Wednesday.

The Be the Change campaign - and associated nation-wide bus tour - aims to get tens of thousands of New Zealanders active in tackling climate change.

The Be the Change campaign is spearheaded by Greenpeace, Oxfam and Forest & Bird, and is joining with community groups and individuals to inspire all New Zealand into lessening their personal impact on the climate.

Via its website – www.bethechange.org.nz - the campaign has already encouraged hundreds of New Zealanders to make changes in their lives and share their experiences with others.

The campaign was launched on October 26th in Auckland by television personalities Robyn Malcolm and Francesca Price, and will be taken around the country over the next six weeks, It kicked off in Bluff earlier this week and ends in Whangarei on December 12th. The bus arrives in Oamaru tomorrow.

The bus runs on biodiesel blend sourced from tallow (a byproduct of meat production) and everything onboard runs on solar power. It includes a mobile exhibition of impacts and causes of climate change, an opportunity to learn about everyday solutions, and a web centre where people can sign up on the spot to Be The Change.

An open day will be held at Takaro Park on Wednesday. See below for details.

The Climate Rescue bus tour associated with Be The Change began in Bluff and is heading North meeting a load of people and groups along the way who are already tackling climate change with various solutions and want to spread the word.

“There are already many people around New Zealand doing great things,” says Be the Change campaigner Jo McVeagh. “Be The Change aims to capture and showcase these initiatives and show there's a growing movement of people who care about climate change, in order to inspire others to take action.

“The risk is people think the climate change problem is too big. It’s not. Every little bit helps and once you get a whole lot of people making small changes, it really makes a difference. This really is an all-hands-on-deck moment. We're all in this together so we all need to be involved in the solutions.”

LOCAL OPEN DAY

Takaro Park: Wednesday 14 November, 10am- 5pm.

OTAGO AND CLIMATE CHANGE.

Climate change is said to be the single biggest threat that’s ever faced civilization. One of the reasons for this is that it affects every person and organism living in every country on every continent, Otago included!
The region will see changes in average temperature, sea level rise and rainfall patterns. Climate scientists estimate Otago's temperature could be up to 2.5°C warmer over the next 70-100 years. This compares to a temperature increase in New Zealand during last century of about 0.7°C. To put this in perspective, the 1997/98 summer, which many New Zealanders remember as particularly long, hot and dry, was only about 0.9°C above New Zealand's average for the 1990s.

Coastal North Otago could be up to 10% drier while the rest of the region could be wetter - up to 30% wetter in inland Otago. The region as a whole is likely to experience more varied rainfall patterns and flooding could become up to four times as frequent by 2070.

The effects of climate change may bring significant costs to the community. If extreme weather events become more frequent or severe, the costs and damages associated with them are also likely to increase. The cost of dealing with stock losses, replacing or repairing damaged roads, bridges, houses and stormwater drains, and dealing with increased soil erosion and loss of soil nutrients can be formidable. Recent extreme weather events such as the Marlborough and Canterbury droughts, Cyclone Bola, the flooding in the Waikato/Coromandel area, and coastal flooding have shown how vulnerable our society and economy is to the weather and climate.

– sourced from : http://www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/climate/about/climate-change-affect-regions/otago.html