Reflections

A new chapter has begun in our journey. Last Saturday we left Tauranga, where we have been working for the past months. We'd like to say thank you one more time to our extremely helpful and generous flatmate Matt in Mt Maunganui. It was lots of fun flatting with you. We're looking forward to be able to act as hosts when you get to Finland.

At the time of writing we are in the capital of NZ - Wellington. We didn't, however, drive here straight from Tauranga, but made a couple of days' detour to the volcano Mt Taranaki on the west coast on our way down. We'll write about what we experienced there in another blog post pretty soon, but now I'll just say a few words about what I've experienced in Tauranga while living there.

It is with some sadness I'm leaving the life in the Mount and the fund raising job for Greenpeace behind. The past three months have been pretty good for me. It was nice to settle down for a while after having traveled for nearly two months. It was nice to have a room of my own, and a BED of my own :) It's remarkable how important that bed is for making you feel at home when you think about it... Anyway, I also enjoyed living only minutes away from a gorgeous beach, and going to the gym regularly.

The Tauranga door team. It was fun working with u guys!

From a long term perspective, however, the most significant thing for me during the past months has been my job. Even before becoming "the Greenpeace Man" who knocks on doors and talks about saving the whales and ancient forests, I had my concerns about the environment. Especially about climate change. But, like most people out there, I wasn't aware of the breadth of the destruction, nor how bad things really are. That has changed, and I am now horrified of the prospects of the future, even though there is still hope for this planet. I could probably spend the rest of the evening and the whole night telling you of all the wickedness going on and dropping one mind blowing fact after another, but I'm just going to settle for a few:

Did you know we only have 20% of the Earth's ancient (original native) forests left? Did you know that fish stocks all around the world are collapsing due to destructive fishing methods like trawling, and that by 2048 we will have no seafood left in our oceans? Did you know the north pole might be completely without ice cover summertime in five years time due to global warming? Did you know extreme weather conditions like floods and droughts due to climate change have massive economic impacts (e.g. the drought in the Waikato area in NZ a year ago cost the farming sector 1.24 billion dollars!)? Did you know that a third of all plant and animal life on Earth faces extinction by 2050 due to climate change?

I could go on and on, and I haven't even mentioned genetically engineered food or what's wrong with today's food business and all the additives and shit we are pushed to eat by the big food producers. When it comes to food, there is an excellent book by Felicity Lawrence I think everyone should read. It's called "Eat your heart out - Why the food business is bad for the planet and your health". It will change how you look at food, I promise you!

In all this doom and gloom, there is still a sliver of hope. Climate change is the perfect opportunity for a revolution of how we humans think of the environment in this modernised and industrialised world. The old system of exploitation and abuse is obviously not working anymore. Maximising profits with no regard for the consequences on the environment is not viable in the long run. We need to change, to evolve, before it's too late. Otherwise our children and grandchildren will grow up in a world where the oceans are dead, the ancient forests are gone, fresh water is scarce, an increasing number of people face starvation and the climate is unrecognisable.

The good news though is that the solutions to climate change already exist, we just need to implement them. We need to drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by, for instance, shifting to renewable energy sources and invest in novel energy efficient technologies. We have only 8-10 years to significantly reduce our emissions unless we want to risk dramatic and unpredictable changes to the climate. This is why the UN summit on climate change taking place in Copenhagen in December 2009 is so important. We need to make sure that the delegates of all nations going there take climate change seriously and are there to act and not just talk b#llshit. It's basically the last chance the leaders of the world have to tackle climate change, so you should get your voice heard NOW! It would be fantastic of you to join an environmental organisation like Greenpeace, but I'm not going to ask that of you since I know everyone can't afford it (although it often is a matter of choice). I am, however, going to ask of you to do what you can in your local community; put pressure on your local representative, sign petitions, recycle, be more energy efficient, reuse stuff, say no to plastic bags, favour locally grown and organic food, eat less meat, fish and dairy products, participate in protest marches for the environment and sign up for FREE emails from Greenpeace to keep you informed of what's going on (either through the international site or from your own national site - FI).

DEMAND ACTION! After all, it is ultimately not the planet we are fighting for, it is life - human, animal and plant - as we know it right now that is in jeopardy.

Now I know there are still you skeptics out there. In my job as a fundraiser I've talked to thousands of people. Some are deeply concerned, some ignorant, and some just have the facts mixed up. Climate change is no longer a matter of belief, it is a matter of fact. If any of you advocates-of-business-as-usual want a debate with me, bring it on! :)

Although my job for Greenpeace is currently at an end, it doesn't mean I don't care about the environment any more. The job has taught me so much it has become impossible for me to ignore what we are really facing. In the future I will most certainly be involved in environmental protection, if not professionally, then at least in my spare time. Why? If for nothing else, then because I don't want to some day have to face my grandchild's question:

"What the hell were people thinking?"

Photo credit: Roger Grace/Greenpeace

Any opinions and factual mistakes above are mine alone. I can dig the references for you if anyone wants to know where it all comes from.

Customer service - NOT!

Some of you might have been wondering why we haven't written any new blog posts in a while. The reason is that my laptop broke down just after Christmas. Suddenly when I tried to turn it on, the only signs of life emanating from it were the whirling sound of the fan and the power indicator turning green. Otherwise it was just about as alive and dynamic as a cold rock.

Now, after three weeks of battling with Acer Support, the laptop is up and running as normal again. No thanks to Acer's support service though; after my initial contact and their decision to have it picked up for service by a courier, I didn't hear anything from them for weeks. Last week followed by an angry enquiry by me wondering what the hell is happening, some support dude woke up and actually told me he'd look into it.

Yesterday when still no courier had contacted me I got tired of waiting and decided to do some googling. Turned out other people were having the same issue with their Aspire Ones too, and it wasn't a hardware malfunction as I had thought. Instructions on how to fix the problem were not hard to find, so after buying a USB memory stick and flashing the BIOS, the laptop worked like a charm again with all data intact!

The ironic thing is, that an hour later the courier (finally) appeared on my doorstep, ready to drive the unit to the airport to be shipped to Acer's repair facility in Sydney.

I'm glad I dodged that bullet.