Editorial

Abstract

Politics is big news at the moment. The resignation of the recent British Prime Minister over Brexit; the US President steam-rolling all-comers on whatever doesn’t suit his agenda; Australians still scratching their heads over the recent land slide victory of the Liberal party (in what was touted as the ‘Climate Election’ and a shoo-in for Labour); and an unprecedentedly large number of Google searches by Australians …‘relocating to New Zealand’ (Interestingly a news poll prior to the recent Australian Federal election noted that if the current New Zealand Prime Minister was running for office in Australia, she would have won!). All this ‘news’ distracts from the biggest issue the world is currently experiencing – that of climate change. The more extreme or unusual weather events become, the more species that disappear, ice sheets that disintegrate and islands that submerge, the greater the distraction away from the issue. But, the effects of climate change are making small inroads into mainstream media. Recently, several New Zealand cities (Christchurch, Nelson, Auckland, Hawkes Bay) declared “climate emergencies”, following the same declaration in the UK.