What are your concerns
and hopes for nature?
Sharing your worries and hopes is powerful. All the stories shared here will become part of the growing conversation about the concerns and hopes for nature of people living in Aotearoa New Zealand. They will be shared* to encourage more people to be brave and speak up for nature.
*Your stories will become part of the collective conversation, and may be moderated and/or edited for brevity before appearing publicly. Stories or parts of stories may be shared in communications materials. Greenpeace believes you have a right to privacy on the web, and your data is safe with us. See our data privacy policy here.
There’s less fish every year, look at the state of the rivers. We’ve just taken it all for granted. We need to find a way back to looking after the land – who’s going to make the tough decisions about how we do right by our next generation?
We design these modern cities, but where does nature fit in? We need more than just tweaks to find a balance between society and the environment. Where’s the systems thinking?
Our leaders are not leaders. Shayne Jones said that Maui dolphin were just little Hectors dolphins and were not another species. There are 50 Maui left, but he needs more fish and chips. Yum Yum…Yuk
i’m scared about oil exploration restarting. What will happen to the penguins?
I’m concerned about the sustainability of our food production. Soon we’re going to reach a tipping point where we won’t have quality land and soil to grow nutritious food. And clean, fresh, drinkable water will be a thing of the past.
One of the scariest things about the world right now is the terrifying rush to mine the deep Pacific ocean… Surely in the midst of a climate crisis, destroying one of our biggest allies is a terrible idea…
I find it really hard to see what my rural neighbours are doing with their properties. They use poisons just to make nature look tidy; they use animals to keep the grass; there’s a lack of bugs and biodiversity, nowhere for birds to live. They rely on the local forest nearby probably without understanding the benefits of it. They look at our property and think its untidy because the grass is long.
This whakatauki from tangata whenua reflects how I feel:
Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei – Seek the treasure you value most dearly: if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain….
I think we need to remember we are in it for the long game and aiming for the lofty mountain of a greener more sustainable world. I am frustrated that nature is not being valued in the same way as the built environment but I am not going to bow my head down, I am in for the long game and seeing lots of awesome local initiatives, our local council endorsing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty proposal, repair cafes, sustainability workshops, compost sharing initiatives.
I feel like some people are so willing and easily able to abandon nature in favour of exploiting it. Narratives like “but we need it for X” just seem so backwards and selfish. It really worries me that there isn’t more protection for our environment and the people in charge are corrupt enough not to care
I have grave concerns and I’m worried that individual actions in my daily life, such as separating waste, and considering public transport where appropriate, aren’t enough to protect nature and the environment. I welcome guidance and leadership around real action that can be taken.
The loss of animal species as well as overall animal welfare
In Cambridge, Waipa, the Tree fund is constantly spraying the trees on public spaces without acknowledging the danger that glyphosate and round up products entail for humans, pets and natural life.
We worry about Nature, but we don’t take the simplest of steps to reduce single use plastic lids:
refuse the lid,
drink enough to make it safe to carry,
then go and sit down,
feel good about DOING something for Nature.
If I am not prepared to take small simple steps, how can I expect others to take the big steps necessary?
Globally we’re facing a choice between planned degrowth and societal collapse. Yet most people I know simply refuse to even talk about it, especially if their lifestyle (consumerism, road trips, flying) is challenged.
I’m hopeful that we will adopt better forms of energy like nuclear energy.
When are we all going to realise that Nature is the Essence of our being. “NUTURE NATURE & NATURE WILL NUTURE YOU!!!”
Cleaning up our rivers & lakes so the fish, creatures & plants that once thrived there can return. We must stop putting poison & crap into our waterways … so our tamariki & mokopuna can swim & play in them.
Heavier more frequent rains, storms in future. We’ve had a slip on our property in Central Auck during Gabriel. We are yellow stickered and not being ‘bought out’ by govt either so where does that leave us?
Climate change and the vested interests, including politicians who spot weasel words. I am 82 so unlikely to be really affected but I am very concerned for my whānau and the future of the planet. We are a self absorbed profligate species
I worry that this government is going to undo all the good work that the previous one did. I worry that greed for fossil fuels and so called precious minerals will take priority over the health of our sea beds.
Without a healthy environment, we can’t have a healthy economy. A point ignored by a lot of politicians.
Planting and clear felling of pines and slash not being removed.
Too many people, let’s NOT encourage more than 2 children.
Compulsory solar panels in all new builds. More wind turbines.
At the same time we’re battling plastic bags and bottles and trying to push back against oil exploration, we’re still surrounded by so much fossil-fuel based plastic. It’s so cheap to create polyester thread that the clothes made of that fabric is generally much cheaper than natural fibre, or processed plant-based fibre like viscose (from bamboo). The answer is not to make plastic based fabric more expensive, which would only further disadvantage those in poverty. The answer is to support non-plastic fabric production so it can compete better on price, and to educate people about the impact of their choices. In the end, people will choose what they can afford, so the ecologically better choices need to be more affordable.
I’m concerned that there is a seemingly infinite supply of money for weapons and yet so little funding to save our planet
We have indeed run out of time. Gaia should persist but any form of advanced technological society will surely be over as we cross 3°C of warming in say five or ten decades. I have campaigned for climate protection as a citizen for 33 years now. Had we started to decarbonize in earnest two decades ago we might have had a chance .. but we didn’t. I am an energy system modeler. I know what rapid decarbonization could and should look like. Even with the best will in the world, there is now no available solution space. Moreover, adaptation and recovery will come to dominate over mitigation, thereby compounding the problem. I still fight for every tenth of a degree of warming .. but for Gaia and no longer for humanity. It’s over for our diversity of human societies. The end will doubtless come quite quickly, spanning just a couple of generations or so. No one can map out the details of this travesty .. but the overall dynamic is clear and cast. Why, you ask, did we not heed the warnings from the IPCC in the 1990s? My answer is that only a very few people can think in sufficiently abstract terms to recognize a compromised climate and biosphere as a threat.
My country of origin is Aotearoa.
Living half my life overseas give me a greater appreciation of the beauty of this country.
Sadly, living also in a number of Pacific countries, more threatened by sea level change, I note that there seems very little effort in those nations to fight pollution. Some are floating rubbish dumps!
I feel strongly that New Zealand should be signing the non proliferation of fossil fuels treaty -to protect our Pacific neighbours and ourselves from climate change.
I’m concerned that people can do stuff like drive down riverbeds, killing the chicks of endangered birds and nobody with any power says “Not Okay, you can’t do that.”
Why do we allow vehicles on our pristine beaches here in the far north I. Go to some amazing beachs no one around stunning surroundings only for the tranquility be destroyed by big four wheel drives tearing up the sand destroying the environment!!!
We hope more more people will realise that we could actually have better, healthier, more joyful lives by connecting with each other, with nature, finding balance, gratitude and joy in the real stuff of life, rather than the distraction, overconsumption and inequality of our culture. Learning to say ‘I have enough’ is key, and then turning outwards to help those who don’t have enough, and outwards to nature which needs our kaitiakitanga and care.
The new government looks like it will follow Key and cut DOC funding, which will cut the care of the assets that many visitors to Aotearoa, admire more than anything. These visitors bring in huge overseas funds. Not looking after such an economic asset is financial madness, from a government that claims it is the best at financial management. BS absolutely
We are not taking care of nature so it is rebell!ng!!!
Lack of regeneration of wetlands, methods of agriculture, rewilding of native forests, deer, possums, predators in forests, seabed trawling, introduced marine pests, greenhouse gasses and fossil fuels, neglect of rail network, freight and passenger services, community siting in unsafe areas, spread of conspiracy misinformation on social media, populist political propaganda, lack of critical thinking/skills, and spread of and succumbing to fear in an increasing number of the population, generally spread over the country.
I’m concerned about the spread of housing developments into greenfields which causes loss of open and natural spaces for our native birds and animals and the need for more cars on the road. Lifestyle blocks pop-up everywhere in our rural areas, instead of building houses for people that have none.
Motorist thirst for bigger cars is erasing emissions gains, says study _ Stuff.co.nz
and Auckland no roads for car and no Bus transport so
in 5 to 10 years we need to get out of Auckland ?
I worry about our world heating up to impossible temperatures that will render habitats of all the creatures apart from ourselves unliveable. All those creatures of both land and sea will gradually perish, leaving only one species: human. Existing alone, we will fail to survive for long without the dense network of nature around us. This will constitute just one tragedy, but all the other tragedies of loss will precede ours.
Everything that relates to the environment is of great concern to me i.e. the poor state of our rivers, waterways & lakes, climate change, deep sea oil mining, mining on NZ soil (especially on conservation land!), overfishing, high & ruthless bycatch, wild pigs, deer, possums & goats devastating our native forests & inhabitants, native species under the threat of extinction (due to many of the factors mentioned above), too many pine forests, not enough native forests, native forests being felled, bad farming practices e.g. high nitrogen levels in soil, too many cows etc…there are just SO many things we should ALL be concerned about & voicing those concerns openly to drive for positive change.
It also irks me when people continuously use the “for future generations” blurb when discussing why it’s important to make positive changes to help nature. This is, without doubt, reference to the future generations of HUMAN New Zealanders & making sure things are available to them once we’re no longer here. No one EVER says “for future generations of whales” (or Kakapo or forest etc). It always has a human element to emphasise that good changes should be made in order that “we” benefit from it. The animals & plants that WE have damaged & destroyed should be at the forefront of positive change. WE should only benefit as a by-product of that change, especially as WE are the cause for it’s collapse in the first place.
I am so tired of politicians talking on and on about GDP. Endless extraction and consumerism is making our precious precious planet uninhabitable. We need a new vision for what it means to thrive as a country, as a society, as people on Earth.
Let’s save nature!
My concern is that the new coalition government seems determined to roll back protection for the environment and extract any resources it can monetise. I know lots of people who are worried about the backward focus of the government, but don’t know what to do. I feel that all environmental organisations should co-ordinate their actions to protest against government actions, like returning to the 1991 RMA legislation, and encourage the Green Party to strengthen its focus on environmental issues. (Prior to the election the Greens seemed to focus more on social justice issues.) The coalition parties have no understanding that the quality of our natural environment affects all of us, including businesses and farming. Their spokespeople talk as if the natural environment is a separate identity and often speak of ‘balancing’ the environment with economic activity, which usually means extracting resources and degrading the environment in the process. They need to be called out for this falsehood.
I worry that too many people are distracted by being ‘busy’, consumerism and their devices to realise that what makes our lives truly meaningful and liveable is literally being destroyed around us. I am horrified by this government’s plans to reverse the few wins we have made and that all the mahi that is needed is falling on individuals and communities because governments and big corporates globally are focused on short-term profiteering at the expense of what’s best for all of us. I really wish and hope that more people will wake up and understand that there is no economy – or mental and physical health – without a healthy environment and that this is a fight not (just) for our planet’s future but for our own survival.