My sit spot has gotten colder. It’s now autumn in Dunedin, and while fall here quite frankly cannot compete with a New England fall, the changing colors in the trees are also very beautiful. The view of town from my sit spot in the Botanic Gardens is dotted with orange and yellow in the trees. The cold wind is howling louder in my ears, though there are days where the sun is beating down on me midday. They were not joking about experiencing all 4 seasons in a day in Dunedin. The water is still rushing at the same speed, and I still get to experience the fluttering of bird wings, though not to the same extent as I experienced in the summer. What is kind of funny is how some flowers are still blooming strong despite the cold: for example, the flower garden in the Botanic Gardens is still full of color, and the roses and hydrangeas outside my window are still beautiful shades of pink, white, and red. There are constant reminders of both summertime and impending winter in my surroundings, which is a sharp contrast to the weather in Boston or NYC. 

A Kiwi initiative I hear about the most often is Predator Free 2050, a project that aims to eradicate introduced predators such as mustelids, rats, and possums. A really interesting fact I learned about New Zealand early on was that it does not have any native land mammals, so you can imagine that the introduction of these predators can wreak havoc on NZ’s ecosystems. Going on hikes around New Zealand, I see a lot of predator traps set up to help with this problem. When I went to Stewart Island (New Zealand’s third largest island), there were many signs about bringing about “Predator Free Rakiura”. I feel these programs trying to eliminate these introduced predators is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) initiatives surrounding the New Zealand environment.

In regard to climate change, New Zealand has also passed legislation such as the 2002 Climate Change Response Act, which was then amended in 2019 with the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act. The 2019 Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act primarily targets greenhouse gas emissions, with the goal of reaching 0 net emissions of all greenhouse gases (except biogenic methane) by the year 2050. The act also affirms New Zealand’s role within the Paris Climate Agreement, which the U.S. has pulled out of this year. However, New Zealand’s emissions goals for 2030-2035 have been deemed by some as “unambitious”, as it requires New Zealand emissions to fall by only 1 percentage point. The article I reference also discusses how many other countries have not set ambitious enough goals, which makes it interesting to think about the impact larger and richer countries have on making actual progress with their climate goals. I am currently working on a presentation for my environmental philosophy class about having climate optimism given factors such as international decreased reliance on fossil fuels and plummeting renewable energy costs, but combining these perspectives makes me wonder how nations reconcile with their individual climate goals and their international contribution to climate change.