THE FOSSILISED THINKING OF SHANE JONES

 

The Minister of Resources, Shane Jones, wants to 'turbocharge the economy' at the expense of the planet.  A lot of people don't agree with him.

AS THE LEVEL OF protest against the Government's intention to open up New Zealand to the fossil fuel industry has begun to ratchet up, so has the decibel volume on the big mouth of the Minister of Resources. But little of what Shane Jones has had to say has been illuminating. Describing his opponents as 'woke, riddled munchkins' or as followers of comic book hero the Green Lantern (go figure), will have done little to convince the electorate that they are not listening, in the words of Shakespeare, to 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.'

All the bluster coming from Shane Jones cannot disguise the fact that there is only limited local support for opening up the country to the fossil fuel multinationals. Outside the orbit of a few Government-friendly Newstalk ZB hosts and their right wing and ageing listeners, Jones is struggling to gain any real traction.

It's not been made any easier for Jones, with his opponents making it clear that the protests will roll on. In an open letter to the oil industry, Greenpeace have issued what amounts to a warning to the oil and gas multinationals:

'We will never allow offshore oil and gas exploration to recommence in Aotearoa.

'Nobody wants to see oil spilling into the sea and onto New Zealand’s coastlines and beaches, nor harming our precious wildlife. Nobody wants to see climate induced storms like Cyclone Gabrielle happening even more frequently, or more communities devastated by fires and floods.

'Your presence here would threaten not only New Zealand’s unique marine areas but the very future of life on Earth.

'You are not welcome here.

'We pledge to do everything we can to resist the oil and gas industry if the New Zealand government overturns the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration.'

In another statement of intention that Jones will also not appreciate, the former Minister of Energy, Megan Woods, has said that a future Labour Government would, once again, place a ban on oil and gas exploration.

Given the rising level of local opposition, the executives of the fossil fuel industry may well think twice about setting up camp in New Zealand. They would inevitably be faced with what could be euphemistically described as a 'challenging environment' and Shane Jones would certainly not welcome the global media attention that the protests would receive. It's worth noting that the fossil fuel corporates are not exactly clamouring at New Zealand's door.

In an effort to allow capital free rein to exploit New Zealand's resources, what Shane Jones calls 'turbocharging the economy', he is seeking to reverse the previous government's light regulations aimed at the creation of a low carbon economy. His reckless actions come at a time when the planet is burning up. 2023 was the hottest year on record and people around the world experienced wildfires, floods, severe storms and other natural disasters that can be attributed to climate change.

But the combined profit of oil giants ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP and Shell in 2023 totalled over $100 billion. The fossil fuel industry has not only shown a complete disregard for the harmful impact it is having on the environment, but it has also actively sought to undermine efforts to fight climate change. This is the industry that the Government is seeking to ally itself with.

In her book This Changes Everything: Capitalism versus The Climate, Naomi Klein writes: 'We can confront the economic order and try to replace it with something that is rooted in both human and planetary security, one that does not place the quest for growth and profit at all costs at its centre'.  While Shane Jones may want to persist with an old way of thinking, it's also not credible to propose that the beast that is dragging the planet over the cliff can be somehow be restrained. Market-based solutions do not offer a path to a secure future for all, and it remains a concern that organisations like Greenpeace (headed in New Zealand by former Green Party co-leader Russel Noman) continue to promote such a view.