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Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Hunting the 1%'s Doomsday Bunkers in New Zealand


Hadn't seen this before but a very interesting insight into what some (very, very rich) people are thinking and doing as talk of the End Times builds pace...


There's a growing literature on tech-eschatology where 'The Mindset' accepts we are living in the End Times. The biblical prophecies are echoed in the ways that unsustainable industrial capitalism has painted itself into a bleak corner and individuals' with the wealth and inclination frame their lives both as Sovereign and so fragile as to require investment in escape bunkers where they will wait out the apocalypse.

Hard rains' gonna fall.


Friday, May 09, 2025

We aren't all meant to Hunker in the Bunker...

 A constant refrain from environmentalists is that the current economic development approach is unsustainable as perpetual growth is impossible in a world of limited resources. Capitalism is leading humanity into, if not oblivion, then a very dark and frightening future.

I think we are misreading the situation.

First, financial and political elites are decidedly NOT climate deniers, given their strategies play to an acceptance of the end of life as we know it.

What we are witnessing is the shameless scramble for the world’s remaining resources, the deliberate exclusion of those considered undesirable (which seems to be the great majority of citizens), the reduction or elimination of programmes of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the mocking of any hint of social or environmental justice.

Second, we have proof of concept that humans are not bound by Plant Earth. Science fiction has become science faction. The discovery of Earth-like planets, the regular headlines 'life on Mars', celebrity space travel and so on show that wealthy elites no longer consider themselves constrained by earthly limits and are injecting billions of dollars into space research on the premise that we need ‘options’, yunno, just in case [insert latest apocalyptic scenario]. Planet Earth seems to be a lost cause to many powerful people, and they are voting with their money with the object of voting with their feet.

As Fredric Jameson noted (2003), it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

This appalling situation can be understood as a unique confluence of capitalism’s hellbent destructive innovation in the search for profit with the Christian eschatological appetite. Prior to becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger (1988) wrote a challenging text on the history of eschatology, the study of the ‘last things’, often interpreted as ‘the end times’, in which he reminds us that the preaching of Jesus was focused on the imminent end of the world which was not seen as a particularly distant event. Thy Kingdom Come[1]. The ongoing brutality visited upon Gaza present, for some, is the fulfilling of Biblical prophecy. One US Baptist pastor rejoiced in the genocide as “God has allowed us to see the day when His prophetic clock started running again. We are the generation to see the final biblical prophecies come to pass…The King is coming!” (Lavin, 2023).

What has this to do with the ramping up of unsustainable resource extraction?

Indigenous (Potawatomi) scholar Kyle Whyte (2017) describes the ongoing colonial oppression of Indigenous Peoples as an outcome of capitalism and industrialisation, particularly at the hands of the fossil fuels sector. He tags Garret Hardin’s Poverty of the Commons as framing an analysis of rich countries as being like lifeboats surrounded by drowning poor people – a result of deteriorating environmental and economic conditions. There is only so much space on a lifeboat and survivors have an obligation to prise the fingers of the drowning hordes from constrained safety. Is this not the argument of conservatives everywhere (though most volubly in the US) who see ‘hordes’ of immigrants threatening their (energy intensive) lifestyles? Build the wall.

But the creativity of capitalism is inseparable from its self-destruction.

The 2023 centre right/far right government of Aotearoa assumes the country is facing an existential threat of economic oblivion. This fear justifies the dilution or circumvention of standard parliamentary procedures (NZ slipped from 3rd to 4th in Transparency Internationals Corruption Index; Transparency International, 2024) and voters are mocked for their concerns over biodiversity (Mills, 2023) and privatisation (Shaw, 2025) and the stuttering progress on sustainability is poised to be dismantled.

Yet I see this fear sitting within a wider existential fear of a loss of their cultural identity, principally exemplified by a Māori renaissance, many decades in the making, that parallels other social movements of increasing ethnic diversity, non-binary genders and sexual fluidity, and women’s rights (the right to birth control and abortion are under threat in multiple liberal democratic and authoritarian states). Rich white people are losing control, and this is the disaster.

 

 

Jameson, F. (2003) ‘Future City’, New Left Review, (21), pp. 65–79.

Lavin, T. (2023) ‘These Evangelicals Are Cheering the Gaza War as the End of the World’, Rolling Stone, 17 November. Available at: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/gaza-war-evangelical-leaders-cheer-end-world-1234884151/ (Accessed: 8 May 2025).

Mills, L. (2023) Goodbye, minister tells frogs impeding mining | Otago Daily Times Online News. Available at: https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/west-coast/goodbye-minister-tells-frogs-impeding-mining (Accessed: 25 February 2025).

Ratzinger, J. (1988) ‘Introduction: the state of the question’, in Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life (Dogmatic Theology). Washington D.C: The Catholic University of America Press.

Shaw, R. (2025) David Seymour says Kiwis are too squeamish about privatisation – history shows why they lost the appetite, The Conversation. Available at: http://theconversation.com/david-seymour-says-kiwis-are-too-squeamish-about-privatisation-history-shows-why-they-lost-the-appetite-248308 (Accessed: 25 February 2025).

Transparency International (2024) New Zealand’s score slips 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, now ranked third. Available at: https://www.transparency.org.nz/blog/new-zealands-score-slips-in-latest-corruption-perceptions-index-now-ranked-third (Accessed: 25 February 2025).

Whyte, K. (2017) ‘Way Beyond the Lifeboat: An Indigenous Allegory of Climate Justice’, in D. Munshi et al. (eds) Climate Futures: Reimagining Global Climate Justice. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

 



[1] Ratzinger sees all subsequent Church history as “a saga of ‘de-eschatologizing” (p. 2).

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Following the flight of the wind wanderers


Nifty vid on a Scion (ex-NZ Forest Research Institute) project I'm supporting. Basically, Aotearoa receives potential pests and diseases from offshore by various pathways including 'airbridges', many of which originate from our friends and generally good neighbours, Australia. 

This MBIE funded project explores warning systems to alert us when the aerial arrival of insects and pathogens is more likely. It began in October 2023 and runs through to 2028. Researchers are looking to fill critical knowledge gaps in atmospheric science and aerial invader biology to understand how organisms survive the journey in extreme atmospheric conditions and model techniques for how airbridges connect Aotearoa New Zealand to other landmasses, and how stuff is deposited on our whenua.

"It’s time to learn how we can strengthen our “biosecurity net” to predict when organisms may arrive and which are more welcome than others."


Key partners are Taranaki Mounga who assist in finding locations for monitoring and also supporting the integration of the science into efforts to protect their mounga. Mana whenua are helping with surveillance and identifying how this research can benefit Taranaki iwi.


Thursday, March 27, 2025

Maori economy update

 I started this blog to post on Maori economy data that was being released by the NZ government. That policy was sparked by Minister Pita Sharples seeking to promote the contribution Maori made to Aotearoa NZ, countering the deficit model that was prevalent. 

Latest measure has this economy up by 83% from 2018 to $125 billion.

Top players, including my own Tuhoe, are listed below (link here):



 Realise that the methodology has changed over time but the growth is impressive. Which begs the question why the ongoing negative socio-economic stats...

Anyway, loads of data to play with if you are that way inclined.

Friday, March 21, 2025

Maori Emergency Management Network: Hono

Hono, a Maori Emergency Management Network, was launched end of last year in Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington). Established by Hinemoa Katene, Hono's vision is: 

A world where Indigenous wisdom and self-determination drives resilience, protects our people and the environment, and inspires global solidarity in the face of disaster. 

Essentially we seek agency for Maori in managing emergencies and disasters which - as most people seem to accept now - are increasing in frequency and intensity. Much of this new disaster space is with severe weather, as Aotearoa exprienced in the early part of 2023. The impacts are outlined in a key report (chaird by Sir Jerry Mateparae, link here). 



Tragically, shorter after this launch, Professor David Johnston (2nd from right, front row) died, leaving a son, Josh, and wife, Caroline. He also left a huge hole in the Joint Centre for Disaster Research (JCDR) based on the Massey Campus, Wellington.  

David's legacy is embodied in the people and places he's had a positive impact on with his work and the work he's supported through colleagues and students.

Anyway, watch this space! 

Simon Lambert

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