So far their response has been tax cuts and getting rid of regulations. Two things they love doing. In Australia they’re giving subsidies to the oil industry.
None of those will do anything to slow our consumption of oil or help people change their lifestyles to match the circumstances. By clinging desperately to business as usual they will make the eventual change more wrenching than it could have been.
Instead, what if:
Short term:
Free public transport.
Free bikes for everyone.
Begin emergency repairs on any old busses that can be pressed into service.
Implement a priority system for who gets fuel:
Tier 1: healthcare, emergency services
Tier 2: food production & distribution
Tier 3: essential infrastructure (power, water, telecoms)
Everything else: on yer bike, son (or heavily rationed)
Ration fertilizer. A lot of it is wasted, currently.
Daily govt briefings - what’s happening, what is being prioritised, what people should do. Maintain clear communication and transparency.
Medium term (but start NOW):
Electrify all busses.
Repair neglected railways.
Move freight by rail and ship as much as possible.
Build cycling infrastructure. Secure places to park many many bikes next to train stations - big sheds.
Remove regulatory barriers for local food production, farmers markets. Encourage urban gardening, local trade networks.
Plant corn everywhere for ethanol.
Strategic reserves of critical medicines, etc.
Diversify food production - for local needs, not for export market needs.
Not sure who these people are but worth a read: https://wiseresponse.substack.com/p/what-can-i-do-in-response-to-the
“When the Trucks Stop: Mutual Aid Arrangements for a Fuel-Constrained Aotearoa New Zealand”: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S2sWsBXqtwgkP-AGDtp-PsMRALIXtAOBXi2D6RouS6w/edit?tab=t.0
That gives me hope!
Yes, but if they did that, they wouldn’t be able to let their rich friends leech off the people anymore.
Implement a priority system for who gets fuel:
Tier 1: healthcare, emergency services
Tier 2: food production & distribution
Tier 3: essential infrastructure (power, water, telecoms)
Everything else: on yer bike, son (or heavily rationed)
Now I’m not from NZ myself so I can’t be sure, but I do think most people who already have cars would revolt if told “you can go sell your most expensive property besides your home for scrap metal, you’re biking everywhere from now on”. No?
We’ll all be riding bikes in a couple of months anyway.
Might as well do it in a controlled and measured way rather than leave it to the market which will mean some assholes hoard it while people die from a lack of ambulances, etc.
Is it actually that bad over there? Most of the world seems to be chugging along just fine. If anything, the increased fuel prices should motivate more people to go electric or drive less, but there’s no imminent threat of an actual fuel shortage
Life is carrying on as normal here too, for now. But in future NZ will be worse off than many countries as we import nearly everything except food, have really minimal public transport and live high-carbon lifestyles.
It’s going to be a whole lot harder to give everyone free bikes when there’s no diesel to put in the trucks to deliver the bikes. Do it now and it’ll be easy. Also right now you can order a bunch of bicycles from China and they might actually arrive in a timely manner whereas doing it later when every other country is doing the same will not go well.
(“Free bikes” is a somewhat facetious example. There are a whole raft of ways to support low-carbon transport - now is the time to do them all and we should spend the remaining fuel we have making that change happen rather than wasting it on our current way of life).
It’s like covid - if you wait until everyone around you is coughing before putting on your mask, it’s too late.
Fuel is expensive, diesel in particular has almost doubled in price, but there’s no widespread shortage. A few stations have run dry, but nothing major.
Traffic is noticeably lighter, people are driving less, and certainly discretionary travel is being thought about carefully.
But, mostly things are chugging along.
Same as here then, with the pricing. Don’t think any stations have run dry though. They’re probably posting record profits since they tend to make use of any crisis.
I haven’t really been to any of the cities in like a month, will try and keep my eyes open when I do, to see if there’s less traffic.
Yeah, it wouldn’t go down well at all, especially considering public transport just isn’t an option for many people.
I genuinely don’t think Rimu has ever been outside of a city for any length of time, they’re remarkably out of touch with reality.
I’ve seen similar arguments on Lemmy about Internet, people think we can just run fibre everywhere, and don’t understand just how remote some people are.
