New Zealand Listener – August 03, 2019

(Ann) #1

10 LISTENER AUGUST 3 2019


W


e have recently endured
a heatwave here – several
consecutive days in which
the daytime maximum
temperature has ranged from 32°C
to 38°C. The heat index, which takes
humidity into account, means it
has felt like 36°C-42°C. If you step
outside, your skin is immediately
slicked with sweat. The “cool” before
dawn has averaged about 27°C, and
mosquitoes and other bugs abound. It
is like living in a swamp, minus Shrek
and the squelching.
I have coped with this in
the way that most people do
who have a reasonable income


  • rarely leaving our air-con-
    ditioned house except to get
    in our air-conditioned car to
    drive to the air-conditioned
    supermarket.
    If you have a bigger income,
    then at this time of year you
    decamp to your house in the
    Hamptons, or New England,
    or go to Europe. Anywhere
    but here. If you have a lower
    income, you suffer until
    autumn.
    My only divergence was
    that I went to New York and
    walked the streets of Manhat-
    tan in “feels like 42” on the
    heat index. I walked because
    the New York City Subway
    gives me the creeps at the
    best of times and a heatwave
    is not the best of times. All it


Paying to ignore


climate change may


be the last futile act


of a generation.


The final hurrah


It is tough that


there is so
little money
in netball.

W


O
O
D^
/^ T


H
E^ S


PE


CT


AT


O
R


“I’m at home enjoying some mixed doubles.”


needed was a power outage – always possible with
the tremendous summer drain on the electricity
grid – and the local crazies could become even
more erratic.
Waiting for the bus back to DC on my last morn-
ing, someone from the bus company asked me
and my fellow passengers to move to the edge of
the sidewalk. There was a mental hospital a block
away and patients did not like to have to go around
people, the bus man said. I wondered how he dif-
ferentiated patients from any other New Yorkers.
The bus was air-conditioned and the four-
hour trip to DC was relaxed. I leaned against the
window, looking out at New Jersey with its ugly
power stations on both sides of the road, producing
energy to cool places including the hotel room I
had just left behind.
Increasingly, I think my generation will be the
last who can live like this – consuming resources
at a rate the planet cannot possibly sustain, and
thinking we can somehow buy our way out of the

discomfort of failing ecosystems. I
thought I had saved the world by
renouncing liquid hand soap in
plastic bottles, but it turns out that I
might have to do a bit more. I shall
think about it when I next have some
spare time – probably in a couple of
weeks as my flight takes me back to
New Zealand, burning 1029kg of CO₂
per passenger.

S


eeing New Zealand win the
Netball World Cup made me feel
for a moment like the woman
who danced with a man who danced
with a girl who danced with the
Prince of Wales. Not that I have
danced with anyone for decades, but
my friends’ daughter is Silver Ferns
wing attack Gina Crampton, and
her parents flew from Wellington
to England to watch the last
rounds of the cup.
Imagine, after years of
driving your daughter to
sports events, supporting her
through the struggle of being
a professional sportswoman
in New Zealand, probably
wondering every day whether
you should have encouraged
her to do IT or plumbing
instead, sharing in this
glorious moment.
It is tough that there is so
little money in netball, but the
2019 champions’ title surely
has value, even if it is not
monetary.
For players’ families who
were fortunate enough to be
there for the victory, that must
have been a few thousand
kilos of CO₂ well spent. I’m
happy to plant something
to offset that. Silver ferns,
perhaps? l

BACK TO BLACK


JOANNE


BLACK


IN WASHINGTON DC

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