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The Reality of Everything

@therealityofeverythingnz

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The polycrisis is here. The Reality of Everything exists to elevate awareness and catalyse collective civil action.
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What kind of Aotearoa New Zealand do we actually want to live in?

The Reality of Everything has launched a Pol.is conversation to help shape a more regenerative, resilient and equitable future.

Unlike conventional social media, Pol.is is designed to identify areas of agreement rather than reward outrage and division. You can vote on short statements, add your own, and see where genuine common ground emerges across participants.

The results will help map what people actually want from our economy, society and relationship with the living world.

Your responses are confidential, with identifying information excluded from reports and publications.

If endless growth on a finite planet is no longer a credible plan, then we need to start discussing what comes next.

Join the conversation through The Reality of Everything website. by @therealityofeverythingnz

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6 days ago

Nearly 50 years after Sleeping Dogs imagined New Zealand scrambling through an oil crisis, Distinguished Professor Robert McLachlan says we remain “in some respects no better prepared than in 1977.”

The warning signs were hardly hidden. In 1988, the New York Times reported calls for a “sharp cut in burning of fossil fuels” to confront climate change. In 1990, the New Zealand Government itself proposed fuel-economy targets and policies to reduce private vehicle use and travel distances.

Yet global energy use has continued to surge. McLachlan notes that humanity now uses energy at around seven times the rate of 1950, powering the Great Acceleration in extraction, production and consumption that drives climate change, biodiversity loss, plastic pollution and freshwater degradation.

“The burning of fossil fuels is responsible for the lion’s share of climate change, both globally and in New Zealand,” he said. “Their use has to be stopped completely over the next few decades.”

And despite decades of warnings: “So far, the use of not a single fossil fuel has peaked, not even coal.”

From Distinguished Professor Robert McLachlan’s talk, Energy realities, at the Reality of Everything Symposium, Rutherford House, Victoria University of Wellington, 26 June 2026.

realityofeverything.org by @therealityofeverythingnz

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20 days ago

New Zealand is heading into a climate adaptation crisis that cannot be solved by leaving individual homeowners and businesses to absorb the losses.

Professor James Renwick warns that without a national adaptation plan, clear rules for managed retreat and government funding for regional authorities, retreat from increasingly exposed areas will still happen, but it could happen chaotically, with households and businesses left carrying enormous costs.

“But in the absence of any government intervention, we’ll have unmanaged retreat, we’ll have chaos. Home- and business-owners may be left having to bear the costs.”

Renwick’s warning is stark: New Zealand faces potentially catastrophic climate impacts while remaining dangerously underprepared for who pays, who moves, when retreat happens and how affected communities are supported.

Professor James Renwick, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.

From “How climate change will shape our future”, presented at the Reality of Everything Symposium, Rutherford House, Wellington, 26 June 2026.

Watch the talks and read more at realityofeverything.org by @therealityofeverythingnz

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21 days ago

At Waikanae Beach, a Māori urupā has been targeted for development for decades.

Dr Mahina-a-rangi Baker of Te Wānanga o Raukawa describes how the cemetery was alienated from its original owners in the late 1960s and later excavated for housing. Eyewitnesses recalled earth containing kōiwi, human bones, being fed through a dredge, broken down and sprayed back across the land. When development resumed in 1999, excavations opened the graves of 11 people before work was stopped.

Yet in 2026, whānau were again forced to sit through a hearing where one of the central questions was whether graves were even there.

“The horror of being an Indigenous person in Aotearoa in 2026 is that photographs of your ancestors’ coffins busted open to expose skeletal remains are still not evidence enough of our rights, or our humanity, or of our existence at all.”

For Baker, this is not separate from the ecological and climate crisis. It is part of the same underlying system of extraction: wealth can accumulate because land, nature and other people can be treated as expendable.

“White supremacy is so ingrained in our legal framework that it is a moot point if our humanity is worth more than private profit.”

As the polycrisis deepens through water degradation, biodiversity loss and climate driven extreme weather, those costs are not shared equally. Māori communities are disproportionately exposed to environmental harm while others retain the benefits of the status quo.

“These impacts are the sacrifice New Zealand society is prepared to make in the interest of maintaining the status quo and all the benefits some of us enjoy from it.”

Dr Mahina-a-rangi Baker, Te Wānanga o Raukawa
“White supremacy and the polycrisis”
The Reality of Everything Symposium, Wellington, 26 June 2026
www.realityofeverything.org by @therealityofeverythingnz

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22 days ago

https://realityofeverything.org/events/reality-of-everything-on-tour-wellington/

https://criticalsignals.nz/programme/a-reality-of-everything-p-neke-election-special/ by @therealityofeverythingnz

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25 days ago

by @therealityofeverythingnz

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a month ago

by @therealityofeverythingnz

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a month ago

Dr Mike Joy of Victoria University of Wellington | Te Herenga Waka argues that the energy transition, while essential, cannot by itself solve the wider ecological crisis.

“How many of the other components of the polycrisis would be mitigated by decarbonising energy? And the answer is, precisely none.”

Climate change is only one symptom of a much larger problem.

New Zealand’s current lifestyles require more than 3.3 planet Earths. Seven of the nine planetary boundaries have now been breached, while biodiversity loss, freshwater disruption, land degradation, pollution, resource depletion and the accumulation of plastics and chemicals continue alongside climate breakdown.

Humanity’s industrial food, energy and economic systems depend on vast and continually expanding flows of fossil energy and materials. Human made mass now exceeds the total mass of all living organisms, while enormous quantities of food, water and energy are wasted.

Joy argues that these apparently separate crises have the same underlying cause:

“All these crises, including the climate crisis, have a single common cause: they are symptoms of overshoot.”

Overshoot occurs when humanity’s demand on the living world exceeds Earth’s capacity to regenerate resources, absorb wastes and maintain the ecological systems civilisation depends upon.

That is why replacing fossil fuels with low carbon energy, while absolutely necessary, does not by itself stop biodiversity loss, soil degradation, freshwater depletion, overfishing, deforestation, pollution or ever increasing material consumption.

“The only possible future is ending overshoot.”

The challenge is therefore much larger than decarbonisation alone. Preserving a liveable future means reducing humanity’s overall ecological pressure until it once again fits within the limits of a finite planet.

Full talk, transcript and key points:
https://realityofeverything.org/speakers/mike-joy/

“The Polycrisis” — Reality of Everything Symposium, 26 June 2026, Rutherford House, Victoria University of Wellington. by @therealityofeverythingnz

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a month ago

Professor Jonathan Boston of Victoria University of Wellington | Te Herenga Waka warns that Aotearoa is moving towards a profoundly more dangerous and potentially uninsurable future.

As climate change intensifies, New Zealand faces more storms, heavier rainfall, landslides, coastal erosion, storm surges and flooding. Boston notes that severe weather events have increased from roughly one per month to almost one per week in recent years, while places with little history of flooding are increasingly being affected.

Sea level rise is already around four centimetres per decade and accelerating. Tens of thousands of homes already face high flood risk, with more coastal communities exposed to rising groundwater, subsidence, erosion and tidal flooding.

Boston warns that simply allowing insurance and property markets to price this growing risk will produce deeply unequal outcomes. As insurance becomes more expensive or unavailable, households without the means to move could be left facing repeated disasters on their own.

The result, he argues, would be less insurance, more underinsurance, greater property damage, worsening hardship and inequality, and rising long term economic and fiscal costs.

Instead, Boston argues for a solidaristic model built around community responsibility, collective risk pooling, planned relocation and compensatory justice, drawing on institutions such as New Zealand’s Natural Hazards Commission.

The core choice is whether escalating climate risk is treated primarily as an individual financial problem or as a collective societal responsibility.

Full talk, transcript and key points: realityofeverything.org

“An Uninsurable Future?” — Reality of Everything Symposium, 26 June 2026, Rutherford House, Victoria University of Wellington | Te Herenga Waka. by @therealityofeverythingnz

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a month ago

Professor Alistair Woodward of the University of Auckland lays out the public health realities of a degrading biosphere.

Climate change is already harming human health by undermining the basic conditions healthy societies depend on: safe water, food security, secure housing, functioning infrastructure and protection from infectious disease.

Heatwaves, floods, bushfires and storms can kill directly, but their impacts extend far beyond the initial disaster. Damaged infrastructure, disrupted healthcare, broken supply chains and reduced access to medicines can cause illness and avoidable deaths long afterwards.

Climate change also acts as a “risk multiplier”, intensifying existing threats rather than necessarily creating entirely new ones.

“Mostly health problems due to climate change aren’t novel. They are familiar problems, made worse.”

Woodward points to El Niño as a powerful example. The natural cycle shifts rainfall across the Pacific, bringing heavy rain to some regions and drought to others. Historically, intense El Niño conditions have contributed to catastrophic crop failures and famine. As oceans warm, there are concerns that climate change could intensify such extremes.

The consequences are profoundly unequal.

“Those who are already on the margin, those whose health is already insecure, these are typically the people at greatest risk, even if they have contributed little to climate change in the first place.”

“Climate change is a fierce challenge to health equity.”

But Woodward stresses that societies are not powerless. Climate-resilient, low-carbon health facilities can protect healthcare during disasters, while healthier diets, public transport, walking and cycling can simultaneously improve health, reduce emissions and strengthen resilience.

“Undoubtedly there are health risks resulting from climate change. They are serious and, unless acted on, will place further pressures on a health care system that is already struggling.”

“But I repeat: we are not helpless.”

Full talk, transcript and key points:
https://realityofeverything.org/speakers/ by @therealityofeverythingnz

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a month ago

Distinguished Professor Robert McLachlan of Massey University lays out the energy realities behind the polycrisis.

Humanity now uses energy at seven times the rate of 1950, powering the vast expansion of activity driving climate change, plastic pollution, biodiversity loss, freshwater degradation and other interconnected crises.

Renewable energy is growing rapidly. Solar and wind have risen from around 1.5% to 7.5% of global final energy consumption in the past decade, while solar produces roughly one-hundredth the emissions of coal even after mining and manufacturing are counted.

But McLachlan highlights a fundamental problem: the transition is still additive rather than substitutive.

Renewables are being added to fossil fuels, not replacing them.

“In fact, our consumption of fossil fuels has never been higher than it is today.”

Despite decades of climate policy, he notes that the use of not a single fossil fuel has yet peaked, including coal.

“The burning of fossil fuels is responsible for the lion’s share of climate change, both globally and in New Zealand. Their use has to be stopped completely over the next few decades.”

New Zealand illustrates the problem. Although its electricity is largely renewable, about 70% of total energy still comes from fossil fuels. Around 70% of that is oil, nearly all used for transport.

Oil dependence also means air pollution, geopolitical conflict, rising extraction costs and an inequitable transport system.

McLachlan points to Climate Liberation Aotearoa’s approach: travel less, travel active, travel public and travel electric.

His central message is simple: building more renewables is not enough. Fossil fuels must actually be displaced, while unnecessary energy demand is reduced and transport, infrastructure and social expectations change.

Full talk, transcript and key points: https://realityofeverything.org/speakers/robert-mclachlan/

“Energy Realities” — Reality of Everything Symposium, 26 June 2026, Rutherford House, Victoria University of Wellington. by @therealityofeverythingnz

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a month ago

Professor James Renwick of Victoria University of Wellington | Te Herenga Waka lays out the reality of our climate future, and why what we do now matters.

The UNFCCC was established to prevent “dangerous human interference” with the climate system. The Paris Agreement later set the goal of holding warming well below 2°C while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.

But we are already seeing the consequences of roughly 1.3°C of warming: more intense rainfall, worsening floods, faster-drying soils, longer droughts, more extreme heat and growing risks to food production.

Renwick warns that we are virtually at 1.5°C warming, while current global commitments put us on a pathway toward around 3°C this century. At 3°C, today’s extremes could become dramatically more severe with rainfall, heat, drought and other climate impacts threatening communities, infrastructure, food production and economies.

Above 2°C, the risks become even more profound: major ice-sheet loss and metres of sea-level rise, disruption of deep-ocean circulation, changes to global rainfall patterns and potentially cascading impacts across ecosystems and societies.

The message is ultimately simple: the more seriously we tackle this problem, the easier it becomes. We just need to get started.

“Those extremes will be enough to devastate our communities, our infrastructure, our food production, our economy.”

“Actions we take this decade will impact life on Earth for thousands of years.”
— Professor James Renwick

Full talk, transcript and key points: https://realityofeverything.org/

“How Climate Change Will Shape Our Future” — Reality of Everything Symposium, 26 June 2026, Rutherford House, Victoria University of Wellington. by @therealityofeverythingnz

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