Kevin Hester's evening out

"Between Two Waves”

Kevin Hester

Yesterday I attended “ Between Two Waves”, a play exploring the dynamics between a ‘nerdy’ climate scientist, his dysfunctional relationships with his friends, colleagues and the women who literally stumble into his life
“ This stirring new play by Australian playwright Ian Meadows is an urgent and searching exploration of the human side to the most pressing issue of our time – climate change. “

Starring Emmett Skilton (Almighty Johnsons) and Shara Connolly (Go Girls) and featuring Wallace Chapman (Back Benches) Leanne Frisbie .



“It asks an anxious warming world: how do we find happiness in the face of an uncertain future?” In this regard I would highly recommend a book published by my dear friends Carolyn Baker and Professor Guy McPherson titled
“ Love in the age of Ecological Apocalypse” Cultivating the Relationships We Need to Thrive.
 

“Daniel – a climatologist and government advisor has lost a lifetime of research in the worst floods the country has witnessed and isn’t in the mood for appreciating the irony of what he should have predicted. Paralysed by the knowledge that the world is consuming itself, Daniel takes little joy in planning for his future – a problem for his spirited other half, Fiona. When Fiona tells Daniel they’re about to start a family, Daniel must choose between what he knows and what he loves. “
 

“Beautifully framed...Powerful, precise and delivered with well-placed humour – Theatreview”
 

“… Between Two Waves boldly takes on some incredibly profound questions. The result is a work of immense and lasting impact.” - Time Out Australia

“A gently unsettling portrait of the times we live in.” - Sydney Morning Herald




Emmett Skilton played  the consummate boffin “ Daniel”, the climate scientist and went off on a number of interesting climate science rants that drove me to whisper to my friend Barbara Folkard “ He sounds like me”! Barbara smiled and nodded back in the affirmative.


The science was delivered well and in a vernacular that could be easily understood by the lay person. I did notice one very small detail that I believe to be incorrect where “ Daniel” quotes that we have now 4% more moisture in the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution, when the actual figure is now I believe 7%, a significant discrepancy. I pointed that out to Emmett Skilton after the show and he replied that the play was written in 2012 and that it has probably increased in the subsequent years, which is correct and showed me immediately the grasp Emmett has on the plays subject matter.  

For every 1degree C increase in global temperature  we will see 7% more moisture in the atmosphere. http://www.theguardian.com/.../15/climate-change-rainfall 
  Even under the IPCC target of 2C warming we would have witnessed an extreme change in chemistry of the atmosphere. Being that we are going to blow well past that arbitrary target to 4C in the near term and 6C and possibly more, it is obvious we have fundamentally altered both the atmosphere and the chemistry of the oceans where we are now seeing a severe increase in the acidity of the oceans with its attendant coral bleaching, dead zones and mass die offs of marine fauna and flora.


In the play Daniel’s muse Fiona became pregnant and hesitated to mention that rather significant detail and Daniel asked “ When were you going to tell me ? When I noticed a 3 month old infant in the kitchen? Did you think I wouldn’t notice your changing body shape?”. The nerdy scientist then displayed a myriad of panicked emotions that elicited many humorous responses from the audience. 

This predictably became a pressing issue between the two until “ Fiona” asked  Daniel if he wanted her to terminate the pregnancy, when he laboriously replied yes Fiona broke the news that the baby had already been lost.
Figuratively swimming around in the background to all of this dynamic was the typically parsimonious insurance assessor Grenelle played well by the show’s producer Leanne Frisbie 


The excellent cast delivered a stirring performance conveying well the convergence of science, impending catastrophe and the complexities of dealing with the normal complications people are confronted with when establishing new relationships both intimate and collegial. There was no shortage of “ Doomer Humor” and a grim subject and the complexities of human relationships were merged in an excellent script wonderfully produced by cast and crew.



After the play the audience was invited to participate in a Q & A in conjunction with a  panel conversation.


The panellists include Bunny McDiarmid (CEO Greenpeace), Dr Dan Zwartz (Victoria University of Wellington and Ministry for the Environment), Dr Rhian Salmon (Deep South National Science Challenge) (MC), Emmett Skilton, and Rod Oram.
Dr Dan Zwartz alluded to the reluctance of state employees voicing their concerns/ differences with government ministers and their departments stated position, it was clear he was underwhelmed with the position of the Ministry of Environment, Rod Orams  Bunny McDiarmid were far from reserved in showing their obvious dissatisfaction with the governments pathetic position.


Bunny McDiarmid mentioned that she was glad that the issue of child baring had been covered and additionally mentioned how happy she was to hear that a member of her climate change team at Greenpeace had recently announced her forthcoming pregnancy, this is at great odds to such people as David Attenborough of Population Matters whose primary concern now is population overshoot and the forthcoming mass die offs of people leading to what some of us believe will be near term human extinction.


When my time came to address the panel and the audience I brought up the recent unusual decision by James E Hansen to release a science paper prior to peer review warning of sea level rises happening much sooner than previously anticipated and Michael E Mann’s  29/07/2015 podcast on the BradBlog.com 




In the podcast embedded in the Bradblog.com  link below  Michael E. Mann admits that we have now gone exponential, a very  big milestone from this scientist. I spoke to Michael Mann in September last year and mentioned that I was bringing Professor Guy McPhersson out to NZ for a speaking tour on abrupt climate change, as opposed to simply climate change and that we both believed in near term human extinction. Mike Mann replied “ I can’t go there yet Kev”.  He was referring to both subjects but his recent admission of the exponential nature of the catastrophe would seem to accept the former at least
 http://bradblog.com/?p=11287


When I mentioned this detail Bunny McDiarmid immediately reacted with shock and it was clear that all members of the panel were aware what an enormous development this is. 

Once our climate catastrophe is going exponential all bets are off, mitigating emissions will no longer contain the unravelling and the pace can only quicken and reducing planet earth’s atmosphere to something akin to Venus is not out of the question.


Rod Oram was excellent in his denunciation of the government of NZ’s position and reiterated that the sensible and most economic thing to do was to act immediately and not acting lacked fiscal prudence. You would think even a child would understand that but it seems most governments worldwide are committed to “ business as usual”  which reinforces for me my conclusion that capitalism is singularly ill prepared for confronting a problem of this magnitude and as I said in my recent presentation to the Ministry of Environment, parodied in the play, Nation States and the opposing politics and antipathy are unsuited for dealing with a problem of this enormous sale.


In summary, it was an excellent afternoon, a brilliant play, great  debate after whilst outside it was business as usual, Rome and millions of acres burned and our leaders twiddled their thumbs as we rush headlong to Armageddon and near term human extinction, exponentially. If you are motivated to do anything after reading this blog, please learn about the exponential function, it’s all unravelling faster than you think.


Thanks for your precious time.

Kevin Hester