Environmental Anxiety in New Zealand, 1840-1941: Climate Change, Soil Erosion, Sand Drift, Flooding and Forest Conservation

Abstract

The history of environmental anxiety in nineteenth-and twentieth-century New Zealand can be traced by focusing on problems caused by deforestation. In the 1840s concerns emerged that deforestation was causing climate change, soil erosion, sand drift and flooding. In the 1900s concerns about soil erosion overtook fears of climatic deterioration. A continued priority towards agricultural development at the expense of forestry constantly hampered conservation efforts throughout the nineteenth century. Only when the extent of agricultural expansion slowed down in the 1900s could these concerns be addressed; only then could a stronger, independent forestry service be established.

Climate, Science, and Colonization

“…Furthermore, Bates' belief encompassed the more scientifically mainstream view in New Zealand that forests mitigated flooding and soil erosion. 105 Bates's research into North Otago's forty-year climate records also led him to question the prevailing image of New Zealand as fertile and well-watered. "We are only a young country," he declared, "and have perhaps tried to follow the Old Country too closely with regard to our productions.…”

“…104 Both summer and winter atmospheric circulation patterns could have contributed to changes in ocean circulation, including increased vigor of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. 105 In addition, the northward displacement of the Subtropical Front has been suggested to be the result of the strengthening of mid-to-high latitude westerly winds. 106 The marine evidence for this time interval is perhaps clearer than many lines of terrestrial proxy evidence, because the relative role wind, t emperature, and precipitation changes have on dictating signals in many terrestrial archives (like pollen and loess) can be difficult to untangle.…”

Empire, Environment and Religion: God and the Natural World in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand

“…118 From the 1850s, as environmental problems became apparent, a growing body of settlers agreed with Travers and Potts that ignorant and irresponsible human action was destroying landscapes and climates, that deforestation was increasing flooding and soil erosion, lessening rainfall, increasing temperatures and altering climatic patterns. 119 Early Christian visions of making the new land bountiful and productive were being threatened by the improvement projects the colonists themselves had launched. The number of those concerned about the environmental consequences of colonisation began to burgeon.…”

Histories of climate, science, and colonization in Australia and New Zealand, 1800–1945

“…Recently, several authors have charted heated colonial debates over the merits of human climatic intervention. For example, some colonial politicians justified state forest conservation because they believed deforestation changed climate . Other settlers, as Kirsty Douglas shows, believed that agricultural development could alter local and sometimes regional climates for the better, a spurious idea that justified many South Australian settlers and promoters of the 1870s to settle increasingly marginal lands.…”