I’m back at work at my home office desk today and the weather sucked in Auckland and the north of the North Island over my break. Waiting for Luxon and minons blaming the government for not controlling La Niña – now in the third year of her current reign.It seems like all that National can do these days – blame the government for external events.
A post about the jet stream and heatwaves.
The farmers’ protest in Morrinsville today unfortunately shows that we have made no progress in the 15 years since Bill English attacked the wrong PM with his “mad cow” insult. Meanwhile the effects of climate change have got worse, our options for dealing with it have got fewer, and the Nats don’t want you to know about $19bn of NZ property at risk.
Professor Euan Mason of the University of Canterbury’s School of Forestry in response to the proposed changes: “This is the nail in the coffin of our ETS.”
I guess any sign of sanity is to be encouraged. But. When the Nats came to power there was a framework for reducing carbon. The Nats dismantled or weakened it. Now, nine long years later, they want Yet Another Study?
You’d have to say that an Easter cyclone is one of those truly awful scenarios for Auckland. Forget the water. What happens when the Harbour Bridge and the Airport probably close? It is going to be a hell of an Easter on the roads and travelling. More extreme weather brought to you from climate change.
How ironic that Parliament is to debate climate change today, as the latest in a torrent of warming-fueled extreme weather events bears down on the country, and as the government charges Russel Norman and the other heroes trying to end oil exploration in NZ waters.
Newshub: “MetService warns Cyclone Cook will be the worst to hit NZ since 1968, people advised to stock up on food and water”
Photo from the Whakatane Beacon.
Cyclone Winston is the strongest ever southern hemisphere storm. Fiji has been hit hard.
Heavy flooding in Chennai and the North of England is the latest in a long line of recent extreme weather events. Welcome to the Anthropocene.
All the best to those coping with the wild weather or its aftermath. We’ll see lots of photos of floods and damage, but no discussion of the increasing risks of extreme weather.
I hope everyone in Wellington, and other places affected by last night’s the ongoing storms, gets through it all OK. New Zealand is entering a new phase, extreme weather will become ‘the new normal’.
Over the next few decades more and more countries are going to be facing a difficult question. At what point do repeated extreme weather events make previously settled regions untenable?
By the time this is posted Yasi will have hit Australia. There will be massive damage, and probably loss of life. Most New Zealanders will have friends or family in Australia, perhaps in the areas affected. I’m sure our thoughts are with our cousins over the ditch. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent as a result of climate change. We should all make whatever preparations we can.
