Cyclone Gabrielle

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Climate change is a reality. The cyclone was exacerbated by warmer than 'normal' seas. We are going to get more weather like this. We also have far too much invested on and beneath vulnerable land. We need to look seriously at remediation to prevent ongoing costs and human misery here at home, as well as in other countries.

The reality is we knew this was coming back in the fifties and sixties. Now it is too late to stop it, we can only get ready to cope with it. And we are all going to have to pay for it. Now, and in the future.

And anyone who thinks otherwise is simply the human equivalent of the ostrich.

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The petrol companies which are partially responsible for the increasing weather chaos around us knew about this effect in the fifties and did their best to cover up, yes they fully understood what was going to happen but of course profit takes precedent over everything.  Their cracking of the crude oil in the refining industries is one of the main causes of anthropomorphic global warming.

These people are criminals and responsible for the chaos to come, think millions of refugees trying to find somewhere safe to live, migrating from increasingly arid equatorial regions to more temperate zones already full of people who won't want more as the initial novelty of helping poor desperate people wears off.  It's already happening.

The [government and councils] which are partially responsible for the [impact of] increasing weather chaos around us knew about [the role and risk of flood plains, building on cliff tops and at the base of unstable cliffs and] did their best to cover up[. Y]es they fully understood what was going to happen but of course profit takes preceden[ce] over everything.  Their [ongoing push to put houses wherever they will fit] is one of the main [risks from] anthropomorphic global warming.

[When the country was first settled, the flat fertile land near the coast seemed like a great place to live. We now understand more about tsunamis, earthquake liquefaction and have witnessed over and over the sheer amount of water that can come down from the hills. Why oh why are we STILL building on the flood plains? Even where it will be at or below sea level in 100 years?]

Or sooner?

Today I came back up the Memorial Drive bit of Lake Road on the North Shore. It is a stretch of ancient pohutukawa with planted crosses underneath each commemorating a local fallen soldier, each planted up with annuals in appropriate colours, and with seats at intervals. It is a beautiful place. And it is on a flood plain between the inner and outer harbour. And one of only two access points to Devonport, the naval base, and a lot of heritage housing and commerce.

Trees, big trees are down all over the place. The concrete edgings to the flower beds are all gone, torn up and dumped, the plantings are gone, the seats are pretty much destroyed, there is mud and branches and leaves everywhere, and work crews starting the clean up. It will all be restored, but should it? The cost will be significant. And it is the second time it has happened this year.

It will not be the last. I do not envy those who must decide what we do next.

That is the kind of decisionmaking that we have to talk about