The north of the North Island and parts of its east coast have again been swamped by torrential rain from a significant low-pressure system. While this one was not composed of the remnants of a tropical cyclone and did not feature overly strong winds, it sucked in a large area of very warm and wet tropical air, which scored a direct hit on the north this week.
Across two days, incredible amounts of rain fell on Northland, Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty, and parts of the Gisborne region. As much as 300mm was recorded in that short period of time, equivalent to several months of rain, with intense downpours of up to 40mm an hour in places.
The sodden ground cannot easily hold that amount of water. Slips have slithered down many slopes, the worst of them at Pāpāmoa, where two people were killed, and at the base of Mt Maunganui, where rescue workers are still searching for several missing people amid debris and crushed buildings and campervans. A man is also missing after being swept away by a flooded river near Warkworth.
It is finally, definitively, time for this government and its successors over the next handful of years to wake up and realise climate change is the most important issue facing us all.
It’s verging on the "too late" already, but concerted and supported efforts here and around the world right now can at least stop the steadily increasing global average temperatures, both in the air and oceans, from rising much further.
Meanwhile, after every latest storm, our politicians fly around the country in helicopters surveying the damage, seemingly puzzled at what has caused it, genuinely upset at the loss of life, homes, communities and livelihood, but doing little to immediately make a difference and reduce the risk of similar or worse events in the decades ahead.
Our continued existence is under threat. Of that there is no doubt. Yet the government appears to carry on much as normal, setting priorities other than dealing with climate change, and in fact watering down efforts we have made in the past decade towards any mitigation.
Aliens looking down from another planet, unable to see the micro-happenings of our world but observing the bigger picture, might wonder what kind of species we are that seems happy to carry on rushing headlong towards our own destruction.
Just this week, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon gave his State of the Nation speech. A quick analysis shows the words "economy" or "economic" were mentioned 18 times. "Climate change"? Not once. It was a speech about wanting to ensure the best possible future for Kiwis which completely ignored the most pressing issue.
Victoria University of Wellington scientist Prof James Renwick isn’t mincing his words when it comes to government efforts. In the face of more frequent severe weather, he says dealing with climate change is not a cost to the economy but an investment.
"If we don’t make that investment now, the future cost is going to be huge and, ultimately, it’ll be overwhelming. It will destroy our economy."
We know the extreme weather which battered the North Island this week isn’t anything all that unusual these days. Forecasters predicted summer would have two different halves to it, with this second half likely to be wetter with subtropical air masses affecting regions exposed to the northeast.
Neither is the South immune to heavy rains, as we have experienced in recent years. Our coastal areas are also vulnerable to slips.
It would be refreshing to see one of the larger political parties place climate change at the top of its election agenda. We already expect that from the Green Party, although it has allowed itself to be diverted into other matters.
National clearly isn’t going to. But how about it, Labour?
