News and events
Eastern Bays Climate Resonse Network

Kākā head imageThe Kākā by Bernard Hickey

Extreme weather events coming for us all

Long stories short, here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer:

  1. “Why does everywhere seem to be flooding right now, Vox asks, as a new study predicts that 70% of humanity will be hit by extreme weather events within the next 20 years.

  2. Distilled examines insurance retreat as Hurricane Helene wipes out entire communities in states where fewer than 5% of home owners have flood insurance. A 2020 study predicts full insurance retreat from flood-prone coastal properties in Aotearoa’s four main coastal cities within 20 years, with partial retreat occurring within the current decade. Loss of insurance cover can trigger mortgage defaults.

  3. “A child born now will experience 24 times the number of extreme climate events as a politician born in the 1960s.” Tim Winton rails against leaders who collaborate with fossil fuel colonialists, in this Guardian op-ed. He encourages active resistance as a way to restore agency, dignity and health.

  4. Alert to the risk such action poses to their social license to operate, fossil fuel lobbyists have been co-ordinating with lawmakers to enact new laws that apply harsh penalties, including lengthy prison sentences, for peaceful protest.

  5. In the same week that the UK celebrated the closing down of its last coal-fired power plant, the Australian government approved a plan to expand mining operations at three NSW coalmines, a plan that will ultimately generate more than three times Australia’s entire annual emissions.

  6. NASA has produced a set of high-resolution maps depicting coastal and groundwater flooding at the request of Pacific Island countries highly vulnerable to sea-level rise. The analysis shows irreversible sea level rise by 2050 that will now occur regardless of changes to greenhouse gas emissions in coming decades.

Radio New Zealand

Related news items from Radio NZ

 

What we know about the cyclone risk in New Zealand this season

Northern New Zealand is at normal to higher-than-normal risk of a tropical cyclone for the 2024/25 season, NIWA and MetService say.

The country is not often affected by cyclones, but the services say 0-1 are expected between November and April, representing a "normal-elevated" risk level.

They say between six and 10 named cyclones could hit the Southwest Pacific during the season, with nine being the long-term average.

"The NIWA and MetService assessment of tropical cyclone1 (TC) activity for the coming season indicates normal to below normal activity," they said in a statement.

"For the coming season, significant differences are expected between the western and eastern halves of the basin."

Pacific Islands to New Zealand's west were also at higher risk, with Solomon Islands and New Caledonia likely to see two to three cyclones during the season.

Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, Wallis & Futuna, Samoa and American Samoa, and Niue were all expected to face one to two cyclones.

However, that was only higher than usual for Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and northern New Zealand.

Countries and territories to the east - from Fiji to the Pitcairns - were at normal-reduced, reduced, or unlikely risk.

Major freshwater u-turn ‘snuck in’ to unrelated bill

Select committee told environmental group to save its concerns about out-of-scope policy changes ‘for another day’, and then made those changes anyway

The primary production committee has arbitrarily recommended weakening keystone freshwater policy – even though the bill it was reporting on never even mentioned that policy by name.

The committee read submissions by industry groups that sought a way to sidestep obligations surrounding waste discharge into highly polluted waterways. These groups, alarmed by a recent court ruling, suggested adding changes to the policy as part of an otherwise-unrelated bill. 

Forest & Bird heard of these requests, and asked during its submission on the bill if it ought to offer a counter-argument. They were told to save it “for another day”. But that day never came, and the committee’s final report included the concessions sought by industry groups, with no opportunity for public scrutiny.
Glean Report: Science and knowledge events in New Zealand

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