Thank you for caring about the future of our Eastern Bays community, we hope you have a good re-energising break and come back ready to make the most of 2024.

Glean Report

Welcome to 2024! This is just a brief update to kick off the year, expect to hear more as the network prepares for the Resilience Expo in March which will focus not just on the usual emergencies but also on the longer term climate change issues, social issues and also day to day disruption.

Note also this is a channel for sharing - so if you want to share an event, an issue, information or anything related to climate response please let us know.

Video - Adverse Weather Events - an Insurer's Perspective 

Severe weather events are on all our minds. This week (note: Feb 16, 2023) on Shared Lunch we talk to Tower Insurance about how New Zealand needs to adapt to climate change.

Tower CEO Blair Turnbull Blair says we live in the second most riskiest country in the world. And explains how the company prepares for more frequent severe weather events, and a marked increase in claims.

Video: Dealing to climate risk - Rod Oram, Sophie Handford & Rutger Keijser

The hot days of summer are upon us, but we know global heating is pushing beyond the limits. Last year was the hottest year on record. This year global heating is expected to pass the 1.5 degree limit that had been targeted as a maximum. This Wellington Fabian session at the end of January, looks at the risks we are facing from the climate crisis - and how we start to deal with them and adapt to them.

Rod Oram is a specialist writer on climate and has been regularly attending the annual global summits – the COP meetings.

Sophie Handford is a Kāpiti Councillor – this district council is already wrestling with the implications of rising sea levels. Back in 2019 Sophie founded School Strike 4 Climate which mobilised 170,000 people across the country.

Rutger Keijser is a senior leader in the management of climate-related risks. His recent masters in strategic studies, focussed on disaster management.

On March 24 2024 we will be staging an Eastern Bays Resilience Expo (name may change).

This event is progressing - we will be providing information and suggestions for families and communities/bays to get organised soon. In particular it would be great if each bay or community is represented so anyone attending can make contact - forming these groups is central to becoming resilient as these may be the only group you have contact with in an emergency. This could be as simple as having a drop in table so people can have a conversation and connect.

The aim is to promote community resilience at an individual, household and community level. We will be encouraging each bay to have a plan and appropriate resources - so anyone attending will be able to register for their bay and gain points for attending, learning and participating in exercises, with both spot prizes and bay prizes to be won.

The Expo will include exhibitors from groups that expect to be involved in community response to either immediate (i.e. earthquake, storm, slips, fire etc.) or gradual (i.e. sea level rise, climate change, infrastructure issues etc.). It will also include businesses that may offer related services or products which will help us get through.

The goal is to get maximum participation at all ages, and there will be a campaign leading up to the event to highlight and inform on how to become more resilient, and what to look forward to on the day.

If you or a group/ business you are associated with feel you would like to be involved, contact Bruce Spedding or other any member of the Eastbourne Community Board with your ideas. If you are a voluntary organisation it could be a chance to recruit as well.

Eastern Bays Emergency Radio Network

Not many know we have a network of civil defence radios throughout the bays to provide a backup method of communicating in the event that normal communications and/or access break down. These radios are located at the community hubs, but also in individual homes. We currently need 2 radio operators in York Bay and also southern Eastbourne. The operation is fairly simple and there's not much time involved (a few minutes each month to run a test if you are around). If you are curious/ interested please contact Bruce Spedding.

Eastern Bays Climate Response Network on Facebook. Feel free to comment or post on topics related to the goals of this group on the Facebook page.

EBCRN is focussed on the need to act now to both mitigate the causes of accelerating climate change as well as prepare for the impact on our community. You can find out more about Eastbourne and the Network here. If you have climate related events, resources, requests, suggestions or any other information you would like to share please send it to us.

 Note: we create this newsletter "on the fly" as information and events come to our attention. Sometimes short notice of event dates mean the event passes before we send this out, so each email may be triggered but an upcoming event rather than a reasonable interval since the last release. Please feel free to give feedback on content and frequency of news, and send through items you might feel are of interest to the group.

You can forward this to someone if they would like to  join the Eastern Bays Climate Response Network and/or subscribe to the email updates