This week Click a picture to enhance it. Blue text = a clickable linkThis week I have to write about the chaos that Hurricane Gabrielle, and the huge rain downpour a week earlier, have wreaked in the northern half of the North Island in my country, Aotearoa, New Zealand. To get started here's how itv, a British news site is reporting us. Here at home in Aotearoa everyone knows what is happening because every newscast or radio news bulletin is crammed full of reports, alerts and warnings. Five people have died so far and more deaths may be announced as authorities gradually make contact with many thousands who are isolated. However, as I write this on Thursday for uploading tomorrow, massive recovery work is being done by helicopters and every possible means. From all of that, I hope for good news rather than bad. The longer term recovery and replacement – roads, bridges, houses, buildings, stock, crops and so on – well that's a question our country will be dealing with for a very long time. A link to global warmingBecause news of this calamity is everywhere I don't need to be a reporter. Instead I want to talk about how all this links with climate change. A feature by Kirsty Johnston last Tuesday in Stuff, a prominent news site gave me a starting point. Johnston begins her story with this: 'If the reality of the climate crisis hadn’t sunk in for you until this summer, you’re probably not alone. Humans simply aren't wired to assess future threats - particularly ones they can’t see, like a warming planet.' I think that's absolutely and chillingly true. In the well-off West we have been sitting in a cult of comfortability for a long time: perhaps since the end of World War ll. That comfortability has walled us off us from the creeping reality of climate change. Johnston finishes her introduction with this: 'But with yet another cyclone hitting the North Island - as fears of drought escalate in parts of the South Island - the impact climate change will have on our lives is becoming harder to ignore. ''' More intense'Climate change doesn’t cause cyclones,' explains Kirsty Johnston 'but it does make them more intense.' Tropical cyclones get their energy from the sea surface, and the warmer the water, the more energy they have to work with. This makes for more powerful storms that grow faster. Sea surface temperatures in New Zealand have been recording record levels this summer. 'Equally, the warming atmosphere also helps to fuel storms. Hot air holds more moisture, causing heavier rainfall, like the recent downpours in Auckland that led to widespread flooding. Researchers found climate change was likely responsible for 10 to 20% of that rain.' The greenhouse gasesIn addition, greenhouse gases mainly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide - have accumulated in the atmosphere where they trap the sun’s heat reflecting off the earth. One of the scientists whose written views I regularly consult on climate, is Professor James Renwick of Victoria University, Wellington. I found recent comments of his in Kirsty Johnston's story. Talking about the heating of the earth, Professor Renwick, says: 'this process is akin to having a blanket on a bed: "A thicker blanket, a warmer body; a thicker blanket over the earth, a warmer earth." What can we do?Renwick says the best thing we can do as individuals is hold the government to account for our high green house gas emissions and press for policies which reduce them. "Make sure you let your MP know you want to see this happen and make sure your family and workmates know that climate change is a big deal,” he says. But making changes at an individual level is important too. "Use less energy, make sure your house is insulated, take the bus instead of the car - those sorts of obvious things. If it's a nationwide effort then it does make a difference.” A happy note to finishToday's post is not a happy one but here is one happy little episode on which to finish. This struck a resounding chord in my heart. I hope it does in yours. □ John McInnes Friday 17 February 2023 ##########
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