Roading holes & Cyclone Gabrielle clean up. This is what climate change looks like
Discovery of 3m cavity closes part of state highway in Tauranga
Part of State Highway 29A is closed in Tauranga after a large tomo, or cavity, was discovered under the road.
The cavity, which is about three metres deep and filled with water, was discovered on Friday in the left-hand lane heading from Barkes Corner to Oropi Roundabout.
It looked like a small hole from the outside, but the sheer size of the cavity was revealed when NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi crews investigated further, acting regional manager of maintenance and operations Roger Brady said.
“As soon as we saw the size of the tomo we fully closed the road due to the potential safety risk to road users.”
Barely a year after the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle, we are seeing what catastrophic climate change looks like in real time as roads develop mass erosion caused by extreme rain dumps caused by climate change.
We don’t have the adaptation capacity because we refuse to tax the polluters more.
You appreciate things are only going to get worse from here on in right?
Despite the climate denial from the Right in NZ, it is real and it is here now.
The $14billion dollar damage of Cyclone Gabrielle and our inability to rebuild highlights how little resilience we have in our underfunded system.
The temperatures we are seeing are beyond any possible expectation, we have tripped into tipping points whose gravity can not be resisted.
Massive spikes in methane will melt Greenland ice sheet and Antartica, desalinating crucial ocean pumps which shut off the Atlantic Current which warms Northern Europe which will see the polar vortex slip and freeze most of Northern Europe in a new mini ice age, the speed of which will kill off vast vast chunks of life.
Our explosion of heat will trip tipping points which sends us into a hilarious dystopian ice age nightmare.
Until we get to that stage though, it’s the burning heat of a planet running amok.
All those forest fires you see are only going to get worse, those car yards bursting into flames will only get worse, kids passing out on poorly ventilated buses will continue – we aren’t built for this heat and as we struggle to come to grips with all of that, the insurance industry already ranks NZ as one of the worst climate change pay out country’s and we are about to be hit by insurance rates beyond peoples ability to pay.
Rich people and landowners pay insurance, poor people and renters do not, so this pain will crucify the already stresses middle classes and mortgage bled first time home buyers hardest.
Home insurance will become more expensive, more limited, and harder to get
Insurer Suncorp has told the Government there has been a “step-change” in global reinsurers’ attitudes to New Zealand.
“The step-change in 2023 is that New Zealand no longer presents only significant earthquake risk, but also significant weather risk to reinsurers,” Suncorp said in a submission, published this month, to Parliament’s inquiry into how the country is set to adapt to climate change.
The result is that the pricing and level of coverage offered by reinsurers has, and will continue to, change, Suncorp said.
Insurers like Suncorp, which owns Vero and has a majority stake in AA Insurance, and IAG, which owns brands including State, AMI and NZI, buy reinsurrance to help them pay claims in the event of massive natural disasters that would otherwise threaten to send them broke.
…the Right pretend Climate change is a socialist Hoax, or they claim it’s alarmist, the reality is the Insurance Industry who have to pay out on climate change damage are already pricing that market distortion in, regardless of what the Right wing climate deniers claim.
We have a climate denying Government hell bent on removing funding for climate change mitigation and adaptation to allow their climate change polluting mates off the hook for the costs.
As this Government moves towards opening NZ up to more mining, continues to allow gas and oil exploration while giving the Agricultural Industry a free pass on emissions, the climate events are only going too get more extreme.
NZ is now the second most expensive in the world for insurance damage from climate change.
Climate denial will generate an intensity of activism that seeks to shut down the systems that allow the polluters to keep polluting.
Expect motorway glueing and actions preventing ships, rail and transport systems of polluters to be mass attacked in wave after wave after wave of shut downs and expect the Government to use new powers aimed at Da Gangs against those protesters.
Oh and let’s not forget about this today…
Trains cancelled across Auckland due to ‘heat’
…I do not believe we are ready for this Jelly.
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The poor response of the Labour government is being shown up as the Coalition por in $63 million to help the clean up after a year of them sitting on their hands.
Thank goodness National were in power at the time of the Christchurch earthquake .
There are still unresolved cases from the Christchurch earthquake & most people you talk with in Christchurch will tell you that the earthquake recovery could have been done better (some people will use a lot stronger language than that). They built roads that are now carparks from 7 am to 9 am & 3:30 pm to 6 pm so it was just a cheap fix with no foresight into how future needs will affect things. Typical conservative practice as they always focus on a dollar now & ignore any long term cost in the hope that someone else will pay for it.
Hindsight is a great thing .Of course things could have been done better but the event was unprecedented. EQC had 3 permanent staff at the time of the quake.
The red zone buy out was a great step forward for most who were able to move on with their lives .Businesses were
helped to survive.Of course not all got what they wanted but insurance pay outs do not always meet expectations at any time
So just like the covid response given it was unprecedented eh Trevor,or was that different?
I have never critized Jacinda for her response in the early days of covid it was the period after that the wheels fell off.Dogma took over from common sense
Yet here you are arguing hindsight. We now have a Dogma government.
Labour had already put in 80 million plus another 10 million top up just before the election..
Of course it’s all money down the gurgler because the chances of the same type of weather event happening again within the next 5 years is highly likely.
These orchardists have been operating in or next to a riverbed for decades and were warned back in the 1930’s that it was a risky thing to be doing. They got away with it, but unfortunately when you keep rolling the dice like that you are eventually going to get caught out.
The reality is that the area has had it’s day and like many other areas around N.Z should be retired and let nature take it’s course.
Guess both they and this Government will find out the hard way.
The N.Z taxpayer can not keep bailing out these small enterprises with massive payouts just because the owners don’t want accept the realities of climate change..
Trevor I had the impression that many did not hold Gerry’s performance as ideal post the quakes. As for National rushing in with aid give me a break.
For everyones info RENTERS DO PAY HOUSE INSURANCE ,when they pay the rent an amount of that payment is for rates and insurance as well as the mortgage .So renters pay insurance ,rent and mortgages every time they pay rent but never own the property ,so other fucken parasite ends up with a free house the renter should have been able to buy in the first place
Well said Gordon.
Who knew Steven Joyce’s $11 billion dollar hole would be found in Tauranga.
National parties roads of National insignificance.