CNN
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New Zealand’s Hawke’s Bay is known for its fine wines, but Cyclone Gabriel has submerged many of the region’s vineyards, along with their homes and roads.
The weather system did not make landfall in New Zealand, but caused widespread destruction, killing at least five people, displacing thousands, destroying roads and cutting off access to small communities in the northeast of the country. I got
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins flew over flooded areas on Thursday, saying the “widespread” damage had made it clear the country was unprepared for extreme weather and there was much work to be done.
“We are talking about roads, telecommunications, electricity and energy. He said.
“We can’t keep doing things the way we’ve always been. We’re going to see more and more of this type of weather phenomenon, so we have to be prepared.”
Hipkins did not name the climate crisis, but his climate minister, James Shaw, made the relevance two days ago in an emotional speech to parliament.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been more saddened or angry about the lost decades spent arguing and arguing about whether climate change is real,” Shaw said on Tuesday. “It’s clearly here now and will get worse if we don’t act.”
What makes this week’s devastation so shocking is that it came just two weeks after a short, sharp deluge in Auckland, the country’s largest city of 1.7 million people.
The heavy rains caused flash floods and landslides, causing New Zealand wettest month On record – typically one of the driest months of the year.
New Zealand’s spectacular landscape is partly due to the country’s long and heavy rainfall. Regular rains on the mountains carved raging rivers after heavy rains.
Many towns and cities sit on banks established to take advantage of access to ports and trade routes that have long served their communities.
“New Zealand is very good at building communities on floodplains. A large proportion of the population lives near rivers that are prone to flooding,” says James, a weather and climate researcher at Victoria University of Wellington. Renwick said. “There tends to be an attitude that we can build a stopbank that protects the community, and most of the time until we have a really big event.”
These very large events are expected to become more frequent as global temperatures rise. New Zealand is located in the South Pacific and is vulnerable to tropical cyclones. It usually forms in the north, but can affect any part of the country it passes through. The Northeast was hit hardest this week as Cyclone Gabriel brought strong winds and several days of rain.
La Niña, a weather phenomenon in which air and ocean temperatures rise, also contributed to Gabriel’s strength.
Sam Dean, chief scientist at the National Institute of Water and Atmosphere (NIWA), said climate change would not necessarily make tropical cyclones more frequent, but more intense.
“They’re happening with warmer sea surface temperatures than before. The atmosphere is warmer and holds more moisture, which makes more fuel and more energy available, and that’s what makes them “The wind is a little bit stronger. It makes rainfall more important.”
And cyclones like Gabriel can form and move in almost any part of the country, so the risk is not confined to parts of the country. I don’t think there is a region in New Zealand,” he said.
But heavy rains are not the only risk posed by climate change in New Zealand, long considered a safe haven for those seeking refuge from global challenges.
Parts of the country have experienced drought in recent years, and even a few years ago the city of Auckland, which was hit by a short, torrential downpour in January, Close to running out of water.
“This whole region is usually very dry and very close to drought this time of year. It’s soaking wet now,” said NIWA climate scientist Daith Stone. “But the risk of drought has not gone away. north of Auckland) will be drier.”
Heatwaves could also be a risk in countries unaccustomed to unbearably hot temperatures, Stone added.
“We’re not used to heat waves…here, it’s a novel concept, and I think we might get terrified in the not too distant future,” he said.
With a population of just 5 million, New Zealand is a small player when it comes to the world’s carbon footprint.
made last year equivalent to 78.8 million tons of carbon dioxide – Well below the largest emitters, China and the United States. However, the New Zealand government is taking climate change seriously and last year announced its first emission reduction plan to reach its goal of net zero emissions by 2050. National adaptation plan To mitigate future climate disasters.
NIWA’s Dean said Cyclone Gabriel is likely to prompt an acceleration of that plan. “I see the urgency to implement some of these things. I think this event definitely motivated me,” he said.
University of Victoria’s Renwick said the obvious solution would be to move people away from coastlines and rivers that are more prone to flooding. Communities are likely to be reluctant to leave, he said, predicting an emphasis on protection rather than relocation.
“I think the main response will be conservation rather than keeping people away. Told.
During a visit to Gisborne, Hipkins said Cyclone Gabriel made it clear the country needed to improve its climate defenses.
“There is no doubt that as a country we need to look at the resilience of our infrastructure, and I think we need to do it with more urgency than ever before,” he said.
This could include costs to relocate roads that repeatedly flood, he added.
“We really need to be realistic about some roads and the fact that some of those roads need to be moved to more resilient locations.”
But aside from adapting, New Zealand, as a small country, relies on the largest emitters to do more to prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Global temperatures are already at least 1.1°C warmer than pre-industrial levels.
“What we have to see is that China and the United States, Australia, Canada, Brazil, and the big emitters are starting to bring their emissions down as well. I hope I can provide an example and help other countries do the same,” Renwick said.
“These extreme events are so overwhelming that we really want the climate to stop warming.”
