In the last couple of days, I have read versions the same headline over and over again: 

Will this be the climate crisis event that spurs action? 

Do you know what? I think it might be. 

I think for a lot of people, this might be the summer that really drives home the fact that climate change is coming for you.

I mean, there are parts of the North Island that have never experienced anything like we’ve seen this summer.

Auckland- An unexpected rain event that leads to crazy flooding, in some cases up to the second storey of houses in just a matter of hours, followed by another bout of wet weather about three days later and followed by a tropical cyclone another two weeks later.

Coromandel- About four different storms in six weeks, a cyclone like some have never seen and a road lost, maybe permanently.

Gisborne- Small communities were cut off in Cyclone Hale and a month later, big towns were cut off with no communication.

So yeah, for a lot of people, I reckon this will be the final piece they need to convince them something needs to be done.

Not so much that they need to give up their fossil-fuelled cars, because come on, we all know NZ isn’t going to do much to change global emissions.

But more that, people are going to realise we can’t build on flood plains anymore, we can’t ignore the maintenance of our roading network, and we can’t just plonk things anywhere.

According to a report from the Environmental Defence Society out yesterday, we are going to have to spend huge amounts of money retreating from the climate. It’s going to cost $50 billion, if we’re just moving 50,000 properties at the cost of $1 million each.

Tell you what, our politicians would have a lot more support on their climate change policies if they were realistic. Quit focussing on trying to convince us to save the planet, and just focus on saving Auckland and the Coromandel and Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay.

That’s where our money should be going right now. 

And I think a lot more people realised that this summer. 

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