We need to be prepared for the influx of refugees wanting to escape storms like this one in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
OPINION:
Warning - no scientific research has gone into the writing of this article. In fact, it could quite possibly be put in the same file as all the other "fake news" that your "friend" on Facebook has been sharing too much of lately.
Have you noticed how many "once-in-100-years"
weather events have occurred to our neighbours in the past few years? Floods in Wellington, storms in Taranaki and Wairarapa, cyclones in Levin, droughts in Hawke's Bay? Even closer to home, Feilding gets nailed with its twice-yearly floods, but here in the eye of the hurricane, little old Palmy is a sea of calm while the world around us falls apart.
Through no actual scholarly endeavours other than gut instinct (or maybe it was that kebab I ate last night), I now declare that Palmy is an Official Climate Change Sanctuary City. What is an OCCSC you may ask? It's a place where refugees from the deserts of Hawke's Bay, the below-sea-level suburbs of Porirua, Petone and Plimmerton, or the hailstone-destroyed city of New Plymouth can come and drink our clean, cool water without worrying about the roof being ripped by a typhoon or a forest fire!
One thing Palmy does seem to continue to have is water in the right amount. Sure, every February we put away the sprinklers and hydrate our hydrangeas with a hand-held hose but it's usually only for a few weeks, until the rain in Manawatū falls mainly on the plains.
