New Zealand could experience an increase in landslides \u2013 its most deadly natural hazard \u2013 as global warming triggers more intense and frequent storms, experts have warned in the wake of two landslide tragedies in the North Island.<\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s landscapes are scarred with the evidence of landslides \u2013 they are responsible for more than 1,800 deaths since written records began \u2013 more than earthquakes and volcanoes combined.<\/p>\n
In January, a series of tropical storms swept through the North Island, bringing torrential rain and causing two fatal landslides. On Thursday morning, a landslide crashed into a holiday park<\/a>, in Mount Maunganui in the eastern city of Tauranga, burying six people. Authorities have confirmed they are unlikely to be alive<\/a>. Earlier that morning, another landslide tore through a house south of the city, killing two.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Tauranga city council evacuated 150 people<\/a> from 30 homes in to assess a new slip posing a \u201crisk to life\u201d.<\/p>\n As it grapples with the tragedies, questions have emerged over how the country can better protect itself from landslides and the increasingly extreme weather that can trigger them.<\/p>\n New Zealand sits on a tectonic boundary, which pushes up land and creates slopes, and has a maritime climate with high rainfall \u2013 factors, which combined, make it prone to landslides.<\/p>\n Humans are also responsible for reshaping the landscape including through deforestation, and cutting into slopes for transport and housing, says Martin Brook, professor of applied geology at the University of Auckland.<\/p>\n \u201cLand use change has been so profound, that we just aren\u2019t resilient,\u201d he said, adding that while mapping landslide susceptibility in regions had increased, the next step would be using that data to better inform planning decisions.<\/p>\n Global warming, meanwhile, is already intensifying tropical storms that can set off landslides, said Dr Thomas Robinson, senior lecturer in disaster risk and resilience, specialising in landslides, at the University of Canterbury.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more we have intense storms, the more frequently they occur, the more landslides we\u2019re going to have, and then the more impacts we\u2019re going to experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Storms in recent years have wreaked havoc across New Zealand. In 2023, roughly 800,000 landslides were caused by Cyclone Gabrielle, making it one of the most extreme landslide-triggering events ever recorded<\/a> globally, according to Earth Sciences New Zealand.<\/p>\n \u201cThe losses and the impacts are increasing,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cWe need to have a really serious conversation nationally and internationally about how we\u2019re going to manage the risks we\u2019re faced with.\u201d<\/p>\n Professor of climate science at Victoria University of Wellington, James Renwick, said, increasingly, storms were causing \u201cdevastation and misery\u201d to the country.<\/p>\n \u201cTo stop such events becoming worse, to stop them overwhelming our abilities to adapt, we must stop adding carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the air,\u201d he said, adding government and business leaders had to find ways to decarbonise the economy as soon as possible.<\/p>\n Politicians have traded accusations in recent days over the coalition government\u2019s climate change policy, which includes slashing targets for reducing emissions<\/a>, and its decision to scrap a Labour government-era NZ$6bn resilience fund for communities, set up in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle<\/a>.<\/p>\n The government had \u201cdragged their heels on issues around climate change\u201d, Labour leader Chris Hipkins told media on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cAlmost every major action New Zealand was taking to really tackle the challenge of climate change has been wound back under [the government\u2019s] leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n Finance minister, Nicola Willis accused Hipkins of politicising the tragedy and said the government had made \u201csignificant allocations of funding towards infrastructure, flood resilience [and] roading repair \u2026 needed to respond to the effects of climate change\u201d.<\/p>\n Hipkins responded that the broader debate around climate change was \u201clegitimate\u201d.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Tauranga city council has ordered a local inquiry<\/a> into the Mount Maunganui event, while prime minister Christopher Luxon is seeking advice on a government inquiry<\/a>, after questions emerged over whether local authorities could have done more to prevent the deaths.<\/p>\n