Government: Councils Should Prepare For Fairly Inconvenient Weather Events

Climate Change Minister Simon Watts Demonstrating That Most Days Don’t Have Extreme Weather Events

Minister of Climate Change Simon Watts, welcome.

Hello.

Just be careful there, don’t slip on that banana skin and fall into that drum kit.

I think there’s very little chance of that.

Speaking of things there’s not much chance of, you were on RNZ this morning telling councils to stop always planning for worst-case scenarios.

That’s right, there’s too much pessimism out there. When it comes to climate change councils don’t need to be Gloomy Guses. Or Negative Nancies. Or Debbie Downers.

Yes but isn’t climate change all about extreme weather events?

You see there you go right there. ‘Extreme.’ Why focus on the extreme weather events? Why not focus on the fairly inconvenient weather events?

Fairly inconvenient weather events? Is that a thing?

Yes! And there’s more of them, you know. Also, they cost a lot less to deal with. Bit of rain, surface flooding, clear a drain or two, sorted! Councils doing what councils do best.

Can we just talk about extreme weather events?

Oh sure, because they make better headlines, right? Look, I’m sorry if this is boring but it’s all about affordability. Everyone has to cut costs and tighten their belts. Instead of planning for things that have never happened before!

But everything that has happened had once never happened before.

What are you, some kind of Zen philosopher now? All I’m saying that councils should only plan for events that can fit within their budget. It’s just like running a household.

Is it?

Well that’s the line we use about everything, and it still seems to hold up in the focus groups.