Editorial: Summer - the gift that keeps on giving

For once I had to agree with Mike Hosking ...

As he said on Seven Sharp this week, there is definitely an upside to all this climate change/global warming phenomena.

Mike was basking in the studio lights, but earlier he had been basking in the sunshine.

And here in Whanganui we are getting plenty of this endless summer, a burst of beautiful weather that seems to be ... well, endless.

On Wednesday the Chronicle front page proclaimed "Winter on its way".

Have we got it wrong again? This summer is the gift that keeps on giving - even when it's autumn.

Even Mt Ruapehu's crater lake has come out in sympathy, rocking up to its hottest recorded temperature at 46C ... though there could be a downside to that.

Whakatane is traditionally the sunshine capital of New Zealand but it would be interesting to know how many sunshine hours the River City is notching up these days.

If we are becoming the California of New Zealand, it is a great marketing angle to attract tourists and new residents, not to mention the prospects for a burgeoning banana export industry.

As we savour this spell of fine weather, it is easy to forget about farmers praying for rain to refresh their paddocks, polar bears having the ice melt under their paws and Pacific island nations facing extinction through rising sea levels.

Sadly, climate change isn't all tans and T-shirts, so let's not get over-indulged by our blessed conditions, easy though it is to temporarily forget the downside.

The New Zealand government is a signatory to the Paris climate accord but that was a largely symbolic gesture.

It is the actions that follow which will count, and New Zealand does not appear to be grasping the nettle.

Here in Whanganui, there has been the suggestion that the district council should appoint a climate change officer and that all its deliberations should consider the impacts of extreme weather.

Eleven months ago, Whanganui suffered its worst ever flood, so no room for complacency. And we probably had it right after all ... winter is on its way.