Auckland’s Changing Climate: 30,000 BCE – 2100 CE

Anthony Fowler is a retired University of Auckland Assoc. Professor

This is a book for Aucklanders interested in the past, present, and future climate of the place they call home: from the convulsions of the glacial-interglacial cycles of the last two million years, through to expectations of future deluges, droughts, and heat waves.

Most of us accept that climate change is a significant global issue. Occasional media articles about the pace of global warming and the implications for things like sea level rise, extreme storms, droughts, and heat stress. However, most of what we see is fairly generic, lacking the local context that would make it most meaningful.

Yes, we all know that it’s getting warmer, and that storms are expected to get more severe, but what does it all mean? Does 2°C warming mean we will be hiding indoors with the curtains closed during summer, or will we be revelling in more nice barbecue weather? Will a 10% reduction in rainfall mean endless urban water crises? And does that expectation of more severe storms mean we should expect events like Auckland’s monster Anni­versary Day storm of 2023 every few years, or decades, or centuries?

Auckland’s Changing Climate provides answers to such questions by bridging the gap between climate science and local knowledge. It outlines the key elements of Auckland’s climate, explores past climate (mainly reconstructed from pollen and tree rings), examines evidence of climate change and variability in the instrumental record, and summarises how climate is projected to evolve over the course of this century.

Selected impacts of future climate change are also examined and a picture is painted of what a future adapted Auckland may look like.