{"id":38481,"date":"2021-10-30T04:00:39","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T19:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/oct\/30\/forced-retreat-one-new-zealand-towns-fate-highlights-coming-fight-over-climate-adaptation"},"modified":"2021-10-30T04:00:39","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T19:00:39","slug":"forced-retreat-one-new-zealand-towns-fate-highlights-coming-fight-over-climate-adaptation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=38481","title":{"rendered":"Forced retreat: one New Zealand town\u2019s fate highlights coming fight over climate adaptation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The tiny town of Matat\u0101 provides a bleak preview of the challenges that could play out across the country in the decades to come<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a moment on the road from Auckland to the Bay of Plenty, after hours of farmland, when the view of the sea rears up in front of you. The fields retreat, the horizon expands, the road is lined by Pohutukawa trees clinging to the cliffs. The change in view is as stark as an etch-a-sketch being wiped clean.<\/p>\n<p>Follow that road and you come to a tiny settlement, slipped between the sea and a steep spine of hills running down New Zealand\u2019s Toi-te-Huatahi coastline. Gradually, the once-orderly and plush beachfront homes are disappearing. Houses are replaced with grassed lots, weeds push up through the cul de sac pavements. Soon, the view will be transformed further still, the last remnants of the neighbourhood replaced with a reserve stretching from the road to the sea. On one of the few remaining fences is a sign: \u201cLeave our homes alone! Watch out the rest of New Zealand \u2013 you\u2019re next!\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/oct\/30\/forced-retreat-one-new-zealand-towns-fate-highlights-coming-fight-over-climate-adaptation\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The tiny town of Matat\u0101 provides a bleak preview of the challenges that could play out across the country in the decades to comeThere\u2019s a moment on the road from Auckland to the Bay of Plenty, after hours of farmland, when the view of the sea rears up &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,65,56,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-environment","category-new-zealand","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38482,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38481\/revisions\/38482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}