Landslides are NZ’s deadliest natural hazard. Why does it still tolerate the risk?

Landslides are NZ’s deadliest natural hazard. Why does it still tolerate the risk?

New Zealand Herald/Dean Purcell/Getty ImagesThe recent deaths of eight people in two New Zealand landslides has left the public searching for answers. Some questions will be technical, about what failed and why. But one should surely sit above the rest: why do we keep accepting the human and financial cost of this risk? While it might be assumed that earthquakes or volcanic eruptions are Aotearoa’s deadliest natural hazards, landslides have clai…

The cost of living with risk

Landslides are New Zealand’s deadliest natural hazard. Tom Robinson asks why we still tolerate the risk