A landslide forced me from my home – and I experienced our failure to deal with climate change at first hand

• These cracks soon became a landslide affecting several homes overlooking the Gill, ultimately swallowing tonnes of land and trees and leaving chunks of our properties at the bottom of the valley.
• The local council has forced my family out of our home, which is now teetering on the edge of a cliff.

• This is worrying, as events like these will become more and more common in the years to come.
• Although Hastings is a coastal town, our property is inland, so this could happen to anyone, anywhere.

No one wants to take responsibility

• This response – or lack thereof – reveals a troubling incentive structure, where the fear of assuming liability results in inaction.
• Our attempts to be rehoused or to have the landslide damage addressed were met with challenges at every turn.

Previously rare events aren’t factored in

• The landslide reveals current climate governance frameworks are inadequate, since they simply don’t consider previously rare events like these.
• This means landslide victims have to do it themselves, at enormous personal cost, and often without any prior technical or policy experience.

A call for systemic change

• In an ideal world, this issue would be dealt with by local authorities or utility companies.
• So we need policies that empower (or force) local authorities and utility companies to act without fear of legal liability.
• As the climate changes, catastrophes like this one can happen to anyone, no matter how secure we may feel.

Ralitsa Hiteva is a member of the Green Party.