The North Queensland floods remind us of the need to build community resilience to disasters – during the event, in the immediate aftermath and beyond.
Once the immediate crisis in North Queensland has subsided, authorities will need to grapple with how to deal with the ‘new normal’ of extreme weather events. The big question is: are they prepared?
Pakistan experienced severe floods in 2022.
Asianet-Pakistan/Shutterstock
The effects of climate change on health are getting more political traction. But there’s still more to do, particularly as the health harms of climate change are only getting more serious.
View south across the Akosombo Dam before the flooding.
Eye Ubiquitous/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Smallholder farmers are bearing the brunt of climate change in sub-Saharan Africa. Deliberate steps are required to support them and boost agricultural output,
Smoke from the McDougall Creek wildfire fills the air and nearly blocks out the sun as people take in the view of Okanagan Lake from Tugboat Beach, in Kelowna, B.C., in August 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Canadians should demand greater accountability from their governments to reduce the need for last-minute humanitarian efforts in the face of climate-related disasters in their communities.
Any plan to dam or extract water from some of Australia’s last wild rivers must carefully consider the consequences. Prawn, mud crab and barramundi fisheries could suffer in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Australia’s move towards net zero emissoions by 2020 is in danger of stalling. If it is not to fail, the nation urgently needs a government plan, aligned with industry and with public support.
AAP Image/Supplied by Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action
The Voice to Parliament could advise on how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges can help the country prepare for and lessen the damage of natural disasters such as bushfires.
There’s a rule of thumb that rainfall intensity increases by about 7% per degree Celsius as temperatures rise. But the increase is much higher in the mountains, scientists found.
Giacomo Falchetta, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
There’s a consensus that extreme hydrological events will increase throughout the continent. This will lead to growing issues with power system reliability.
New or improved flood protection can give a false sense of security – the so-called ‘levee effect’. But climate change is unpredictable, meaning ‘residual risk’ always exists and must be planned for.
A beaver-like dam at Wilde Brook on the Corve catchment in Shropshire.
Daniel Jones
With average insurance premiums up 28% in the past year, there’s growing pressure on the insurance industry to rethink its opposition to a government-owned and run disaster reinsurance pool.
Across the world, elderly people tend to be the most vulnerable to climate-related disasters.
Damaged buildings sit in the water along the shore following Hurricane Fiona in Rose Blanche-Harbour Le Cou, N.L. in September, 2022. Fiona left a trail of destruction across much of Atlantic Canada.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
Some were quick to point the finger at climate change when floods hit eastern Australia in February and March 2022, in the lead up to the federal election. But it’s not that simple, scientists say.