For the first time we’ve calculated what effect a natural disaster has on income tax revenue, finding a 5% decline through lower incomes and higher tax deduction claims.
Flooding is an ongoing problem for NSW residents. Here Cabbage Tree residents prepare to evacuate their home during flooding in 2017.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP Image
Australia’s east coast flooding is forcing people to confront challenges such as evacuations and loss of property. However, Aboriginal people are being left to find their own way through this crisis.
Natural disasters are driving up insurance costs. The Australian government’s plan to drive them down won’t help much.
A woman and children who were stranded by high water due to flooding are rescued by a volunteer operating a boat in Abbotsford, B.C., in November 2021. The Insurance Institute of Canada forecasts that annual insured losses from natural disasters could increase to $5 billion within the next 10 years.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Although insurance is important in natural disaster recovery, government and property owners also play an important role in protecting Canadians against the impact of catastrophic weather events.
Floods across Germany in July 2021 signalled the need for improved disaster preparedness.
SamuelFrancisJohnson/Pixabay
Robert Costanza, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
As weather becomes more extreme, the value of coastal wetlands is increasing.
Mark Poindexter puts a tarp on the damaged roof of his home in Gulf Breeze, Louisiana, on Aug. 29, 2020, in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura.
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
Federal weather scientists are pushing to make the US more ‘weather-ready,’ which could mean prepping for fires, flooding or storms depending on where you live. The common factor: thinking ahead.
Australia can take great strides forward in climate policy and action. A reactionary, incremental approach to adaptation will fall short. Now is the time to think big.
Obadiah Mulder, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and Ida Kubiszewski, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Wetlands bear the brunt of much storm damage to the coast. But over the past 300 years, 85% of the world’s wetland area has been destroyed.
South Louisiana before the arrival of Hurricane Laura.
EPA-EFE/Dan Anderson
Australian emergency services are using social media for a number of purposes during disasters. What they are not doing well is analysing social media data in real time to improve disaster management.
Located on the Ring of Fire, Indonesia is prone to natural disasters, particularly earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.
YT Haryono/Reuters
We don’t need to send in the army every time there’s a natural disaster, or create a national fire fighting force. We need to think practically about working together in emergencies.
Burning invasive, nonnative grasses on federal land at Lower Table Rock, Oregon.
BLM
Some Californians want to ban people from living in wildfire-prone areas. Behavioral economics offers a less heavy-handed approach to reducing the costs and risks.
The South Pacific was rocked by two nearly simultaneous earthquakes and a devastating tsunami.
AAP Image/Tamara McLean
A devastating quake and tsunami in the Pacific Ocean prompted a new kind of post-disaster research. Ten years on, we need these lessons to prepare for a precarious future.
Montserrat’s Soufriere Hills Volcano erupts in 2009.
Jonathan Stone
Hotels in the Bahamas are helping the islands recover from the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Dorian, just as they did in Florida following Irma in 2017.
Shoppers prepare ahead of Hurricane Dorian in Pembroke, Florida.
AP Photo/Brynn Anderson