Implications of Climate Change for Future Disasters

Australia is no stranger to disasters; they have shaped this continent and its peoples. But, what we know from the past cannot be used as a reliable guide for what we can expect for the future. This is because the climate is changing, and human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases are accelerating this change in a way that is unprecedented in human history. In this chapter, we focus on four types of disasters: heatwaves, droughts, bushfires, and floods (both riverine and coastal). We consider how climate change is shaping these disasters and what we can expect in the future. Through this discussion of future climate changed disasters, we offer the climate change context to the exploration of disaster justice by others in this book.