Fire, flood and wishful thinking: Why we’re not ready for Victoria’s climate future
Residents in rural Victoria, Australia, are struggling with the psychological and physical impacts of recurring climate-driven floods. The article argues that current government policy is failing to adequately prepare communities for inevitable climate disasters.
Why it matters
It underscores the growing gap between climate reality and government adaptation strategies, particularly for vulnerable rural populations.
No matter what is done to reduce carbon emissions, more violent weather, sea-level rise, flooding, fire and drought are inevitable. That scenario is raising huge questions for governments, councils, communities and authorities.
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Share A A A Across the country, Australia is falling behind in adapting to the backed-in impacts of climate change. See all stories . Gloria and Ian Brereton survive on a dark kind of wishful thinking. Their hope is that by the time the next flood sweeps through their little house in Mooroopna in rural Victoria, they’ll be dead.
“We’re sort of towards the end of our lives,” says the seventy-something Gloria as she prepares pasties in a kitchen overlooking her lush back garden. “So I think, well, hopefully … we won’t be around for the next one.”
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