Fire, floods forecast to hit Australia
AUSTRALIA will suffer extreme bushfires and a longer fire season, as well as greater deluges of flooding rain, sea surges and displaced persons, as climate change heightens the severity of natural hazards, a parliamentary national security inquiry has heard.
And such will be the frequency and ferocity of future multistate emergencies, disaster management call-outs will put pressure on emergency help, notably from the Australian Defence Force.
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade committee inquiry into the implications of climate change for the nation’s national security has concluded that not only does climate change exist but is already impacting national resources.
Addressing the committee for the first time under the newly formed Home Affairs Department umbrella, Emergency Management Australia director general Mark Crosweller told the inquiry climate was a threat multiplier that might create instability in Australia and the broader region. He said in his 34 years in the industry it’s only been in the past five years he’s been forced to deploy resources across states, notably to Western Australia.
“It’s not that Western Australia can’t cope per se; it’s that the pressure on resources, the stretch of resources and the extent of fire in the landscape warrants an interstate response,” he said. “Climate change is heightening the severity of natural hazards. We are already seeing increasingly frequent and intense extreme heat events.”