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092: Making a climate resilience plan
2.5k Plays9 months ago
In this episode, Mia and Dinah talk about improving the way you and your household cope with climate-related events and emergencies. This is known as climate resilience and it isn’t about preventing climate change or taking action against climate change, but preparing for escalating climate-related issues and disasters.
Resources
Emergency kits and evacuation plans
https://www.getready.qld.gov.au/emergencykit
https://www.getready.qld.gov.au/plan#household-emergency-and-evacuation-plan
State climate change websites
- Australian Capital Territory
- Tasmania
- Victoria
For the full show notes, head to Life Admin Life Hacks.
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Transcript
Introduction to Life Admin Life Hacks
00:00:01
Speaker
This is Life Admin Life Hacks, a podcast that gives you techniques, tips, and tools to tackle your life admin more efficiently, to save your time, your money, and improve your household harmony. I'm Diana Roberts, an operations manager who's already alarmed by the price of food. But the research we did for this app has inspired me to resurrect my long-neglected veggie garden. I'm Mia Northrop, a researcher and writer who's focusing on what is in my control and the actions I can take rather than what is out of my control.
What is Climate Adaptation?
00:00:31
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Life Admin Life Hacks. So ring news listeners, we are on track to miss the 2030 climate target set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which means we are plotting towards climate collapse. To be honest, this episode isn't about scaring people and freaking everybody out. I think the writing has been on the wall for some time. But we decided, look, now is the time to plan for what now seems inevitable.
00:00:58
Speaker
extreme weather events that are changing forever the way that we live. There is still considerable discounting of climate risk, which means our governments, NGOs, businesses have not been as ambitious about the scope and progress of climate adaptation that we need. And so we want to shift from mitigation to adaptation, from being reactive to actually
00:01:18
Speaker
planning. And I think it's one of those things that's really easy just to talk about and think about, but actually not to take any tangible steps about what you're going to do in response to the issue.
Assessing Climate Risks and Vulnerabilities
00:01:29
Speaker
Yeah. So in this episode, we talk about resources to help you identify risks in your region, how to do a vulnerability assessment of your home and situation and adaptations you might need to make to your home and assets.
00:01:41
Speaker
So we're going to talk about climate change impacts and risks and what you can do to prepare for them. So this is what is known as climate resilience. And it's not actually about preventing climate change or taking action against climate change, which are obviously admirable things to do, but actually really improving the way you cope with climate change and manage the impacts.
00:02:04
Speaker
So this is very much going to be an episode where you're going to want to check the show notes afterwards as we have links to all the resources we mentioned. And you're going to need to schedule a couple of hours of power to walk through the preparation steps, make some decisions and get things organized. And look, the reality is some of the impacts of climate change have felt already like we or someone we know have all been exposed to floods, storms, fires in the last year.
00:02:30
Speaker
Some other impacts are imminent, some are longer term, and some of their risks will require you to make serious decisions and may take years to put your plan into place. Yeah, so we know climate change is going to impact each region of Earth differently, but across the board, we are all facing more frequent and more severe heatwaves where we have extreme temperatures on land in ocean warming and marine heatwaves. There'll be more ocean acidification, droughts,
00:02:56
Speaker
riverine and surface water floods and hail damage from heavy rainfall intensity and severe thunderstorms. There's going to be fewer tropical cyclones and more severe cyclones. There'll be coastal flooding from storm surges and rising sea levels, more severe and more frequent bushfires. There'll be lower air quality, lots of smoke in the air. I just feel that I believe thunderstorm asthma is a thing that like, I don't know, five years ago, that wasn't a thing. And now every summer, spring, there's like thunderstorm asthma.
00:03:25
Speaker
be the glacial retreat and the ice sheet melt and sea level rise which you're all familiar with and depending on where you live you could also be experiencing higher winds than normal and higher levels of snowfall. Yeah so when you read through the climate change literature they outline the impacts on ecosystems such as you know biodiversity and overgrazing and human systems and we're going to focus in this episode on the human system so
Impact of Climate Change on Cities and Health
00:03:50
Speaker
Impact on cities like the infrastructure supply chain and services due to fires, floods, droughts, heatwaves, storms and sea level rising. Increase in heat related mortality.
00:04:01
Speaker
and morbidity due to heat waves. I actually was involved in a research report on that a couple of years ago. So really interesting how much impact those heat waves have on the most vulnerable in our community. And interestingly on that, it's like the rise in the temperature is expected to cause the most issues rather than the floods and the storms, which has impact on infrastructure. It's actually the heat that is going to cause lots of trouble for our health.
00:04:26
Speaker
Yeah, and also disruption and decline in agricultural production, which is obviously one that's on the top of my worry list around food security challenges.
Three Elements of Climate Change Adaptation
00:04:36
Speaker
Yeah, and obviously stress to rural communities who are relying on that for their livelihoods.
00:04:41
Speaker
So that's all the stuff that is happening and coming away. So climate change adaptation has three elements. There's the preparation, what we can do now. There's the response, which is what to do when a climate related event is happening. And then there's recovery, which is what to do after a climate related event. And we're going to focus on preparation in this episode. This is life admin at its greatest. This is what we've been training for, people. This is what we've
00:05:06
Speaker
being pulling together our processes and tools and strategies and resources so we can prepare. OK, so let's kick off with talking about the first phase in preparation, which is really to do a risk assessment for your location. So like where you live to really understand the specific climate related risks that your region or locality faces. So this could include, you know, floods, wildfires, extreme heat or drought or storms or
00:05:35
Speaker
If you live by the coast, you might also be impacted by the rising of the sea levels. Now, most state government and local council websites have resources to understand what is happening in your region. So they'll have flood maps, they'll have coastal inundation maps.
00:05:50
Speaker
I'll talk about bushfire prone zones and have the resources so you can understand for your house where you actually live right now, what it's likely to be experienced. And this time, also September last year, I live in an area in Melbourne, I don't know, 5Ks from the city and we experienced
00:06:08
Speaker
terrible flooding here. There was just heaps of rain. The river, which is about, I don't know, it's less than a kilometer from my house, flooded and came so far inland and just wiped out all these houses. And everyone in Melbourne was like, what the hell? Like this is, you know, sometimes you think this happens in the countryside where things flood all the time, but this is coming into the city. So my area here, everyone is like, where is the flood zone? Where are the flood maps?
00:06:35
Speaker
have a think about where your house sits, what you're likely to be experiencing. Yeah, so that's the first step in terms of really sitting down and thinking about for your house. And I guess it's also really important to think about if you're thinking about moving, that you think about doing that preparation as part of your consideration when deciding when to move, like a sea change.
00:06:55
Speaker
might not be such a good sea change if you move to an area where the sea levels are likely to rise. Okay, so once you've done that research around what's the risks of your location, the next step is to do a vulnerability assessment for your own household. So Mayor, what sort of things should we consider when we're doing that? Yeah, so you want to consider the factors such as the location of your home and its susceptibility to these flooding or extreme weather events, and also the impact of climate change on your daily life and activities. So
00:07:25
Speaker
This includes considering the work you do and whether it involves working outside or in un-air conditioned spaces, or if you work in an industry vulnerable to climate impact, such as, you know, especially agriculture and fisheries and aquaculture, but also tourism and hospitality, construction, real estate, transport and supply chain logistics. So these are all things where if things start to, you know, either it's a climate related event and people stop going to an area or don't want to live in an area,
00:07:55
Speaker
or there is some kind of disruption to production or disruption to service, then things get tricky, which we've seen. I mean, we saw this in the pandemic, which wasn't climate related. But when, you know, areas, actually, we've seen this also with supply chain in Australia when there's
00:08:10
Speaker
cloud related events and a whole crop gets wiped out and suddenly you can't buy a certain vegetable or fruit or the price skyrockets. So have a think about the work that you do. You might also want to have a think about your pets and how they could be impacted by any of these climate change and how you might need to keep them safe in an emergency. So what things you might need to put in place to keep them well. Yeah.
00:08:34
Speaker
You also need to review your assets. So apart from your house, you need to think about your superannuation fund and pay attention to what it is investing in and whether it's exposed to high risk property and infrastructure in vulnerable areas that could be impacted by climate change or if it's investing in fossil fuels and not really responding effectively to policy and regulatory changes that are related to climate change.
00:08:59
Speaker
There are some funds that are more sustainable than others, and some funds have a mix of investment options that are more sustainable than others. You don't want to be having your money tied up into a fund where it's got a lot of property and a lot of infrastructure that could be damaged by climate-related events or in fossil fuels rather than looking at some of the more sustainable options
Financial and Health Impacts of Climate Change
00:09:21
Speaker
that are either actively fighting climate change or more resilient around climate change. And you don't want to be with a funny duddy fund who's just kind of barely keeping up with the regulatory changes and not really on the ball when it comes to what their investment options are. Yeah, definitely. You also want to have a think if you're lucky enough to own an investment property, like consider what vulnerabilities that might have in respect to climate change and
00:09:44
Speaker
Do you need to prepare that property or do you need to sell that property given the risks? So really think about not only where you live, but also any investment properties you might have. You also want to check out your insurance and understand whether you have adequate insurance that covers your risks. And this is a changing landscape. This is worth looking at every year because as more climate related events happen,
00:10:08
Speaker
The terms and conditions of our policies are changing as more data comes in about what the risks actually are. So you definitely want to avoid under insurance so you can repair or rebuild or replace contents if something happens to your home. And you obviously want to avoid your claim being denied due to ineligibility causes.
00:10:27
Speaker
If you have an uninsurable property now is the time to sell before there are even more uninsurable properties on the market. This to me feels like five years ago, should we, we could have all spend a thousand dollars accumulating on Bitcoin and then it hit $60,000 a coin and we'd all be driving Lamborghinis right now. If you have property that is in an area that is, it has vulnerabilities, it's worth looking at whether you should be selling now because as more data comes in and the risks grow,
00:10:56
Speaker
it'll be harder and harder to sell your home because no one's going to want to move to an area that's more vulnerable to climate related events or that can't be insured. I guess the next thing to do, which is something clearly close to my heart, Mia, is to think about your budget and think about how that's going to change in the coming years because of the impacts of climate change. So we know that energy costs are just going to continue to increase, but also you might need to have increased cooling because of the extreme heat.
00:11:23
Speaker
We know property insurance is likely to go up. And of course, food costs just going higher and higher. Really thinking about what that might do in terms of your financial position. By 2050, this is like this terrible fact that Mia found while we were researching for this episode. Extreme events related to climate change are projected
00:11:45
Speaker
to halve the agricultural output of the areas of the Murray-Darling Basin. So that basin covers much of New South Wales and currently accounts for 50% of Australia's irrigated agricultural output. So, you know, if that comes to fruition, we just know that food costs are going to increase by a lot. So really thinking about whether you've got enough buffer in your budget to be able to account for that increased cost. Yeah, that was slightly terrifying. That was from the New South Wales government website.
00:12:15
Speaker
and every state government has their own climate change related website and other stats about how agricultural production is going to be impacted in their state but food costs are going to be rising. We also need to consider who in your life is at risk especially to extreme heat which has that high more
00:12:33
Speaker
and high morbidity rates than other types of weather events. So, you know, people who live alone in housing without air conditioning or in urban heat islands, like central business districts. So there's a lot of talk around some areas that don't have a lot of tree canopy and a lot of green spaces to absorb the heat and deflect the heat, especially living in cities. It's just going to get super hot. So people who work outside, people who work inside without air conditioning, people with
00:13:02
Speaker
certain health conditions, if you're an athlete or you compete and train outside, people who have mobility constraints and infants and young children and pregnant women. These are all people who are going to be more vulnerable to extreme heat. So we're going to talk about some of the adaptations you can make to your home in a minute to make sure that you're protected by
Preparing for Emergencies
00:13:22
Speaker
this.
00:13:22
Speaker
But as I was reading through this material, I was thinking about that Apple TV series, Extrapolations. Have you seen that, Diamond? No. Well, you hate sci-fi. I was like, what's this boss sci-fi? It's this brilliant series. It basically every episode is 10 more years into the future.
00:13:39
Speaker
and they extrapolate different climate metrics. So there's one around what happens if the sea levels keep rising? What happens if the next one's like, what happens if the temperatures hit blah? What happens if this flooding happens? And it's really well done. It's sobering. I kind of find it amazing that we have time to make
00:13:59
Speaker
beautifully produced series about climate change and not so much like government action to deal with it. But there was one episode with the actor, Sienna Miller, and she has pregnancy and then she has this kid and the kid has this condition called summer heart. And it's this condition that heaps of kids have because, you know, when they were being incubated during their mother's pregnancies, it was really hot. And then they were born into these hot conditions. And there's this heart damage that sort of happens. And this series was all based on research.
00:14:27
Speaker
But it kind of freaked me out, this idea that there'll be all these sort of new health conditions based on our little bodies that weren't equipped to live in these hot temperatures, having to deal with it. Or might need to be moving to Tasmania or New Zealand.
00:14:43
Speaker
OK, step three, emergency kit and plan. This is very real for a lot of people around the world already. It is. And I think for me, I always thought it was a bit crazy living here in Melbourne, but the pandemic taught us that an emergency kit definitely has a place in every home. So think about putting together an emergency kit that includes essentials such as water, nonperishable food, toiletries, batteries, torch, radio, first aid supplies, important documents.
00:15:11
Speaker
and definitely any necessary medications. Not only even all of these climate change events, but even some of the supply chain around pharmaceuticals has been quite dicey since Covid. So I was actually yesterday in Melbourne buying sensors for my mother-in-law's diabetes pump because she can't get them in Queensland.
00:15:28
Speaker
kind of fascinating that the supply chain there doesn't seem to be working effectively. Like extreme weather can cause your home to lose power, water, gas. You might not be able to get to a supermarket or pharmacy for supplies. So think about putting together an emergency kit that will last you for three days and store it somewhere safe so you have the things you need when the weather turns bad and
00:15:49
Speaker
That's one of the things that you need to then think about regularly reviewing it and making sure that things in it haven't expired. Yeah. So again, I think this felt like like doomsday prep up to extremist stuff, really until recently. I just, you know, in Australia at the moment, there's been flooding in the New South Wales, South Coast and the town of Mallacoota just got cut off as one road and there's one road out.
00:16:13
Speaker
There was a landslide that came after heavy rainfall and the town became completely isolated and they started running out of food, which is just like, how is this happening in 2023? But this kind of thing is, you know, it's always been possible and unfortunately,
00:16:28
Speaker
is likely to be happening more frequently. So we're going to have a link to a checklist from the Queensland government in the show notes, and the Red Cross is also, the Red Cross website is also a fantastic resource for all things emergency and disaster, but they have lots of, they have an emergency kit checklist, they have an evacuation plan template,
00:16:46
Speaker
And I've been thinking about, you know, if I go and get all this stuff, where am I going to store the food? If I go and put in the shed or I've got an attic space with a spare, there's some space under my stairs. I'm just going to get like a massive one of those big plastic tubs and put it in there.
00:17:01
Speaker
And I think, you know, with all our other, the fact that we've got stuff on the cloud, we should all be having our fireproof saves by important documents in them already. We've got episodes on that if you haven't got that in line, but these are the things that we can have in place so that we are ready to go if we need to. In addition to that kit, you want to think about developing a family emergency plan that outlines how you, the evacuation routes, how you might communicate, where you might meet up. And so we'll have a link of that in the show notes as well. Yeah.
00:17:30
Speaker
And knowing where you'll go in an emergency is something to work out now. So you want to have a few different options amongst friends or family in different directions. Because again, you know, there was a bushfire recently. I heard on the radio this couple saying they had to just get in their car, grab their pet and drive. And they're like, where are we going? We don't even know where to go. There hadn't been any public shelters set up yet. And they just had to kind of flee. So
00:17:56
Speaker
You want to have like some discussions with family and friends that if something happens in your area with bushfires coming or there's flooding and you have to pack up and leave for a week, can we come and stay with you? Like have the discussion or at least come to their house as like an initial evacuation point and then sort yourself out from there. Because obviously the public shelters do get created in Australia. We're lucky that we have that infrastructure, but you don't want to rely on them necessarily.
00:18:22
Speaker
It's also time to build a personal support network. So you might want to join Adaptation and Disaster Preparedness Group. So Mayor, I think you found one called Plan C for a Resilient Byron Bay. Yeah, there's lots out there. I was poking around these, you know, the council websites and the state government websites have links to all these adaptation and resilience groups that are already happening. And I'm like, good on you people who are really paying attention and totally prepared. I wonder if they're all like ex-scouts people.
00:18:52
Speaker
But they have lots of advice on how to prepare and local resources and services. Basically, you don't want to be isolated and alone if something is going on. You want to be able to tap into family or friends in your community and know that there's support if you need it and you can share advice. Okay, so that's all that emergency kit
Making Homes Climate-Resilient
00:19:12
Speaker
and planning. There's an hour of power right there, pulling all that together.
00:19:15
Speaker
And there's a little shopping trip involved to go and get those supplies and get you a little emergency stuff happening. And you know what? It's a bit like insurance. You might never need to use it, but I tell you what, if there is a moment of emergency in crisis and you use it once, you'll be so thankful that you were prepared. Yeah.
00:19:32
Speaker
Okay, so now let's talk about getting your infrastructure more climate resilient. So we're talking about evaluating and enhancing the resilience of your home and your assets. So let's step through lots of things that you might want to think about here. This is a long list of stuff. It is a long list. So strap in and have a think as we're going through it thinking, oh yeah, that's my house. I need to think about that.
00:19:53
Speaker
Yeah. So the first one is to think about insulation in your house and particularly for bedrooms. It's really important to make it easy for you to sleep where you have these kind of extreme heat of ENSOR and also reduces your reliance on energy when it comes to air con and heating. That was another thing that was in this extrapolation show on Apple.
00:20:12
Speaker
So there was an episode set in India where obviously there's parts of India where the temperature is going to be basically unlivable. So they had introduced a curfew where you basically weren't allowed outside during the day because you would basically have a stroke. It shows everyone standing waiting for the curfew siren to sound at dusk and then everyone goes into their day. But at nighttime, they're all sleeping in like these swag sleeping bags, swag things that are attached to like personal air conditioned ventilation units to
00:20:43
Speaker
It does remind me of when we lived in Dubai and I used to look at the temperature and in there like we had like a thermometer gauge in our lounge room. And I used to say, OK, kids, 40 degrees, you're allowed outside now. Yeah, yeah, that's what's going to happening. All right. So there's insulation, super important. And then obviously sufficient air conditioning and fans and ventilation in your home.
00:21:06
Speaker
to be able to bring down temperatures, maintain cool temperatures. And I guess to try and reduce that, minimising the direct sun exposure in your home. So if you're thinking about renovations or thinking about installing some blinds can really help to reduce the heat within your house. Yeah. And I've been really noticing that for the last two days in Melbourne, we had 30 plus degree days and I was watching where does the sun actually come right into my home? And there are two areas during summer
00:21:34
Speaker
They don't have blinds, there's no curtains or anything. And I'm like, yeah, curtains are a common, curtains are a common. Okay, the next one is double glazing windows. This is just as important for insulation as well, keeping the heat out. Yeah, thinking about whether you got sufficient elevation to avoid surface flooding. So that's another one to think about in your home or if you're renovating.
00:21:56
Speaker
Yeah. And it's funny with the surface flooding, it can be from rainwater, but can also be from the street if the drains aren't clear and properly and the water builds up in the street and comes into your home. Yeah. I mean, that's happened in Melbourne so much in the last year or so. Again, back to heat, the recommendations are around having light coloured cool roofing. So if you've got a roof that is painted
00:22:20
Speaker
Black, charcoal, all the colors right now, dark brown. These are all colors that absorb the heat. And the facade of your home, if your home is painted charcoal or black or dark blue or some other heat absorbing color, the recommendation is that you move to a light color. So it's going to not absorb so much heat.
00:22:40
Speaker
Another way you can think about that is to have trees and shade structures in strategic locations and that can help reduce the direct sunlight into your home. Yeah. And there's also a recommendation that you have a cool retreat in your home, ideally on the south side, if you're in the southern hemisphere or on the north side, if you're in the northern hemisphere. And this is basically a part of your house that has an orientation that is away from the direct sunlight.
00:23:04
Speaker
It can be underground, it can be a basement, but there is a cool zone in your house that you know can be reliably kept cool. When I read that, I was like, this is like borderline terrifying that we need a cool retreat in our house.
00:23:20
Speaker
We also want to think about having a rainwater tank so that you can have some water on hand. Making sure, so in terms of the rain, you want rainwater or stormwater drainage. If you're going to get pummeled, is the water draining properly from your property? Do you have a garden design that redirects rainwater or floodwater? And on the flip side, can you store that rainwater if we go through periods of drought or high temperature, having your own supply of fresh water, either for drinking if you want to be sterilizing it
00:23:49
Speaker
or recycling it, you know, recycling grey water for use on gardens or toilets during drought. Also things to consider. Yeah, and you might want to also consider whether you've got the most water efficient appliances like your shower heads, your taps and your toilets. So more to do with water, you want fittings and furnishings that can withstand flooding. So if you are in a flood prone area, then, you know, things like concrete floors are going to make all the difference compared to things like carpet and floorboards that take a lot of time to dry out.
00:24:19
Speaker
that need to be repaired after flooding. You might want to have a think about whether your roof can cope with intense rainfall. I think we had a hailstorm in Melbourne here overnight. Or if you're in a more fire related zone, whether it can minimise fire and is caught in the roofline. You might want to consider bushfire shutters or sprinkler systems if you're in a bushfire zone and obviously building with fire resistant materials. And most of that now is legislated via building codes in bushfire zones. You have to build with certain materials.
00:24:48
Speaker
which is obviously pushing up the price of a lot of those homes because there's a lot more sort of steel and glass rather than wood. And you also want to think about minimizing fuel loads that are close to your home. So things that could catch fire in the event of a fire related event.
00:25:03
Speaker
Yeah. And if you live somewhere where they're likely to be severe storms and cyclones, think about window protection as well. So it might be shades or shutters. Now, the final one is grow your own food, people. Get those veggie gardens going, fruit trees. Get the veggies going, plant some fruit trees, get some chickens, like food costs are only going to go up. If the forecasts come true and we do have major output falls in agricultural production,
00:25:29
Speaker
which is going to happen globally. You want to be able to grow your own food and know how to grow
Opportunities and Actions in Climate Adaptation
00:25:34
Speaker
your own food. I have a friend who she's a sustainability partner and a big consulting firm and.
00:25:39
Speaker
She is like, yeah, it's now is the time to go and buy books about how to grow food properly and learn some horticultural skills. Don't want to be relying on the Internet for that kind of stuff. She's actually painted this scenario. She's like, what if there's some kind of like soulstorm and the Internet is down and then everybody. I'm like, the Internet has never gone down. And she's like, does it matter? Really?
00:26:02
Speaker
That's my teenager's worst fear. It is worth noting that the projected warming levels under current emissions mean adaptation won't always be possible. So we might have to adjust in more significant ways. So you might even need to think about leaving where we live or the region we live or changing jobs because, you know, where you live or your work can't adapt adequately. I mean, the flip side of this is that there's a lot of opportunities to work in this area. There are a lot of industries where it's like
00:26:31
Speaker
this industry is going to become more important than ever to help us adapt. So there will be lots of opportunities in that direction. But essentially now is the time to consider the vulnerability of your household to climate change and make the necessary changes today that will prepare you for the future. So we hope we haven't freaked you out. This is a rallying cry to go and empower yourself. Start putting things in place.
00:26:55
Speaker
so that you do feel confident and you do feel equipped.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:26:58
Speaker
Yeah, so take some action, schedule some hours of power to get clear about understanding the risk of climate change in your region, assessing the vulnerability of everyone in your life and in your household, creating an emergency kit and evacuation plan, and deciding what climate resilient infrastructure you need to put in place. Thanks for listening. Show notes for this episode are available at lifeadminlifehacks.com.
00:27:25
Speaker
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