Sunday 24 January 2021
“Parts of Victoria and NSW are sweating through an extreme heatwave that started sweeping across Australia’s southeast on Saturday.
This may seem like just a good excuse to go to the beach, but as the planet warms and summers become longer and less bearable, heatwaves are coming to represent an existential threat to Australian suburbs.
Already, heat kills more people in Australia than any other natural disaster, including floods, cyclones and bushfires.
Now, faced with the prospect of 50-degree-plus summers, experts say highly urbanised parts of Australia may become unliveable within decades.
The race is on to re-imagine, redesign and rebuild the Australian suburb.”
“A project called Sweltering Cities is surveying residents to hear what it’s like to live, work and travel around Western Sydney on days of extreme heat.
The responses so far paint a scary picture, says Emma Bacon, who’s running the survey.
“The amount of people who use the word ‘dread’ with me about summer is shocking,” she says.
“Overwhelmingly, they’re saying political parties should have policies to address the heat in the city.””