THE AGE article: Flirting with disaster

To read the full article by Michael Green click here.

With climate change tipped to cause more fires, floods and heatwaves, big business is joining science in calling for increased spending on disaster prevention.

The Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research was established by the state Labor government in 2009. In this week's budget, the Napthine government did not extend its funding. It will close at the end of next month. 

The outgoing director of the Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research , Professor Rod Keenan, says we have made progress adapting to some aspects of the climate threat. The long drought and the scorching Black Saturday summer prompted gains in water efficiency, along with better heatwave warnings and bushfire responses. But overall, we're still beset by the ''notion that 'she'll be right, we've always had disasters and we'll deal with them when the time comes','' Keenan says, ''rather than anticipating and planning to avoid the worst impacts.''