The Weather That Changed Us
The podcast Who’s Gonna Save Us has changed its name to The Weather That Changed Us
Australia experiences all kinds of extreme weather. Cyclones, fires, floods and heat — we see it all. But in the midst of these disasters, it seems we’re pretty good at rallying together and making necessary changes. So how have we taken what we’ve learned in the past to shape the Australia of today and our future? And what are the challenges that climate change will bring? In a year of ever-hotter global temperature records, warnings about ice melting in Antarctica and the northern hemisphere, rapidly developing hurricanes, torrential rain and flooding, it can be hard to understand the ways our weather is changing and intensifying. Everyone is grappling with what it’s like to live in a warming world and the consequences we will have to face and survive.
In this season we revisit 2009 when a blanket of heat smothered south-eastern Australia, killing hundreds and melting cities. It’s the story of how that became a wake-up call for Australia, that we need to change how we manage extreme heat.
Fifty years later we learn how Cyclone Tracy decimated the northern city of Darwin on Christmas Day in 1974. But its devastation also led to transformation. Building codes were overhauled changing how we build houses across Australia today.
In 1999 a hailstorm like no other came out of nowhere and rained down across Sydney, Australia’s most populous city. The hail shattered roofs, windows and cars and all previous
insurance bills from natural disasters. It also became a transformative moment for the state’s emergency services.
In 2003 on a baking hot Canberra day, a phenomenon never before caught on camera was captured unleashing its full power. The first pyro-tornadogenesis, or fire tornado, ever recorded screamed across the Canberra hills and into the suburbs. It also supercharged fire research in Australia and changed our warning systems.
For some children, the breaking of the millennium drought was the first time they’d seen rain and puddles. But the decade-long dry spell that covered eastern Australia delivered more than cracked earth — it changed how we thought about and valued water. It also heralded 'star ratings’ so we could buy appliances that saved water.
For those who lived through them, our past disasters have left deep and lasting change. But they’ve also left a legacy for us all, from the houses we build to the jobs we do, our politics and the way we live in our world. Join 'The Weather That Changed Us’ to learn more about the disasters that shocked, united and rallied Australians and how they can prepare us for the next ones Australia will face.
© 2024, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All right reserved. · more info
Artwork and data is from the podcast’s open RSS feed; we link directly to audio · Read our DMCA procedureIn the news
Winners of the Australian Podcast Awards 2023 announced, powered by iHeart (Nov 21 2023)
Listen and follow
Information for podcasters
- Podcast GUID:
730030fb-31ce-55ce-9e51-7f3fb318fdb1 - This podcast doesn’t have a trailer. Apple Podcasts has a specific episode type for a trailer, which also gets used by many other podcast apps: but there isn’t one correctly marked in the RSS feed from the host.
- This podcast appears to be missing from iVoox and Luminary. We list all the podcast directories to be in.
- See this podcast’s listener numbers, contact details and more at Rephonic
- Validate this podcast’s RSS feed with Livewire, Truefans or CastFeedValidator
Privacy: The player will download audio directly from the host if you listen. That shares data (like your IP address or details of your device) with them.
Affiliate links: This page links to Apple Podcasts. We may receive a commission for purchases made via those links.
Cache: This podcast page made . Scheduled for update on . Rebuild this page now