Read the Extreme Weather Heroes Project Overview
Find out more about Extreme Weather Heroes

Read a report on the link between Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events
By P. Vellinga and W. J. van Verseveld

Read the IAG submission to Garnault Review
Financial Services for Managing Risk: Climate Change and Carbon Trading

Read Mara Bun's speech to the 12th National Conference on Volunteering about Extreme Weather
Linking climate change to emergency volunteering

Visit the Australian Emergency Management Volunteers Forum website

Read an article by Red Cross volunteer Jelenko Dragisic

Climate change will increase SES role, Minister says

Visit the Extreme Weather Heroes microsite

The big picture

Australians are on the frontline of climate impacts. Our floods, fires, storms and droughts make headlines around the world.

Each time that extreme weather hits our shores, cities and properties, thousands of emergency volunteers are there to protect, comfort and rebuild communities.

Green Cross wants Australians to recognise our emergency service workers as Extreme Weather Heroes, bravely stepping up to the frontline in the fight against climate change. 

Australia currently has 500,000 emergency volunteers working for 18 different organisations.

Emergency volunteers are vital for community resilience and they are also on the ground to give the community first hand descriptions of the consequences of climate change.

As we prepare for the likely increase in natural disasters, we should support these fantastic organisations any way we can.

We also need to inspire a new generation of volunteers because the current base is aging, at a time when communities are more exposed to severe weather than ever.

What we are doing

Green Cross Australia will promote awareness of the contribution of emergency volunteers and encourage more people - especially young people - to get involved. 

We will do this by connecting the dots between climate change as an issue and emergency volunteering as a community response.

To do this we will hit the social networks, inviting young emergency volunteers - our Extreme Weather Heroes from around Australia - to reach out to their generation and spread the news throughout Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.

Through Internet social networks we will find ways to help the public, especially younger generations, to get a real life sense of how emergency volunteers support the community when extreme weather events hit home.  

Join our campaign by preparing your home, school, office and neighbourhood for severe weather, then start building the skills you will need if you want to be there when the next big event comes your way.

This network was proudly kickstarted by the Nova radio network who spread the news across Australia's capital cities in early 2009.

Network Ten followed suit with community service announcements that featured a great video developed by a year ten rich media class from Brisbane's St Laurence's High School. With a little help from great teachers and parents who work at Publicis Mojo, check out the video these kids came up with.

After extreme weather events hit, Green Cross will work with Australia's emergency volunteers to encourage rebuilding efforts to adopt the most sustainable approaches available - building on the great work of Global Green, our US affiliate, who are building New Orleans back green after Katrina.

The average Australian household generates around 14 tonnes of greenhouse gas each year. This campaign can help Australians see the effects of climate change in their own back yard, encourage adoption of energy saving building practices, and champion solutions to climate change such as renewable energy, public transport, and community education.

Flowerdale is a great example of how we can inspire new green communities to emerge in the aftermath of severe weather events, to cut the greenhouse cycle.

Find out more about Green Cross Australia's Extreme Weather Heroes by visiting www.extremeweatherheroes.org