Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: What are extreme weather events and who is impacted by them?

10 minutes

Find Out: Impact of climate change on First Nations Australians.

25 minutes

Take Action: Mitigating the effects of climate change on First Nations Australians

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will:

investigate why First Nations communities are among the most heavily impacted by climate change and associated extreme weather events.

Students can:

explain the factors that increase the impact of extreme weather events on First Nations Australians
discuss current strategies to reduce the impact of climate change on First Nation Australians.

Tune In: What are extreme weather events and who is impacted by them?

Ensuring psychological safety and inclusivity:

Before beginning this lesson, it is essential to account for the experiences of any First Nations students in your class. It is important not to isolate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in how the material is taught. Some First Nations students may have important insights or contributions which should be welcomed. However, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students should not be expected to contribute any more than other students.

Step 1

Explain to your students that as the climate changes, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are also increasing.

Ask your students to brainstorm what examples of ‘extreme weather events’ could be.

Suggested response: The World Meteorological Organisation (https://wmo.int/topics/extreme-weather) defines extreme weather events as weather that is ‘rare at a particular place and time of year with unusual characteristics in terms of magnitude, location, timing or extent.’ Research indicates all the risks from these extreme weather events will escalate the more the planet warms (Source).

Examples of these types of weather events could include:

heatwaves and heat extremes
storms, heavy rain and flooding
drought
cyclones and tornadoes
bushfires/wildfires (this is an international term used for what we classify as ‘bushfires’ in Australia)
coldwaves.

Extension opportunity: Go through the Australian Institute of Disaster Resilience (knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/natural-hazards-and-climate-change/) website for explanations about how climate influences bushfires, cyclones, extreme heat, floods, storms, rainfall, rising sea levels, etc.

Literacy opportunity: You may also want to draw students' attention to the glossary of disaster-related vocabulary accompanying this Unit.

Step 2

Either as a class or individually, invite students to explore this resource from NASA (science.nasa.gov/climate-change/extreme-weather/) that shows the effect of climate change on the different types of extreme weather. Encourage your students to fill out the table in their Student Worksheet (also below), listing the extreme weather types and the key points of the associated information.

For more Australian-specific information, take a look at:

Weather event	Causes/Information	Potential risks

Step 3

Considering the information students have gathered in the above step, ask them to brainstorm what types of places and communities around the world they think would be most affected by these extreme weather events.

Suggested responses:

Coastal areas and communities face increased risks from cyclones and storm surges due to rising sea levels and more intense tropical storms. Low-lying coastal regions are particularly susceptible to flooding and erosion, which threaten homes, infrastructure, cultural heritage, and livelihoods.

Arid/semi-arid regions, like deserts and drought-prone areas and communities, experience heightened vulnerability to water scarcity, crop failures and food insecurity during prolonged dry spells. These regions rely heavily on agriculture and may struggle to adapt to shifting precipitation patterns and reduced water availability.
Low-income countries and regional/remote communities with limited resources and inadequate infrastructure are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather events. These nations may lack early warning systems, emergency response capabilities, and resilient infrastructure, exacerbating the impact of disasters on local communities.
Cities/urban communities are at particular risk during heatwaves, which can impact the health system and critical infrastructure (e.g. power supply), and increase risk to children and the elderly. See here for more information about heatwaves (knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/heatwave/climatechange.environment.nsw.gov.au/stories-and-case-studies/building-adaptive-capacity-heat-western-sydney).

Step 4

Bring this discussion closer to home and ask your students what geographic locations and communities in Australia might be most vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather events associated with climate change.

Students might immediately think of geographic locations however, encourage them to think of the socio-economic reasons a community might be impacted more severely by an extreme weather event.

Suggested response:

Geographic Location: Australia's vulnerability to extreme weather events varies across regions. Coastal areas like Queensland and northern New South Wales face the threat of cyclones and flooding. Bushfire-prone areas in New South Wales and Western Australia are at risk of bushfires, and agricultural regions in eastern Australia are susceptible to drought. Urban centres such as Sydney and Melbourne experience heatwaves differently from other regions due to the urban heat island effect (education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/urban-heat-island/). For more information, see page 25 of the State of the Climate Report, 2022 from the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO (bom.gov.au/state-of-the-climate/2022/documents/2022-state-of-the-climate-web.pdf).
Socio-economic Reasons: Socio-economic factors also influence vulnerability to extreme weather events in Australia. Rural and remote communities often lack access to resources and infrastructure, increasing their susceptibility to disasters like droughts and bushfires. Communities at higher risk, including but not limited to low-income households, people with a disability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, face greater challenges in preparing for and recovering from extreme weather events. In urban areas, disparities in access to healthcare and housing exacerbate the impacts of heat waves and flooding on marginalised populations.

Find Out: Impact of climate change on First Nation Australians

Step 1

Outline to your students that First Nations Australians are among the most heavily impacted by severe weather events associated with climate change in Australia. You might like to brainstorm with your students some reasons why this might be the case. Highlight the systemic reasons (e.g. colonial legacy, systemic racism and historical approaches) as to how and why First Nations peoples are disproportionately affected by extreme weather events/climate change, in addition to geographical location, such as:

lack of consultation in emergency planning and preparedness initiatives
lack of early warning messaging in language
racism in evacuation centres
evacuation centres that aren't culturally-safe.

Step 2

Using The Disproportionate Impacts of Extreme Weather Events on First Nations Australians Visual Explainer, talk through the two different maps highlighting the density of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples across Australia. Discuss with your students what data and context each different map provides. Why should we look at both maps and not just one?

In groups of five, provide students with this A4 printout of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Populations Maps and share the following links with your students (also available on the Student Worksheet), which lead to maps showing the locations/predicted locations of extreme weather events (which can also be found on the attached Visual Explainer if you would like to show them as a class).

Locations of extreme weather events in Australia:

Cyclone map (community-safety.ga.gov.au/data-and-products/tcha)
Climate Heat Map of Australia (climatecouncil.org.au/resources/heatmap/)
National Fire and Emergency Services Council's Seasonal Outlook (afac.com.au/auxiliary/publications/seasonal-outlook)
Drought map (last 12 months) (nacp.org.au/drought_monitor)
Precipitation Map (last 12 months) (nacp.org.au/drought_monitor)
BOM Rainfall Forecasts (bom.gov.au/jsp/watl/rainfall/pme.jsp?ref=ftr)

Depending on the amount of time you have for this task, you might like to work as a class to simply look at and discuss the maps in this section. If you have more time to dedicate to this lesson, follow the rest of this step and Steps 3 and 4 below so that students can work more closely with the data provided.

Step 3

If available, provide each group of students with five pieces of tracing paper(or baking paper!). Students will create a layer map to compare the locations of extreme weather events to the areas in which a large number of First Nations Australians live.

Ask each student to trace the outline of Australia from one of the maps onto their piece of tracing paper. Allocate each student to a map from above and have them use coloured pencils or textas to replicate the information from the map onto their tracing paper replica, making sure to apply BOLTSS.

Learning support: You can choose just one of the population maps to use with your class, or you can assign different groups to each map, creating discussion around how the different base maps change the interpretation of the data.

Step 4

Invite groups to layer their maps on top of the base population map and ask them to answer the following questions as a group:

What do you notice about the locations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the locations of extreme weather events in Australia?
What locations are most vulnerable to each type of weather event?

Extension opportunity: Students requiring an extension can look at this regional overview map to find out regionally specific information about First Nations communities most vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather events based on their maps above. Encourage students to list the areas most susceptible to particular events and find out more about them, including the percentage of First Nations peoples living in this location, other population statistics or if there are any sites of cultural significance. Students can also find out the local names of the people and Country living in this area and find some more information about them.

Step 5

It’s important to highlight to your students that climate change poses additional challenges for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, not just because of the geographic location of many of these communities but also because of existing vulnerabilities and historical injustices. These communities encounter unique obstacles in adapting to environmental changes, influenced by factors such as geographical location, health status and societal power dynamics.

In the same groups as before, provide your students with the following Climate Change and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Factsheet - which has been adapted from ‘The Climate Change and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Discussion Paper’ by Lowitja Institute.

Step 6

Allow groups to allocate one group member to each section of the Factsheet (there are four sections, however, two students can be allocated to section one due to its length). Students should read their section and write down the key points in the table on their Student Worksheet. Students can work collaboratively by putting all of their information in one communal table or alternatively filling out their own and then discussing with their group members to fill out the rest.

Key concepts	Direct impacts on health	Indirect impacts on health from altered natural systems	Indirect impacts from altered social systems

Take Action: Mitigating the effects of climate change on First Nations Australians

Step 1

Individually provide students with a piece of A3 paper to create a mind map. Their task is to create a visual representation of the impacts of climate change and severe weather events on First Nations Australians by connecting the information they have gathered in this lesson. An example of a section of the mindmap is included below. Encourage students to connect the impacts of severe weather events geographically to the impacts on First Nations Australians.

Step 2

Explain to students that even though severe weather events and climate change disproportionately impact First Nations peoples and communities, there are still ways to lessen these impacts.

Invite students to read pages 32-33 of the Climate Change and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Discussion Paper (lowitja.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Lowitja_ClimateChangeHealth_1021_D10-1.pdf) and take note of the strategies they propose to help First Nations communities adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Extension opportunity: Students requiring extension can read pages 34-37 to explore more deeply how these strategies could be implemented.

Reflection

Reflect on the lesson by asking your students the following questions:

Write down three key factors that mean First Nations Australians are more impacted by climate change and severe weather events than other Australians.
What did you learn about today that surprised you?
What do you want to know more about?

Impacts of Extreme Weather Events on First Nations Australians

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Summary

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