Australia’s black summer bushfires ripped billions from the tourism industry. Is global warming making the cost of natural disasters worse?

Craig Wickham’s tourism business on Kangaroo Island ‘lost about half a million dollars in the first week’ of the black summer bushfires. Photograph: RSPCA SA/AAP

As Australia headed into the summer of late 2019, Craig Wickham’s tour company Exceptional Kangaroo Island was doing better than ever.

Founded in 1990, it was on track to hit $3m in annual revenue for the first time.