‘This is an emergency’: Australia’s extreme weather crises spark anger at climate inaction

Houses surrounded by floodwater in Lismore, NSW. Experts say Australia has seen extreme rainfall events become more frequent and intense over the past decade. Photograph: Dan Peled/Getty Images

With recent months bringing record rain, record heat and a sixth mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia has experienced a troubling start to the year. While unprecedented rainfall resulted in devastating floods along the east coast, other parts of the country have experienced the driest summer in decades.

These events have coincided with a La Niña atmospheric phenomenon, which developed in November and is typically associated with a wetter summer across eastern Australia. But the seemingly ceaseless extreme weather this year has left many Australians homeless, despondent and angry at the federal government’s wilful lack of climate action.