Ten years ago, climate adaptation research was gaining steam. Today, it’s gutted

Ten years ago, on February 7, 2009, I sat down in my apartment in central Melbourne to write a job application. All of the blinds were down, and the windows tightly closed. Outside it was 47℃. We had no air conditioning. The heat seeped through the walls.

We need to know we can handle whatever the climate throws at us.

When I stepped outside, the air ripped at my nose and throat, like a fan-forced sauna. It felt ominous. With my forestry training, and some previous experience of bad fire weather in Tasmania, I knew any fires that day would be catastrophic. They were. Black Saturday became Australia’s worst-ever bushfire disaster.

I was applying for the position of Director of the Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research (VCCCAR). I was successful and started the job later that year.

Read the piece from The Conversation by Professor Rod Keenan from the University of Melbourne - “Ten years ago, climate adaptation research was gaining steam. Today, it’s gutted.”