What if your home, your job — even your culture — vanished under water?
That’s the stark warning of Australia’s first national climate risk assessment.
It says rising oceans and extreme heat could upend the lives of millions within a generation.
The independent report was released just days before Canberra unveils new emission targets.
It projects that by 2050, 1.5 million Australians living in coastal areas will face flooding and sea level rise.
By 2090, that number could double. “We are living climate change now,” Climate Minister Chris Bowen warned. “It’s no longer a forecast — it’s a live reality.”
Which Places At More Risk?
Few places feel the threat more than the Torres Strait Islands, where seas are rising faster than the global average.
“Our coastal and island communities … are at immediate risk of losing their homes, their cultural practices and traditions.
If we do not do anything now,” said Joanne Hill, an Indigenous researcher at Edith Cowan University.
The report also predicts more deaths from heat-related illness and a cascade of compounding disasters.
The message? Waiting is no longer an option.
As one policy expert put it, Australia isn’t staring at a distant future — it’s standing knee-deep in it already.
The question now is how fast it can move to stay dry.
