Culture, Creativity, and Climate: A Dangerous Gap in Policies of Preparedness

This chapter pinpoints a dangerous gap in official policy responses to recent fire and flood emergencies in Australia. The gap is twofold: a relative lack of focus on preparedness and an almost complete lack of focus on the role that arts, culture, and creativity can play in dealing with climate emergencies. A thematic analysis of recommendations in six major bushfire and flood inquiries commissioned between 2020 and 2022 reveals that preparedness is less a focus than resilience, recovery, and response. When preparedness was noted, it was mainly focused on government and government bodies rather than on individuals’ or communities’ preparedness. Several arts and culture organisations’ submissions to these inquiries had virtually no representation in the recommendations. These bodies, though, tend to focus on resilience and recovery. There is an emerging academic literature supporting the preparedness perspective, but to achieve a step change in preparedness to address the accelerating climate crisis, we need coordinated use cases of fused arts and advanced technology presented elsewhere in this book. Without the ability to imaginatively preview what near-future climate shocks could look and feel like, it is almost impossible to believe their likelihood, let alone prepare, especially in frontline communities.