Heatwaves

Economic Impacts of a Heatwave

• A heatwave can be devastating to farmers and their crops, for the heat can cause the crops to wilt and die.
• A heatwave causes major heat which wreaks havoc on power grids and infrastructure, which causes electricity consumption to go up, which makes electricity prices go up.
• Most people's houses are not air conditioned, so they would leave their houses and go to cooler places, such as shopping centres, which would generate more money for retailers and restaurants.
• Due to the higher level of insurance claims of economic loss (and even people dying), insurance premiums would rise, which affects the whole economy
• Water consumption would rise as people would water their gardens and drink more, thus water levels in dams may drop, leading to water restrictions, especially in times of drought.

2:1 questions

1. A natural hazard is a naturally occurring event that poses danger to humans.
2. A natural hazard usually poses a minor threat to humans, while a natural disaster affects and poses a direct threat to lots of people, and has the potential to damage property and human life.
3. Those related to weather and climatic factors and those related to movements in the Earth's crust
4. Those related to weather include: drought, heatwaves, brushfires, strong winds, storms, tropical cyclones and tornadoes. Those related to movements in the Earth's crust include: landslides, earth tremors, earthquakes and tsunami's.
5. Because natural hazards that have an effect on densely populated areas affect more people and have more drastic consequences
6. Crops in the outback will die because of lack of water and people may die because of lack of food.
7. Social Impacts, Economic Impacts and Environmental Impacts
8. Most of Australia is settled, leaving many communities at greater risk of a natural disaster.
9. It takes information from 2573 postcodes about how often natural hazards occur at that location, and then shows the potential risk of natural hazard and natural disaster in that area.
10. A) Tsunami, Flood, Bushfire B) Heatwaves
11. A) Local councils could make certain restrictions about things that may be negative towards the community during a natural hazard                                                                                                 B)The state government can learn which parts of the state are most at risk to natural hazard and spend more money protecting and preparing those areas.                        C) They know where the higher risk places are, so they can patrol or station themselves closer to that area               D) Insurance companies would be able to save money by restricting some of their policies to people that live in high risk areas