APW2011-The Hazardous Pacific
Channel: ANU TV
Date: 2011-07-20

The Hazardous Pacific: with Dr Colin Filer, Alanna Simpson, Fanny Thornton, Dr Matthew Prebble & Ian Scales. This is the fifth session of Asia Pacific Week 2011, recorded on Tuesday 12 July 2011 at The Australian National University.

Concern about the capacity of Pacific island communities to adapt to natural disasters has been heightened by the anticipation that certain types of disaster will become more frequent and severe as a result of climate change. Australian policy makers have even begun to worry about the possibility of a new category of Pacific island 'boat people' adding to the number of refugees bent on resettling in Australia. However, this hardly does justice to the realities of their past and present, let alone to the uncertainties of their future. This session will paint a more realistic picture of the variety of natural hazards which have confronted Pacific island communities for as long as they have lived in this region, the variety of ways in which they have adapted to these forms of risk and uncertainty, and the variety of planning and policy responses which Pacific nations might adopt to cope with future natural disasters.

The ANU Asia Pacific Week is a four-day showcase of the Australian National University's work on Asia and the Pacific. It is an ANU student-driven initiative that brings together leading regional experts and a 100 of the world's top university students from around the world to engage in a series of academic and networking events focused on the Asia Pacific region.