My slides, from presentation at: 23rd IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion. 7 - 11 April 2019, Rotorua, Aotearoa New Zealand

1. Associate Professor Evonne Miller @evonnephd
Director QUT Design Lab, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Causalities, contributors or change agents?
(Re)framing the role of older Australians in climate change
Photo Credit: Dominican Republic -
Dustan Woodhouse, Unsplash

2. • Living Smart Homes – household
sustainability initiative
• Brisbane Floods – 2011 & 2013
(Dr Lauren Brockie)
• Cyclones in FNQ (Dr Sandy Astill)
Image Source: Ken Orivades
Three qualitative projects

3. The Aged Care Puzzle, McCrindle Infographic May 2014. Retrieved from: http://goo.gl/t57U2C
Centenarians
– Six-Fold
Increase
Priority Issues: Climate Change & Population Ageing

4. Proposition 1:
Older People as Contributors to Climate Change
”will we be here in 20 years? It’s what we leave for you, we don’t really want it to be a
nightmare, we don’t want to be labelled the nightmare generation that left you the mess.
Although I don’t feel personally responsible that’s how it’s sort of coming up and could be
labelled… we’re the baby boomers, that have done good and bad things..”
Photo Credit: Ivan Bandura on Unsplash
‘Our Actions, Our Mess, Our Responsibility’
Miller, E. (2018). “My hobby is global warming and peak oil”:
Sustainability as serious leisure. World Leisure Journal, 60(3), 209-220 @evonnephd

5. Proposition 2:
Older People as Causalities of Climate Change
Image Credit: http://division2news.blogspot.com.au/ and Lauren Brockie, & Sandy Astill - PhD thesis
The 2011 & 2013 Brisbane Floods
Tropical Cyclones in FNQ - Larry (2006; Cat 4) & Yasi (2011; Cat 5 )
increasing significant weather events most impact the vulnerable

6. DISASTER
IMPACT VARIES
“Disasters vary widely in the amount and
the nature of the stress they involve:
duration; loss of life; personal injury, or
injury to loved ones; property damage;
terror; helplessness; gruesome sights,
sounds and smells; dislocation from one's
home; availability of social support – all
these factors may differ in a flood as
contrasted to an earthquake, or between
one flood and another, or between one
victim's and another's experience of the
same flood”
Disasters, A Psychological Perspective , Gibbs & Montagnino, p4.
training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/docs/EMT/GibbsPsychology.doc - Image: Evonne Miller
Disaster Impact Varies
@evonnephd

7. When disaster strikes, older adults are
often uniquely vulnerable and
disproportionality negatively affected
• Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, 2005: 71% of people
killed were aged 60 years and over – but older people
only 15% of population. Health of survivors declined at
four times the rate of a national sample of older adults.
• Not solely intersection of poverty, age & social class:
– over half killed by 1995 Kobe Earthquake older adults
– 2003 Paris heatwave, highest death rate was 70+ years
– 2004 Aceh tsunami, highest death rate adults 60+ years
Image Source: Ken Orivades
Miller, E. & Brockie, L. (2018). Resilience and Vulnerability: Older Adults and the Brisbane floods
(pp379-391). In Pijush Samui, Dookie Kim, and Chandan Ghosh (Eds). Integrating Disaster Science and
Management: Global Case Studies in Mitigation and Recovery. USA: Elsevier.
health, reduced mobility, reliance on carers,
psycho-social factors, life histories

8. • FNQ: Innisfail, Babinda & Mission Bay
– Seniors ≥ 65 Years (n=36)
– Disaster Managers (Local Govt – n=4)
– Emergency Workers (Ambulance – n=4)
– Emergency Services Officers (SES – n=8)
– Community Health Care Workers – n=7)
Australia: Cyclones in FNQ
”..”
“Being older makes if harder. There won’t
be a next time. Never again….watching the
stress and fear on my wife’s face was too
much…there is nothing you can do…we got
no assistance from the authorities…the SES
was too busy and the Council was
unprepared…we had to rely on the
kindness of strangers to survive…never
again. We have to leave”
Tully Heads Resident - male, 69 years old.
Although they may have family, they may not
have a friendship network any more because
they are so elderly. They may not have a friend
left on Earth – their networks are quite narrow”
(Social Worker 4 )

9. Emergency and community health workers emphasised the cumulative toll of Larry & Yasi,
which lead to emotional breakdowns and deteriorating physical health. Many older people were
in denial about the reality of their limited ability to cope, reluctant to ask for / accept help.
Emotional Toll Physical Reality
“That’s why after Yasi many of them
lost it – the cumulative effect of
Larry and then Yasi saw many having
an emotional breakdown which
manifested itself in deteriorating
health”
Social Worker 1
“And then there’s the physical side –
with them trying to climb ladders
and fix roofs– so many of them
ended up with pneumonia”
Social Worker 3
They are always vulnerable. Their
entire body system is not as
resilient – that’s why they are reliant
on organisations to care for them.
Without those they would not be
able to survive even everyday life”.
Emergency Service Officer
Many are disabled, ill, very elderly,
caring for ill partners, some have
sight and hearing problems, and
most don’t have a car. We don’t
even have a bus service from
Bramston Beach – how are these
people supposed to get out?
Emergency Service Officers
Astill, S. & Miller, E. (2017). ‘We expect seniors
to prepare and recover from a cyclone as well as
younger residents’: Emergency management’s
expectations of older Australians in remote
cyclone-prone areas. Disaster Medicine and
Public Health Preparedness, 24, 1-5
“
“The cumulative effect of Larry and then Yasi”
multiple stressors, declining physical & emotional health

10. fear no longer be able ‘age in [the] place’ of their choosing
realistic understanding of
physical limitations…
“As you get older your stamina really decreases. I find
lugging sandbags 4 and 5 at a time to block up my door
– I’m absolutely knackered. Even cutting up logs with a
chain saw – there is a lot of energy needed. I am just
not steady enough anymore” M, 79 yrs
concern about facing a cyclone alone
and being unable to cope…
“I will be OK while Ron is alive, but I’don’t know how I
will be when something happens to him” F, 81 yrs
concern re lack of evacuation facilities …
“…emergency services were actually telling you to get to
the evacuation centre, yet they were full… the police
wouldn’t let us back…we had no where to go…we spent
the night in the car. Next time I will tell them to P-Off!”
M, 83 yrs
Astill, S. & Miller, E. (2018). “The trauma of the cyclone has changed us
forever”: Self-reliance, vulnerability and resilience among older
Australians in cyclone prone areas. Ageing & Society, 38(2), 403-429.

11. “it came through as an SMS on the mobile
phone and um.. mine is always turned off”
One couple described how their daughter
‘booked a truck’ for them to remove all they
could : “we took everything, even down to
the plants, we nearly killed ourselves, but we
got everything into the truck, it was an effort
you know, we had to get out quick”.
Ten in-depth interviews with older Brisbane
residents (ave age 73yrs ; 6 females, 4 males)
evacuated from homes during both 2011 & 2013
floods (many experienced 1955 & 1977 floods).
• High level of resilience and personal
responsibility for flood preparedness,
recovery and re-build process.
• Did not see themselves as vulnerable BUT
admitted relying heavily on family, friends
and neighbours for practical assistance
• Research poetry approach
Thousands evacuated
35 DIED
Australia: Brisbane Floods
2011 & 2013
Miller, E. & Brockie, L. (2015). The disaster flood experience: Older people’s
poetic voices of resilience. Journal of Aging Studies, 34, 103-112

12. SINK – OR SWIM?
I’m 74
I was born 1939.
I’m not as strong as I used to be
can’t lift things –
when it starts to rain
when they predict a storm,
say strong winds, flash flooding,
its hair raising.
you think –
is it on again?
you think –
what am I going to do?
you think –
what if, it is just
the Mrs and I here?
you think –
oh, what am I going to do?
got to sink
or
swim.
Charles, Age 74
Image Credit: JD Mason - UnSpash CC
Research Poetry
@evonnephd

13. Brockie, L. & Miller, E. (2017). Older adults’ disaster lifecycle
experience of the 2011 and 2013 Queensland floods. International
Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction,22, 211-218
“On My Own”
On my own
I am on my own.
Been here nine years
I don’t see anyone -
I couldn’t tell you,
the name of anyone –
wouldn’t know them,
if I fell over them.
I am on my own here.
There were a lot of people,
police and emergency crews,
going around
but they never stopped.
I just did, what I could, by myself
I can’t lift furniture, you know, impossible
I did what I could. I loaded my car until I couldn’t get
any more in. I said goodbye to the rest of it.
Nobody came to help me.
I did get a text message,
to say get out.
I did get that.
1. Only support she got was a text
message saying “GET OUT”
2. Felt neglected, vulnerable and
alone – forgotten by neighbour,
ignored by SES and left to cope,
alone, by son
Image Credit: Cristian Newman, CC Unsplash
Research Poetry Carolyn, 67 years
@evonnephd

14. Proposition 3:
Older People as Change Agents for Climate Change
Image Source: www.theispot.com/artist/styson

15. How will you spend your retirement?
Image Source: Mark Ulriksen
• Casual leisure – yoga, golf, watching
television, meeting friends, travel
• Serious leisure (Stebbins, 2009) - activities
that require dedicated time commitment,
specialist skills and training, and often a
high financial cost. Pursue unique
passions to be an amateur musician,
citizen scientist, marathon runner or local
historian.. or climate activist?
“….my hobby is sort of global warming and peak oil”
Miller, E. (2018). “My hobby is global warming and peak
oil”: Sustainability as serious leisure.
World Leisure Journal, 60(3), 209-220

16. The ‘Living Smart Homes’ (LSH) Initiative – Project Overview
• aim to engage Sunshine Coast householders with sustainable changes
• public sign, inspired by land for wildlife
• predominantly online, achieving a ‘leaf’ for each domain - residential water, energy,
waste & transport modules
• Survey and 4 x focus groups with older Australians
• sustainable actions
See: Miller, E., Buys, L. & Bell, L. (2009). ‘Living Smart Homes’: A pilot Australian sustainability education program. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 3(2), 159-170
Research: Assess Impact & Experience of Living Smart Homes Project

17. Theme 1:
leading a sustainable lifestyle in a non-sustainable world
Miller, E. (2018). “My hobby is global warming
and peak oil”: Sustainability as serious leisure.
World Leisure Journal, 60(3), 209-220
Return to Traditional Lifestyles
non-wasteful, frugal lifestyles vs. ‘throw away’ society
@evonnephd

18. Turing Back the Clock?
In the focus groups, participants emphasized what they saw
as generational differences towards viewing and utilising
natural resources (energy, water etc), describing how older
generations just naturally grew up with a ‘non-wasteful’
attitude – describing how their parents /upbringing was
naturally fugal…..
• Being a “a role model to others and contributing to
solving the problem” critical part of their identity
• Still experienced challenges, disappointment and
sacrifice, struggling to make make “ethically
correct” choices to prioritize sustainability in daily
actions – one woman “desperately wanted a pool”..
• Challenged themselves to deepen commitment to
sustainability, consistently learning about and
enhancing actions (e.g., a no shopping challenge, a
zero waste lifestyle, teaching neighbours how to
build a worm farm)
• Their sustainability choices often attracted negative
comment, ridicule and scorn, as “if you are
perceived to be going too far, outside of the norm,
that you are a tree hugging-looney!”
Theme 2:
making sacrifices for being a sustainability role model

19. “”Things like the earth hour, where we had an
hour, that’s its. How about, someone
suggested, why don’t we turn off all the petrol
for a week and so people start to have a real
shock about what it would be like, that’s a
really drastic suggestion but it was a
suggestion yesterday”
Theme 3:
motivating action on sustainability – fashion, shocks and incentives
Image source: http://www.thewomensroomblog.com/
(1) Must make sustainability fashionable – “so
its fashionable, to have sustainable
products, it becomes fashionable to do
composting and everything” – and use the
media (eg Neighbours storyline)
(2) Use shock tactics to motivate action
(3) Reward behavior change – no one has the
time or the energy, but what if your rates
were discounted
@evonnephd

20. Image Source: Debut Art
What will cities, communities & homes of the future look like?
must advocate for innovative, inclusive age-friendly, SUSTAINABLE FUTURES
reframing our future….?
Older People as Change Agents for Action on Climate Change
Sustainability as Serious Leisure?

21. Associate Professor Evonne Miller @evonnephd
Director QUT Design Lab, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Causalities, contributors or change agents?
(Re)framing the role of older Australians in climate change
Photo Credit: Dominican Republic -
Dustan Woodhouse, Unsplash