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Climate extremes
How does the weather affect your day-to-day life? Does it influence what clothes you put on? Whether you put an umbrella in your bag or not? In certain parts of the world, people's actual survival depends on the way that they adapt their lives to the extreme weather conditions of their environments.
Extreme heat
Temperatures in the Australian outback -the central desert area of Australia - can often exceed 50 °C for the summer months, New houses are sometimes specifically situated towards the east or west, to avoid the summer sun. Their roofs are insulated to stop heat getting in, and their wood is specially treated to resist the heat. Due to the strength of the sun over this part of the world, Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world. Since 1981, there has been an official campaign by the Australian government to encourage Australians to protect their skin from the sun. Forest fires are another result of consistently high temperatures. These have become more and more common in the past few years, even happening around the city of Sydney.
Snow and extreme cold
Valdez in Northern Alaska is used to battling against the elements. The town was relocated in 1964 after an earthquake and tidal wave completely destroyed it, and it currently has the record snowfall for the whole continent of North America - 7.7 metres per year. Snow and ice are part of daily life for Alaskans. Many towns, including the state capital Juneau, are accessible only by sea or by air, as roads either don't exist or are blocked for most of the year. Some houses are built without excavating any foundations, and most have special strong roofs to support the snow, and features such as windows that only open inwards so that they aren't ripped off by the Arctic wind.