Climate change is not new: temperatures have been rising for decades as a result of global warming. In South Africa’s city of Pietermaritzburg, four low-income urban communities have experienced drought, heat waves, severe hailstorms, devastating flooding events that killed hundreds of people and displaced thousands, and wildfires as a result of climate change. Environmental scientist Sithabile Hlahla interviewed people in 378 homes there and found that they were not coping well with climate disasters.