Disasters, whether single or multiple disasters occurring at the same time, whether climate-related or not, are not new. However, efforts to learn from past memories often seem to be absent or short-live, and disaster recovery processes often reinforce the status quo. There are numerous efforts around the world to document people’s lived experiences and different governments’ approaches to handling disasters, including the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is important to remember that we do not hear stories from all parts of the world. As the world moves away from the COVID-19 pandemic discussions, there are many places that are being affected by the impacts of climate change while still struggling to recover from the impacts of COVID-19. In this context, there is a need to make use of disaster memories and ensure we learn and avoid future risk creation. Memories are central to learning processes. Overall, there are very few studies that look into how memory (cultural, political, social and other forms) can be a useful concept in studying climate change, disasters and pandemics [1]. Memory by definition selects and excludes certain symbols, actions and experiences in a continuous process across time and space. It reveals divergent interpretations of climate change and disaster experiences and their social-political conditions [2]. For instance, during our recent fieldwork at a resettlement site at Chennai in India, people affected by floods and heatwaves, refer to cycles of disasters and re-living them every year. However, we know little about which of these climate change-related impacts are recorded as memories and why. Which are the ones that are go unremembered? How do people impacted by climate change find ways to create memories, which serve as learning for the future? Why are some aspects remembered and others forgotten? Long-term fieldwork in post-disaster contexts has also shown that memories are not permanent or fixed [3]. Memories are often constructed based on the impacts of climate change and not on the processes of risk creation that led to the impacts. This necessitates a new research agenda.

Communities affected by the impacts of climate change often need to move on from the socio-psychological impacts, which may make it hard to recollect traumatic memories. Communities are often burdened with the long-term challenges of coping and adapting to the dramatically changing physical landscapes, access to resources and socio-economic relationships in post-disaster recoveries. Memories of a specific impact from climate change and disasters evolve, while some are forgotten and adjusted in the future. For instance, climate attribution studies on the heatwaves of 2022 in India show the direct link between climate change and the heatwaves. It must be noted that until a few years ago, heatwaves were not declared as hazards/disasters and still do not fall within the category of disasters that enable compensation/disaster relief from the government. However, in our recent fieldwork in February 2024 in Chennai, communities would only reflect closely on the recent floods of December 2023 and rarely mention impacts of heatwaves. Using participatory tools such as seasonal calendars and focus groups to understand how different disasters affect them throughout the year, how their livelihoods are impacted and how this has been changing over the years, the community members tell us how specifically during the summer they were not able to work due to the heat and its impact on their wages and loss of livelihood. However, the residents in the resettlement sites spoke extensively about the impacts of the floods and the pandemic compared to the heatwaves during these conversations. There is a need for further investigation here—what contributes to sharing these impacts, experiences and memories differently for each of these disasters from the community’s perspective?

It must be noted that studies related to disaster memory often focus on the discourse of commemoration through museums and memorials. For instance, after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, it has been found that memorials are constructed more ‘for the people than by people’ [4]. Memorialisation is often a political process, as these representations are highly influenced by the imaginations and voices of the privileged sections of a population. Similarly, post COVID-19, there are many examples of memoralisation in museums, exhibitions and many digital platforms. However, it is important to ask- whose voices are represented in this process of memory making?

There are many untold stories of memories and of processes of memory making. Across centuries there have been peoples and communities who have passed on the memories and intangible heritage of their coping mechanisms through oral histories and songs. This practice of memorialization of intangible knowledge has proven to be invaluable, [5,6]. Similarly, indigenous knowledge about climate change builds on memories through generations [7]. Taking this further, different stakeholders should take imperative steps to not only document disaster memories but also account for diverse, untold and under-represented voices.

Why focus on memory in disasters?

1. Memories help us reflect on inequities in society. Memories help us to critically investigate the socio-political narratives of disasters and the fatal impacts on the most vulnerable [8]. It is not new that climate change impacts certain groups disproportionately; these inequities are relevant to ongoing discussions around loss and damage. However, these inequities are often ignored in statements on climate change solely focusing on hazards. Looking back, every disaster has shown the world that vulnerability is a key factor in the production of disproportionate impacts [9,10]. World over, many countries are declaring climate and planetary emergencies, focusing global attention on addressing climate change. However, inequality is central to the impacts of climate change [11]. Disasters are not natural [12] but hazards are natural and are perfect prisms to study inequities in society [12]. Disasters occur when hazards (floods, earthquakes, viruses) interact with vulnerability, risk and exposure [12]. The COVID-19 pandemic is no different from other disasters. The pandemic further increased inequalities [13] and these new circumstances will aggravate the burden of coping with climate change as well. It has also highlighted layers of societal inequalities in many societies where we continually need to ask again- who is most at risk?
2. Memories provide ground for learning. Disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic have shown how governments can enact policy swiftly and mount immediate responses. However, there is very little being done to unpack how these policy decisions have impacted and continue to impact our societies. Simply put, we are doing business as usual and continue with risk creation in all forms while communities recovering from the pandemic are faced with many climate-related hazards such as heatwaves and floods. Recovery must be collaborative and critical of existing structures and systems to avoid recreation of disaster risk and reduce future disastrous consequences. As disaster recovery progresses, these memories provide ample opportunity for learning from the losses in the past years, and to rectify the wrongs of the past [1,14,15]. These lessons identified must not become lessons forgotten.
3. Memories provide an opportunity to look into the future. As with previous disasters and ongoing discussions on climate change impacts, the pandemic provides an opportunity for governments and policy makers to move into the future with key policy and operational changes in mind. One such action is for governments across the world to take a more integrated and holistic approach to disasters rather than being responsive. The pandemic has also provided many opportunities for all actors to reflect on climate action as we move out of the pandemic discussions in many parts of the world. Pandemics are not new, but the COVID-19 has presented new challenges which are being documented widely. However, how these experiences and memories will contribute to learning remains an open question. Along with bringing in memories and learnings from the past, efforts must be made to use these memories to pursue positive societal transformations in the face of climate change.