LAKE TABOURIE, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 04: Residents look on as flames burn through bush on January 04, 2020 in Lake Tabourie, Australia. A state of emergency has been declared across NSW with dangerous fire conditions forecast for Saturday, as more than 140 bushfires continue to burn. There have been eight confirmed deaths in NSW since Monday 30 December. 1365 homes have been lost, while 3.6 million hectares have been burnt this fire season. (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
Bodie Ashton, a citizen of Australia, wrote about the alarming situation in Australia in a thread of tweets, “More Aussie land is currently burning than exists in the entire country of Belgium. The smoke is causing breathing problems in New Zealand, 2000 km away. Half a billion animals have been killed. Eight people are dead.”
Ever since last September, bushfires have ravaged the land of Australia, torching land nearly as large as West Virginia. Australia has been entangled in the worst wildfires seen in decades, killing 24 people nationwide, with nearly 1300 homes being destroyed in New South Wales.
Damages also include torched 14.8 million acres and the lives of nearly 480 million animals, including approximately 1/3 of the koalas in a habitat located 240 miles north of Sydney.
The nation has been struggling to battle the flames despite receiving assistance from other countries including the US. The fires have spun out of control due to extreme heat and drought as well as accelerated climate change and global warming, which has pushed the decay of nature and environment into overdrive.
The worst fire season in Australia shows no sign of letting up, as heat, wind, smoke, and flames engulf the country, making it hazardous for its inhabitants. According to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, the fire risk in the country will reach ‘catastrophic’ and ‘extreme’ levels.
Howe, a meteorologist at the Bureau stated, “Conditions are set to mirror, or even deteriorate, beyond what we saw on New Year’s Eve as temperatures climb to 40 degrees [Celsius] near the coast, and as high as 45 degrees [Celsius] inland. Strong, dry, northwesterly winds will cause ongoing fires to flare up yet again.”
While there have been fires ravaging in each state, New South Wales has borne the brunt of most of them. Blazes licked wooded areas, bushlands, and national parks. Also, Australia’s biggest cities have been affected, as fire and smoke have engulfed the urban centers and damaged the homes of hundreds.
The air quality in these areas has dropped, measuring 11 times the hazardous level, leading to a health crisis as well. The News South Wales government director of health, Richard Broome, referred to the haze as ‘unprecedented.’ He stated, “This smoky period we’ve been experiencing for the past month or so, it is unprecedented, so these conditions are a risk to people’s health.”
Citizens are subject to allergies, sore eyes, nose, and throat irritations with babies, toddlers, and the elderly at a greater risk.
The fires also differ in size, as they may be small blazes in isolated areas and small neighborhoods, to huge flames that ravage hectares of land. Some of them can be contained, but others have been raging on for months.
Fire season in Australia is a common occurrence, as the hot and dry feel of summers allows them to start and spread. In most cases, these are caused by natural causes like dry lighting – lightning strikes in drought-affected forests – as was the case with regards to the fire in Victoria’s Est Gippsland.
In addition, the heat wave is accelerated by brisk winds that blow across Australia, as they increase fire risks. Wind speed can go up to 60 mph, fanning flames and pushing deadly smoke over to the big cities like Sydney and Melbourne.
Australia is also subject to the worst cases of climate change, as not only heat waves have ratcheted, rainfall patterns have altered, creating an unfamiliar territory for its citizens and the government.
In other cases, humans are to blame as was seen in November when the NSW Rural Fire Service arrested a volunteer firefighter for setting off nearly seven blazes over a month and a half.
While fire season in Australia has always been dangerous, this year, the conditions have been aggravated which has made them severe for the citizens.
A veterinarian Gundi Rhoades wrote a piece for the Sydney Morning Herald, describing the situation as an aftermath of an apocalypse,
“Most farmers in my district have not a blade of grass remaining on their properties. Topsoil has been blown away by the terrible, strong winds this spring and summer. We have experienced the hottest days that I can remember, and right now, I can’t even open any windows because my eyes sting and lungs hurt from bushfire smoke.
For days, I have watched as the bushland around us went up like a tinderbox. I just waited for the next day when my clinic would be flooded with evacuated dogs, cats, goats, and horses in desperate need of water and food.”
The severity of the situation can be explained by several factors. This year, Australia has been subject to a severe drought in recent years. The meteorology department reported that the prior spring season was by far the driest on record.
Also, a heat wave in December topped the record for severity, with some places touching 40 degrees Celsius. The combination of drought and rising temperatures has caused the disintegration of vegetation into tinder, creating the way for the ignition of trees, shrubs and grass in some of the densely populated areas of Australia.
The State of the Climate report published in 2018 states, “There has been a long-term increase in extreme fire weather, and in the length of the fire season, across large parts of Australia.”
Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a lecturer at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of NSW, Sydney, stated that there have been signs that summer in Australia would worsen over time. She said, “Some cities in Australia will likely hit temperatures in the ’50s (Celsius) [more than 122 degrees Fahrenheit] by the end of the century.”
Therefore, it is expected that the situation will grow worse over time, thus previously gained experience can not serve as a blueprint for the country to deal with the heat, bushfires, or the firefighters that have to battle with the infernos.
In a study published in the Bulletin of American Meteorological Society, researchers reflected on the 2018 fires in the country and passed the verdict that “events that are unprecedented in a given region, such as the 2018 [fire] event, reveal that firefighting preparation and training cannot rely on previous events as guidance for the most dangerous conditions they can expect in the current and future climate in which large-scale fires occur more regularly.”
The federal authorities and the state have been working together to deal with the ongoing crisis for months now. The NSW declared a state of emergency in December, as firefighters were dealing with almost a hundred actively raging fires.
Gladys Berejiklian, the head of the local government, warned of the impending severe weather conditions. She stated, “These declarations are not taken lightly. It will ensure once again that our state is best placed to respond to the predicted fire conditions.”
The declaration granted extraordinary powers to the commissioner of the Rural Fire Service. This includes things like the power to direct government agencies, close roads, evacuate residents, and allocate government resources. Also, the state of Queensland also declared a state of emergency in November for a brief period of time.
Currently, nearly 2300 firefighters were working on the ground in New South Wales alone, and more support has been dispatched, with help from the US, Canada and New Zealand on the way. In addition, the federal government has ushered in military assistance like air force aircrafts, navy cruisers, and army personnel for efforts related to firefighting, rescue, search and cleanup.
Morrison also stated that the Australian administration was directing nearly 23 million Australian dollars to disaster recovery payments to affected businesses and families and nearly 6000 Australian dollars to voluntary firefighters that were dedicated to firefighting for more than ten days.
Bernie Sanders tweeted regarding the fires on Twitter with a video footage, “I say to those who are delaying action on climate change: Look at the blood-red sky and unbreathable air in Australia because of raging forest fires. Our futures are all connected. That is why we must bring the world together and enact a Green New Deal.”
His tweet brought forth support from celebrities like reality stars, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, and Kim Kardashian. Kylie Jenner also took to Instagram stories to speak about the ordeal, putting out pleas for help.
In a similar vein, Leonardo Di Caprio, a long-time climate justice warrior, took to posting on Instagram to speak out about it “…Fires of this intensity threaten their very existence, but managing wildlife to reduce fire intensity and protect forests is under appreciated for its importance in reducing the release of carbon into the atmosphere… Our sincere well wishes go out to all those affected by these devastating fires. If you encounter any injured wildlife, please contact your local animal authorities for rescue and rehabilitation.”
The issue has drawn attention all over the world and drawn support in the form of funds from numerous celebrities such as Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.
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