Spring. Summer. Fall. Winter.
Fire.
Fire season in Australia has always been a dangerous time. For example, the Black Saturday fires of 2009 killed 173 people. The 1974 wildfires caused around 37 million USD in damages. So why are we hearing so much about it this year?
What’s going on?
The 2019-2020 Australian wildfires are concentrated on the eastern coast, notably in the southeast. Damage figures have been devastatingly high, estimating at around 46 million acres (186,000 square kilometers or 72,000 square miles) of land burned, 5,900 buildings destroyed, and 29 people dead as of January 10, 2020. Arguably, the hardest-hit state has been New South Wales, with upwards of 100 fires. Parts of forests would burn for weeks, untamable, before the fires began threatening towns and taking lives.
Fires have been starting earlier in the season and spreading with greater intensity. In the last month of 2019, a heat wave reaching over 40 degrees Celsius (ranging from about 113-120 degrees Fahrenheit, according to CNN) broke the record for Australia’s highest recorded temperature. The nation is currently in the middle of one of its worst droughts in decades as well, and strong winds have spread fire and smoke much further than usual. In fact, these factors have been worsening for years, which experts say is likely a product of climate change.
What happened to the environment?
In December 2019, the air quality index (a federal unit of measurement for air pollution) in Sydney was more than twelve times the hazardous level. Strong winds would transport smoke from nearby wildfires. By NASA’s estimation, 306 million tons of CO2 have been released as part of the smoke. Keep in mind that this is the accumulation of only 2-3 months when you compare it to Australia’s total annual carbon emissions of 535 million tons in 2018, which makes for a concerning mental image.
Additionally, although Australia is home to many forests of photosynthesizing life, they were the main casualties of these fires and are unlikely to help in reducing the levels of CO2. The drought has been highly detrimental to the forests’ attempts at regrowth to the point where scientists worry it could take decades.
What about the animals?
Though bushfires are not uncommon in Australia, they are usually of lower scale and intensity that only affect small parts of the overall distribution of where species live. Besides immediate mortality from the fire, there will be on-going mortalities after the fire from starvation, lack of shelters, and attacks from predators such as foxes and cats that are attracted to fire-affected areas to hunt.
According to ecologists from the University of Sydney, the number of total animals affected could be as high as one billion. A third of New South Wales’ koala population is almost definitely gone, and countless other endangered species may have just seen their numbers decline beyond foreseeable recovery.
What’s being done?
The federal government has sent help in the forms of military manpower and aircraft, search and rescue, clean-up efforts, as well as organizing and providing for evacuation. Reinforcements numbering in the hundreds were called in from all over the country to assist and relieve exhausted local crews, as well as international firefighters from New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, and the United States, to name a few.
Firefighters on active duty against the flames are, more often than not, volunteers. However, the prime minister of Australia has stated that those working for ten days would be compensated for up to $4,200 for their hard work. Australia is only halfway through the summer, which means that the fires could be months away from stopping. Many urban areas have been rendered unlivable. You can help by donating to the following organizations online: the Australian Red Cross, Salvation Army Australia, the NSW Rural Fire Service, Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, and Currumbin Wildlife Hospital.
The thoughts and prayers of the IHS community go out to all victims of Australia’s latest fire season.