As many people in the northern hemisphere are celebrating the new year with their warm winter garb and cozy winter fires, summer is just starting in the southern hemisphere. Although the summer season is just beginning, Australia is already forced to face the worst wildfire crisis in recorded history.
The 2019-2020 fire season began as early as September 2019. While a consistent fire season is to be expected with the hot and dry summer environment of Australia, the fire season this year has lasted for much longer at a much higher severity.
The severe nature of this season’s fires can be attributed to global warming. Many regions of Australia are facing an extended period of drought, resulting in any fires that go through those regions to stoked heavily by the dry vegetation that is common during these dry seasons. Australia recently reported an average temperature of over 41.7 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the previous highest on record. Another factor in the heavy spread of fires this season comes from the callous actions of other humans in Australia. Instances of unattended or improperly extinguished fires have been identified as probable causes for the starts of fires.
As a result of the severe condition of Australia, the fines for tossing a lit cigarette outside has been raised to $11,000 in an effort to deter any further violations that could spark further flames. On January 6, the NSW police force reported that they had detained over 180 suspects for fire-related violations. Among these, 24 of these suspects are being charged for deliberately starting fires in the New South Wales areas. 47 suspects were detained for failure to properly dispose of a lit cigarette.
With the spread of the bushfires reaching unprecedented levels, the prime minister of Australia has received major criticism from Australian residents for his lack of concern over the destruction of much of Australia’s land. In quite the opposite reaction, PM Scott Morrison chose to go on a personal family vacation to Hawaii in December instead of remaining and attempting to organize efforts to combat the surge of destruction wrought by the fires.
Morrison’s decision for a vacation invoked the anger of many of Australia’s residents, with the PM being chased out of the town of Cobargo after a very lukewarm welcome from the town’s residents. Cobargo was affected by savage firestorms that ultimately claimed the lives of 18 people and destroyed 1,300 buildings. Due to this, Morrison was blamed for “leaving the country to burn”, with demands for more funding for firefighting louder than ever before.
Cobargo’s situation is not unique. Many small rural towns like Cobargo are complaining of the lack of aid they are receiving from the Australia government, with people in Cobargo saying, “If we were Sydney, we’d be flooded with donations”. This reflects a sense of bitterness from the townspeople in South Australia and New South Wales. The firefighters who are so desperately needed at this time are experiencing similar emotions of discontentment, as many are volunteers and have yet to face any form of compensation for their efforts to extinguish the flames
The towns of Australia aren’t the only ones affected by the fires. Over an estimated 800 million animals to have perished in these fires, with the brunt of Kangaroo Island sustaining massive amounts of damage. Kangaroo Island is a location in Australia featuring numerous nature reserves boasting many species of animals that are exclusively native to the region of the island. With the debilitating effects of the fire, many species are feared to be severely endangered as a result of their inability to escape the flames of the fires.
Famous Australian species like the koala have been estimated to have suffered a massive declination in global population, with Sam Mitchell estimating as many as 50,000 koalas being affected by these fires in an interview with the Guardian. Although there have been many efforts to save the koalas by local residents, a third of the koalas brought in for treatment from the fires have needed to be euthanized over the severity of their injuries. The loss of the koalas of Kangaroo Island is especially significant, as the koalas living on the island are free of chlamydia, a disease known to cause blindness among koalas. This in turn could prove to have a very sever consequence on the global population of koalas, including those not living on the island.
Another species feared to have been affected by the fires is the platypus, a famously unique species to Australia that has recently been moved to “near-threatened” status. Officials fear that a combination of habitat destruction from the fire and the prolonged drought period in Australia may lead the extinction of local populations of platypus. While the platypus’s global population is far from threatened, the extinction of local populations could disrupt the ecosystem that the platypuses are inhabiting.
Many other overlooked species with a much greater integral niche to the Australian biosphere have been affected greatly by the loss of habitat and the razing of the land they live in. Many insects are simply unable to evade the consequences of the flames and are left to die, resulting in a disastrous loss in population for species such as the pelican spider, whose entire known living region in the west region of Kangaroo Island has been completely razed by the fires. These spiders are a known predator of insects in their region of Kangaroo Island, leaving many fearing that a reduction in the population of spiders could lead to a surge in growth for other insect species. With an irregular growth in insects, many plant species could also be threatened.
The fires in Australia are showing very dire consequences for Australia’s future, with the smoke given off the fires even inducing its own unique weather pattern in the form of pyro-cumulonimbus clouds. These clouds are especially dangerous as the weather brought with these clouds include thunder and lightning, which could potentially start even more fires, exacerbating the already critical conditions that are so prone to burning.
With the fires finally reaching international awareness in December 2019, global efforts have begun to assist Australia fires. One form of aid being provided comes in the form of numerous donations on many different platforms. Donations to the firefighter department have been greatly appreciated by the New South Wales region, as most of firefighters have been purely volunteers and have yet to see any form of compensation for their hard efforts. Firefighters from America have also traveled to Australia in order to assist in the containment of further flames.
Another effort being made to assist the wildlife are helicopters that are airdropping vegetables such as carrots and sweet potatoes into the charred remains of fires to provide a nutrient supplement for the animals struggling to seek out food after surviving the blaze. This assist not only will help the animals have a food source, but the uneaten food will decompose and act as a effective fertilizer to foster new plant growth after much of the vegetation had been destroyed as a result of the fires.
With the fires slowly being overcome by the efforts of thousands of people, the Australia fires act as an ominous warning as to what the future holds should we not make massive efforts to change the impacts of global warming. As we are now, we are doomed to constantly clean up after each blunder that comes about as a result of this careless neglect. Though the damage is done. All we can do now is make efforts to ensure this doesn’t repeat itself in the future. At the time of this writing, many large organizations are still gathering donations to aid in the recovery of Australia from the impacts of these fires, such as famous Youtuber Jacksepticeye, who is planning a charity live stream on January 25th for this cause. Consider donating to help Australia recover from this horribly destructive inferno.