Australia

Australia on Fire, the Devastating Fires of the 19/20 Bushfire Season

Australia is no stranger to bushfires. For years it has suffered unfathomable loss due to raging fires in the summer months, with what is now known as Black Saturday in 2009 being the worst in history. 

However, the 2019-2020 bushfire season was like none before it. It began in June, winter, with fires rising beyond control by early September. Well before the traditional bushfire season Australia has experienced and been prepared for in the past. Beaches were covered in a misty haze of smoke, people were warned to stop exercising outside, particularly those with respiratory issues and smoke alarms were going off in people’s homes, kilometers away from where the fires burned. 

These bushfires have been catastrophic with approximately 34 people dead, over a billion animals killed, many that are native to Australia, and more than 46 million acres of land burned, including World Heritage areas in New South Wales and Queensland. Economists have estimated that the bushfires have cost Australia $3.5 billion. To put these bushfires into perspective, the area burned was 80 times larger than that of the 2019 California wildfires. 

Words: Alice I’Anson 2020
Cover Image: Jason Wong Via Unsplash

So how did this happen? During times of disaster it’s easy to point the finger at one person, which Australia did, Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister. Taking a trip to Hawaii while your country is literally on fire was probably not the most intelligent move by him. However, if truth be told, this issue has been going on for much longer than the 18 months Mr. Morrison has been the leader of Australia. These fires are the result of years of ignorance towards both global climate change and climate change within Australia, leaving the country inadequately equipped to deal with the situation at hand. In 2014, the Bureau of Meteorology warned of an “increase in extreme fire weather and a longer fire season” due to a rise in greenhouse gas emissions in years to come. Australia did nothing about it and six years later this is the result. 

Fires will continue to burn in Australia during bushfire season and like this past season there needs to be a decent amount of rainfall to contain them. Unfortunately rain doesn’t fall on cue so right now it’s up to the Australian government to take action and listen to climate scientists in order to prevent yet another catastrophic fire season in Australia.