Australia is burning

Translated into Italian and published on
https://attualita.portobelloplace.it/mondo/laustralia-brucia-viva/ 

Australia is burning
This is an international climate emergency

Banners at COP 25 in Madrid proclaimed the words of Greta Thunberg “la casa encendida” or Our house is on Fire, and in Australia it is burning as never before. Temperature records are continually being broken, and the current fires according to Australian fire chiefs are unprecedented. Australia isn’t having a happy new year: front pages and TV news worldwide show daily images of forests up to 50 metres high burning with massive plumes of smoke scarring the skyline. These are cataclysmic events.

Fires in the Amazon rain forests last year sent shockwaves around the world but, as seen in the figure above, are minor compared to the current Australian fires still aflame with at least 2 more months of fire season remaining. Can the world afford this environmental catastrophe? Is it a presage, a new norm?

Australia has been suffering a prolonged drought with cattle sold off and herds reduced due to shortages of food and water. Several country towns are almost out of water that must be trucked in. This is crippling for rural communities and the ravages of fires make it significantly worse. Dam levels are falling and experts question the quality of drinking water due to ash that has fallen into our water catchments.

Sirens are ringing, aircraft are water bombing and we are shrouded in smoke and hazes so bad that smoke alarms have been set off in Central Sydney. We live in the Blue Mountains a World Heritage national park about 70 kilometres west of Sydney. Like many residents we live on ridges that overlook valleys and bushland, or forests. The economy is based in part on tourism and during the fires hotels lost nearly all of their Christmas bookings. Vistas and walking trails are many but the walking trails were all closed off. See view left.

The photo on the left was on a November day with catastrophic weather warnings. On the right is a view on another catastrophic weather day about 10 days later. This is not fog: it is smog from fires. Australia is on bad days a furnace. Penrith, a town 30 minutes by road to our east had the hottest day on the planet recently, close to 50 degrees.

This smoke haze has reached New Zealand and there have been reports of it being seen in South America.

Since New Year’s Eve many towns on the south east coast have been devastated and a navy ship has evacuated residents and holiday makers stranded on a beach outside Mallacoota in Victoria.  South Australia has also been devastated by fires as was Queensland last year with some forced evacuations.  There have also been fire alerts in Western Australia and Tasmania. Everyone is on edge watching developments.

Watch and Act alerts, and fire plans preoccupy us daily. A wonderful phone app firesnearme and website Live Traffic NSW are essential in getting the latest information. Other Australian states would have similar services. Fire news is constant and often people are warned to get off the roads both because one can be trapped in a dangerous situation or traffic can interfere with emergency vehicles. Furthermore many places have lost their electricity so mobile phones and portable radios are essential. People can stay and defend their properties or go to an evacuation centres. Many holiday makers have taken advice and left when able to. For some it was too late to leave and they had to take shelter wherever they could. We have bags and computers packed and would be ready to grab our cat, jump in our car and go, hoping to have a house when we returned.

The great Australian heroes are the voluntary bush fire fighters, or Rural Fire Service (RFS in NSW) some of whom have died fighting these deadly fires. Many have gone days and weeks over the festive season fighting these blazes without pay, or rest although recently the Australian government offered compensation if they have worked for 10 days or more. Fire fighters from New Zealand, Canada and the US have arrived to assist, as have fire fighting aircraft. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, (ABC) the Australian emergency broadcaster has also played an excellent role in 24 hour coverage of this disaster. Our son, a journalist with the ABC who grew up in the Blue Mountains has been part of that coverage.

The current number of deaths has been 26 with reports of people missing. Well over 2000 homes and properties have been lost, so far, with insurance claims exceeding $AU 700 million estimated. Local industries and infrastructure in these holiday communities have been devastated adding further costs.

Tragically an estimated billion wild animals including our iconic kangaroos and koalas have perished in these fires and will continue to die as these fires blaze on. Images of these burnt and rescued animals have spread over the internet and are heart-breaking. There are 25000 koalas feared dead on Kangaroo Island, off South Australia alone. The fires continue and we may never know the extent of our wildlife losses.

Donations have flooded in both in Australia and internationally in record amounts including from stars like Elton John, Pink, Russel Crowe, Nicole Kidman etc. Be it Golden Globes or other awards the Australian fires are mentioned. Everyone seems to want to help and one wealthy businessman has pledged $AU 70 million.

An Australian comedian, Celeste Barber, has crowdfunded and raised 55 million dollars although her initial target was a modest $30.000. Ash Barty the world’s top woman tennis player, is donating all winnings from a tennis tournament: indeed in every sport fund raising is everywhere and at historic highs. Ditto the arts community and groups everywhere. A koala hospital received record donations and so much food and clothing was donated that it couldn’t be processed and people have been asked to only donate money. This is heartening but our hearts also go out to countries facing perhaps worse crises that are not so fortunate in getting financial assistance. But no amount of money will help the dead and bereaved.

What can we take out of all this? Australia’s conservative government has a track record of dismissing climate change as a factor and present prime minister, Scott Morrison, and others in his government said “Now is not the time to talk about climate change. “ Since his election last May fire chiefs have sought unsuccessfully a meeting with him with dire predictions about the coming fire risks brought by climate change. Their response “if not now when can we talk about climate change”.  Morrison is someone who brought a piece of coal into our parliament mocking the dangers of coal emissions. A similar farce took place at COP 25 in Madrid when they argued Australia had carbon credits and were meeting their 2030 targets. Few were fooled.

An Australian climate change report by Prof. Ross Garnaut in 2008 forewarned about the impact of climate change on our weather and imminent bush fire risk; it was also ignored. In a brazen dismissal of a climate emergency Morrison took a holiday in Hawaii until the tragic death of 2 fire fighters saw him return home and apologise for his absence. Then he went out on a hand shaking mission to undo the damage to his standing and was met with some hostility by victims of the fires. But he was in no way going to change his mind about the link with climate change nor the direction of his policies.

The fires debate is about hazard reduction and back burning. Hazard reduction is typically done in winter when it’s safe and possible to do so. As the bushfire season starts earlier fire authorities have argued that it’s not always possible to do hazard reduction as it may be wet, windy or hazardous to do so. Also that people complain about the smoke generated by such burning. But conservatives claim wrongly that hazard reduction is opposed by the Greens although Green’s policy doesn’t oppose it nor have they ever been in government, only in opposition.

Back burning is done around the time of fires when safe to do so. Undergrowth is burnt to deny the fires fuel, but in a recent case in our area a change of wind resulted in houses lost to fires. Conservative climate change deniers have turned to trolls and bots blaming arson:  fake #arsonemergency posts have resulted despite the police downplaying arson although stating a few cases existed.

The world needs to reforest to lower carbon levels, and the loss of so many trees puts the world at risk as forests are the lungs of the planet. Reforestation is vital to avoid climate catastrophe as Harrison Ford so eloquently put it in a video you can Google. The world has got off to an unhappy start in 2020 but we have a decade to repair and cool the planet.  Keep smiling and hope for rain and sunshine.  Happy New Decade.