02-17-2020, 01:12 PM
Australian Bushfires
It's good to see that the fires are largely under control now, thanks in part to unusual levels of rainfall, but the devastation is extremely sad.
Fires across the country killed at least 33 people and more than a billion animals, torched thousands of homes and impacted an area roughly the size of England.
"After what's been a truly devastating fire season for both firefighters and residents who suffered through so much this season, all fires are now contained in New South Wales (Australia's largest state and the hardest hit), which is great news," NSW Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said Thursday.
The climate crisis has made Australia's naturally occurring fire season more extreme, as record temperatures combined with an extended drought to fan the flames. In NSW alone, fires destroyed more than 2,400 homes and burned 13.3 million acres of land.
But the heavy rain that has helped to finally douse the flames may also have been supercharged by climate change. An Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) study published in 2017 found that the climate crisis was already making both drought and flooding more likely in the Pacific.
(continued)
It's good to see that the fires are largely under control now, thanks in part to unusual levels of rainfall, but the devastation is extremely sad.
Fires across the country killed at least 33 people and more than a billion animals, torched thousands of homes and impacted an area roughly the size of England.
"After what's been a truly devastating fire season for both firefighters and residents who suffered through so much this season, all fires are now contained in New South Wales (Australia's largest state and the hardest hit), which is great news," NSW Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said Thursday.
The climate crisis has made Australia's naturally occurring fire season more extreme, as record temperatures combined with an extended drought to fan the flames. In NSW alone, fires destroyed more than 2,400 homes and burned 13.3 million acres of land.
But the heavy rain that has helped to finally douse the flames may also have been supercharged by climate change. An Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) study published in 2017 found that the climate crisis was already making both drought and flooding more likely in the Pacific.
(continued)