Wildfires in Australia are so widespread that they can be seen from space. Satellites that are thousands of kilometers from the Earth's surface can easily detect flames and smoke from fires. While the fire may have been caused by natural causes, experts believe that anthropogenic climate change has exacerbated the already arid conditions conducive to new fires. To date, the fire has destroyed more than 14 million acres of land, killing about half a billion animals, several dozen people and causing a massive resettlement of people.
It looks like a disaster
The already difficult situation is aggravated by new temperature records. According to The Guardian, the temperature in the Canberra suburb on January 4 reached a record 48 degrees Celsius. Wildfires engulfed a wide part of the country a few months ago. The season for fires is traditionally in December, but some areas have been burning since September. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has unveiled the National Agency's plans to rebuild the country after the fires, saying the scale of the disaster is enormous. To date, at least 24 people have died and about 2,000 homes have been destroyed. According to preliminary data, the authorities of New South Wales, which is the center of the disaster, estimate the loss of 500 million birds, reptiles and other animals.
It's summer now in Australia, and 2019 was the hottest year for the country on record. Hundreds of people have been forced to flee their homes, and the embassies of many countries do not advise tourists to travel to Australia. Unfortunately, intermittent rains do not help firefighters in their fight against fires. Of the 150 registered fires, more than a third of them could not be localized. At least 3,000 people are fighting fires.
The firefighter is holding back the spread of fire across the country.
The hardest hit is the animals. In the local reserve, 350 koalas have died. It is especially difficult for them to escape from fire due to their innate slowness. There is an assumption that the population of these animals will not be restored. At Kangaroo Island, a most endangered species refuge off the coast of South Australia, teams have arrived to help euthanize livestock and wildlife that have been affected by the flames.
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How will Australia change?
The flames threaten to reshape Australia's ecology, even where plants and animals have adapted to the annual fires. However, the ability of animals to recover from such a large-scale catastrophe is of concern to experts. Given the harm done to wildlife by anthropogenic climate change, which already threatened the survival of many species, there is little hope that populations of some animals will recover from such massive fires. Animals generally recover in the years and decades following natural disasters, but Australia has never dealt with a fire of this size and intensity before.
According to NBC News, ecologists are far less confident that wildlife populations - especially the continent's 1,000 endangered species - will recover from this disaster. Climate change is adding fuel to the fire. As the planet heats up and the sea level rises, many animals' habitats are constantly changing, outpacing their ability to adapt. It seems that the world as we know it will never be the same.
Lyubov Sokovikova