The Australian Bush Fires May Get Even Worse
01.10.20
It’s heartbreaking to see the devastating toll the Australian bush fires are having on human life, wildlife and landscapes so many love.
Half a billion animals are dead by now. Australia is burning. #AustralianBushfire is real. The loss of lives and damage to the property is beyond imagination. It’s devastating. Please pray for Australia #AustralianFires #AustraliaOnFire pic.twitter.com/6xQhN9R9x8
— Gunjan Mehta (@gunjanm_) January 4, 2020
Sadly, experts say it’s likely to get even worse over the coming days since the summer season doesn’t peak until late January.
One of the scariest videos we’ve seen so far out of the Australia bushfires. #australiafire #AustralianBushfire #AustraliaOnFire pic.twitter.com/aYxD9283ng
— Ralts (@200Ralts) January 5, 2020
Are these fires related to climate change?
Crystal Kolden, an associate professor of fire science, explained to the website The Verge how these fires have been intensified to this deadly level by climate change:
“Australia suffered its hottest day on record on December 18th, reaching a national average temperature of 105.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Extreme heat and drought create more tinder to fuel fires. The heightened intensity and frequency of wildfires falls in line with scientists’ predictions for a warming world.”
How to fight climate change now, starting in the United States
It’s a pretty clear-cut path forward — lower our carbon emissions, pronto. This means, fighting to ban fracking and pipelines and other Big Oil infrastructure that lock us into certain catastrophe, moving toward renewable energy, stopping corporations like Nestle from stealing our water supply, and putting an end to factory farming. We must stop arguing about it and start building a new world that we can survive in.
That starts with implementing a REAL Green New Deal that addresses all of this and more, and fighting back against Trump’s assaults on our environmental safeguards (like his new plan to roll back common-sense protections in the National Environmental Policy Act.)
If we don’t, the effects will be global. Fires in California and Australia, flooding in Indonesia, super hurricanes in Puerto Rico — we’re seeing these things happen now and it’s just the beginning.
Jakarta Floods: 377mm (14.8 inches) of rain fell in a single day on Jakarta, the most since records began, killing at least 21 people
"The rain falling on New Year's Eve... is not ordinary rain," said Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency
This is not normal pic.twitter.com/zeTq0lLRCB— Assaad Razzouk (@AssaadRazzouk) January2, 2020
The time to fight climate change is right now
What’s happening in Australia can’t be fought only by Australians. Every country must do its part to lower carbon emissions drastically, as the United Nations’ special panel on climate change recommends.
We fight every day at Food & Water Watch to combat the industries that contribute most to these deadly conditions.
Join us right now to demand a REAL Green New Deal and help us turn these disasters around.
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