Bushfires are almost an annual affair in Australia, but this fire season has been unprecedented in scale and intensity.
A series of massive bushfires has been burning across Australia since September 2019 and they intensified early this month, with a number of towns evacuated.
At least 27 people have been killed, 1200 homes destroyed, and 18 million acres of land – bush, forest and parks – have been burned. Of all the States, New South Wales has been the hardest-hit. Nearly half-a-billion creatures, including birds, mammals and reptiles, have been affected by the fires in New South Wales alone and millions of them are possibly dead, according to scientists. Many large cities have been shrouded in smoke for weeks. State and federal authorities are struggling to contain the massive blazes, even with firefighting assistance from other countries.
Why are the fires so bad? Persistent drought and record temperatures are the major drivers of the fire, but the role played by climate change in making natural disasters go from bad to worse should not be overlooked, say scientists.
Picture Credit : Google