Introduction
Forest fires or Bush fires, as they are commonly called, are runtime phenomenon in Australian summer. However, what has been happening in the last few months in Australia, is unprecedented and profoundly alarming. The devastation caused by the raging, uncontrollable bush fire is catastrophic and has wide ramifications over the global ecology. In the last few months, Australian villages and towns were lit up by an orange sky, dense smoke and ash laden winds bellowing over the landscape of the continent. Environmental scientists are attributing this Inferno to climate changes. Many of them predict that the scenes from Australia could be a glimpse of the future hell- fire that awaits our planet ,if urgent action is not initiated on a war- footing regarding Climate Change.
2019 was Australia’s hottest year, +1.50Â degrees warmer than the average summer heat felt by the continent. Also, 2019 saw approximately 80,000 cumulative fire detections whereas other years (2001 to 2019) saw up to 22,000 fire incidents.
Why this Bush Fire is alarming in Australia?
Australia , where summer starts around October, is known to be most fire prone of all continents. Basically , its attributable to the fact that Australia is the driest inhabited continent. Almost 70% of its topography comprises of arid or semi- arid land with average rainfall less than 350 mm.
Australia has about 134 million hectares of forest land, most of it in the North and East. Though bush fires are common in a dry area in summers, the latest bush fire got uncontrollable and created a real havoc in the continent. Australian government data show that about 55 million hectares of forest land , more than 40% of the entire forests , had been affected by at least one such fire in the period between 2011 and 2016.
However, this bush fire was exceptionally, ferocious in its intensity and size , which was never witnessed before. According to Reuters Reports, the fire has impacted more than 10.3 million hectares of forest land so far, an area the size of South Korea. 27 people have so far died, while millions of wild animals have perished. Australian Environment Minister announced- about 30% of the “Koala” population was feared dead in the inferno, a rare species only found in Australia. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology confirmed that 2019 happened to be the warmest and driest year for the country since 1900.Day time temperature in the last summer were ,on an average , 2°C higher than normal , while average rain fall for the country was 40% below normal. Heat and dryness are the key ingredients for the ignition of wild fires.
Further, to add to its woes , Australia is in the midst of a prolonged draught , now spreading to three consecutive years. In 2019, the problem had been compounded by the presence of one of the strongest- ever positive “Indian Ocean Dipole( IOD) events. IOD refers to the difference in sea surface temperatures in the Eastern and Western Ocean, either aids or cut off moisture supply to Australia, depending on whether the western Indian ocean is cooler or eastern. In 2019, the eastern Indian Ocean has been unusually cold and that caused the rainfall deficiency over Australia. Another important pointer for the fire disaster is the historic low soil moisture condition in the affected areas attributable to a rare stratospheric warming over Antarctica ( temperatures were 30°C to 40° C higher than normal in the region 10 to 50 km from Earth’s surface.
Fall Out of Climate Change
There is strong evidence to believe that the extraordinary bush fires are linked to drastic climate changes in the region. The warning trend that made 2019 ,the warmest year on record for Australia , the prolonged drought, severe rainfall deficiencies ,the strongest positive IOD and low soil moisture can all be easily attributable to climate change. The lackadaisical attitude shown by the Australian government towards its fragile ecology also added to the present crisis. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had predicted in 2007 that-” In South- East Australia , the frequency of very high and extreme fire danger days is likely to rise by 4% to 25% by 2020 and 15% to 70% by 2050.” An accurate prediction indeed.
 Conclusion
The Australian bushfires are , therefore, being seen as one of the biggest climate disasters of our times. Thousands of people have already rendered homeless , flora and fauna devastated and the Australian air has been badly polluted. The latest disaster is that- two mega fires have been merged to claim 2300 square miles and engulfed populous states of New South Wales and Victoria. Since September 2019, the wild fires have been raging in Australia, taking the polluted air across the seas up to Chile and Brazil.
Massive protest rallies have erupted in many cities blaming the Australian government for its inept handling of the situation. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been on the defensive for holidaying in Hawaii, while the wildfire took away 27 lives in Australia. ‘WWF Australia’ fears that the rare species of animals viz, Glossy Black Cockatoo, and Knee High Kangaroo face local extinction. Army is on standby to deal with worst fire hazard situations. As of now, the continent is far removed from danger. A quarter of a million people of Victoria are being evacuated at this point of time, as the wild fire is about to engulf the State of Victoria.
It’s time for the world nations to pool its resources to nab this new disaster in its bud, before the planet turns into a fireball sooner than expected.
Jai Hind