September of 2019, the terrifying wild bushfire season began in Australia. According to Nathan Rott from NPR, more than 23 people have been confirmed dead and thousands of people, including those in New Zealand suffer from the consequences. The air quality, skyrocketing temperatures and shifting winds makes it impossible to breathe and see not only in Australia but neighboring countries from thousands of miles away also. Thousands of people including tourists like Meaghan Wagg and her kids from Canada are waiting to be on the top of the evacuation list. Still, it seems impossible to evacuate everyone as more than 200 wild bushfires continue to burn.
Countries from all over the world have sent volunteers to help fight the Australian wildfires. Most notably, according to NPR News, 69 Canadians have been sent to battle against the deadly wildfires of the vast tracts of Australia. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre has sent three different groups of highly trained staff for a 38 day deployment in New South Wales. This crew often deals with roles in command, aviation, planning, logistics and operations. In the process, two volunteer fighters have been found dead. However, this relationship between Australia and Canada are reciprocal as Australian firefighters have helped Canada with their wildfires more than 4 times in the past.
For those of us who are not highly skilled in firefighting, there are several courses of action we can take to help fight the Australian wildfires and prevent more from happening. First of all, we must cut down on the use of fossil fuels. According to NPR News, Buchholz, who studies climate change describes fossil fuels that can “change the landscape ecosystem from being neutral or harmless to something that is destructive.” Climate and fire have reciprocal relationships as well as climate impacts fire and fire impacts climate. It is important to achieve a balance between the two by reducing fossil fuels.
Dear Ellie :
I am so shocked with your post, “Australian Wildfire: What Now?,” because i was never aware of what was going on.I’m also in shock because i also didn’t know that canada is helping them out which it’s a good thing that they are able to receive help from other countries.I think it’s so sad how there are so many people suffering because the fire is creating really bad air quality. The fire also brings different consequences to the people which I find really sad. I also find it sad how people are dying because of the fire.
One sentence you wrote that stands out for me is: “For those of us who are not highly skilled in firefighting, there are several courses of action we can take to help fight the Australian wildfires and prevent more from happening” I think this is something that i fell that people need to be more aware of because even though we can’t help them physically there is still a way for us to help Also more people knowing that there is a way to help will hopefully prevent moe fires from occuring in the future
Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next, because I really liked what you wrote about. I also liked how you wrote about a real life problem that people should know about. THank you for informing me on something that i was not aware of.
Magdalena
Ellie,
The Australian fires are a heart breaking thing. I didn’t realize just how much they were affecting Australia and even more so how much they were affecting other countries neighboring Australia. The line, “Skyrocketing temperatures and shifting winds makes it impossible to breathe and see not only in Australia but neighboring countries from thousands of miles away” was really shocking. It is crazy to think that the range of harm due to the fires is so large. We as a society need to do something about this. Here is an article providing some more general knowledge on the bushfires.
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/australian-fires-everything-we-know-about-the-crisis-and-how-you-can-help/
-Alexander Nuntapreda