The Australian bushfires have changed Australia; as a result, many people and animals are undoubtedly affected by this disaster. However, in order to know why this happens, we must first look at ourselves. Nevertheless, bushfires have killed millions of people and even left many homeless causing them long-term problems and even debts. This impact on Australia has affected many lives in multiple ways and how people look at the world.
Bushfires in Australia is most prominent during summer, when the weather is very hot, promptly making the fire spread easier. Most of the time, natural causes are to blame due to climate change. Other factors such as lightning or even the severe heat of the sun can cause bushfires. Due to such circumstances, many forests have been burned down and sometimes, it can also endanger humans as it can spread by wind or even by the leaves from trees. A prime example that demonstrates this clearly when a series of wildfires called Black Saturday Bushfires, started accidentally on Saturday, February 7, 2009, when a couple of power lines fell and it spread across acres of trees due to harsh winds, causing immense destruction and even affected the surrounding environment causing many animal deaths. Not only animals but humans have also died on that faithful day in their homes being burnt alive.
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Numerous forests get burnt from bushfires every year; therefore, the biodiversity has been severely affected causing many animals to become endangered. Billions of animals every year die as a result to the loss of diversity, making Australia experience the most excessive rate of species lost. Many of these species lost their lives as a result of the upcoming problem, global warming. As global warming becomes worse it starts affecting the climate, making Australia hotter every year and a lot of summers lasting longer than normal causing the bushfires to become more intense and destructive. “There are substantial concerns about the capacity of these ecosystems to rebound from the fires”, said Dieter Hochuli, an environmental sciences professor at the University of Sydney. Due to this, animals have been put in danger by loss of food, destructed homes and no place to hide. As seen on the news, more popular animals such as koalas and kangaroos are directly killed by bushfires either by breathing in too much smoke or getting burnt alive. However, not all animals die during the fires but after. Mammals and reptiles are affected due to the lack of food left by the fires or even no habitat to go back to and get eaten by predators. Despite this, people from around the world has collaborated together to launch several fundraisers to preserve these animals; one of them being RSPCA Australia (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Australia), this non-profit organization accepts donations from around the world to fund the rescue and treatment of the animals that suffer tremendously on the front lines of the monstrous fires.
The smoke produced by the bushfires is notably one of the most considerable threats to the civilians causing many problems when breathed in vast quantities of it. They especially pose a considerable risk to children and elderly people, inevitably producing a lot of health problems such as lung infection, asthma or even death. Over the years the percentage of hospital admissions has led to a 10% rise causing many health problems and can affect the future health of these people and affect their future/present careers. Most of the smoke is blown by the wind to the neighboring cities causing a lot of fog/smoke to fill the streets. During 2019-2020 the summer bushfires had an estimated 445 human deaths killed and put more than hundreds admitted to the Australian hospital summing up the health insurance to 2 billion dollars. This problem has prompted many concerns about the health consequences in the population, and it is shown those who have pre-existing health conditions or even pregnant can be affected severely. To protect themselves from the smoke, Australians have resulted to stay home wear masks, follow bushfire news and follow the information the news gives out. However, it has been recommended to stay home to reduce intake of the smoke. Although many humans are affected, we cannot look past our pets are even wild animals that inhabit the city such as birds, insects and fish. A lot of wild animals can be affected by bushfires as they do not possess a proper home such as birds. More than 60 birds have been reported to have just ‘fallen from the sky’ in Australia due to the excess amount of smoke and even polluted waterways. The reason some waterways are polluted is due to the soil being washed into lakes, ponds, etc. This can kill millions of fish as they would equally suffer to breathe and it was indeed confirmed by experts that this would continue to happen if nothing is done.
Another problem that has risen over the bushfires are the droughts. As climate change gets worse every day it has increased the time summer stays and even how often rainfall happens. Australia is currently the most severe drought in modern history and is even affected 49% of the grass growing in the fields. Due to this the patters of rainfall have changed in many places in Australia causing droughts during April-October which water is the most needed for animals and humans alike. Some of the most affected areas in Australia are New South Wales, southern inland Queensland, South Australia and many parts of the northern territory only receiving less than 50% rainfall than normal during the rainfall period. Over the years Australia's rainfall has decreased by 11% for many years. It was even recorded that in 2019, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology was one of the country's driest it has ever been. Sadly, in the regions of Queensland last year, it had killed over 500,000 livestock animals due to the extreme droughts. Similar to humans, plants and animals need water to survive, but due to speed of the bushfires any animals that survived the fire would not be able to recover due to dehydration caused the lack of water. Moreover, plants and trees require a lot of water to regrow but without it, it would not grow or even die. As for humans, the farmers would suffer tremendously as they would have to keep the animals alive but as stated before the livestock has tremendously depleted according to many news articles.
As bushfires become more problematic every year the local agriculture has also taken a turn for the worse as the fires grows day by day. The bushfires have caused a reduced production to agriculture as rainfall and fires have affected the crops, making them fall dramatically causing last year’s wheat crops to be below 47% average. It was also reported that the cotton made in Australia has fallen by 61,000 hectares over the span of many years ever since the 20th century. Additionally, many other things produced such as grains and dairy has taken a large hit due to the bushfires. Unfortunately, many farmers were forced to sell their farms, many of them resulted in their homes, water supply and even due to lack of food. However, the government in Australia has invested approximately 68 million to help the farmers with their livestock and agriculture. On a positive note, during 2019 farmers observed an increase in profit in cotton, wheat and much more produce as it has required a lot of hard work and money to maintain the farm. Although the government has made many attempts to assist the farmers to preserve their livestock and goods; it has also made Australia import many goods from other countries to support the insufficient materials like water and other things that may be in high demand such as water (‘Australia Imports Fiji Water’). Not only have the crops been destroyed but also the economy. The Moody's economist Katrina Ell said: “The fires would further cripple Australia's already anemic consumer confidence, increasing the chances of a rate cut next month, as well as causing damage to the economy through increased air pollution and direct harm to industries such as farming and tourism”. It is estimated that Australia's government has to pay upwards of damages of 3 billion dollars, which can cause a huge impact onto the economy making the Australians think twice on what they are about to spend their money on later on. As many people have damaged homes or even been admitted to hospital, they would most likely invest their money on food although the prices would be increased due to the damaged farmlands.
This essay has conveyed the present condition and the effects the raging bushfires have had on Australia. Supportive arguments have been provided contrasting several critical statements. Based through research, bushfires are only one of many reasons that brings a lot of harm towards Australia, thus other factors may include climate change and even global warming. In short bushfires have severely affected many lives and reshaped how people perceive the global issues.
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