Is it sweater weather outside, or is it giving fall/spring vibes? Who really knows with the frequent climate changes occurring every other week. In North America, the weather is different due to the various regions within the country. Although wildfires are once in a blue moon on the west coast, specifically in California, in other countries like Australia, it’s a part of their summer season. Australia’s hot, dry summer conditions are nothing new, but the extremity of the summer conditions this year is one like ever before.
The high temperatures, extensive drought, and dry winds have laid the foundation for wildfire conditions. Sometime in December is when extreme heat waves began with temperatures being as high as 107.4 Fahrenheit. Australia’s agriculture has been affected by the hot, dry conditions due to the drought, which has left agricultural areas to burn in ashes. According to the New York Times, ‘fire season’ is common, but there were some signs prior to December that let inhabitants know that this fire season would be a different kind of breed. In early September, Australia’s historic lush mountain gateway was destroyed in a bushfire. This rose eyebrows when this occurred because the lush mountain area that burned is a typically cool, wetland area. Around November there were 70 fires reported on the East Coast of Australia, which has caused 10 million acres to burn, destroying about 1,000 homes, according to The New York Times. Sydney has been affected the most with total fire bans, heavy smoke, skies of bloodshot redness, and poor quality breathing conditions.
The damage had been detrimental to the people’s living conditions, and especially to Australia’s wildlife, as seen on a few social media timelines. About 12 million acres have been burned, which is less than California’s damage rate. Firefighters are risking their lives to stop the damage, but Australia has had to ask the United States for assistance by sending people and water tanker aircraft. Scientists state that the worst climate change gets, the more intense these bush fires will become with the intense dry heat to the vegetation and likely to burn. It is ultimately our job to maintain the earth and its nature, which provides for us so we in return need to provide good things back into the earth by less plastic usage, recycling heavily emphasized, and less gaseous toxin being put into the air.