Climate change is like constipation: first there was the average day with good digestion (i.e. years before climate change became an international crisis), there was not as much thought as there is today about the effects of our actions on the environment. Proper digestion and clean air were both taken for granted and expected. Now life is erratic and indigestible with periods of constipation, then BOOM – all at once you are running towards the bathroom in the middle of your Thursday staff meeting. We did not appreciate the system we had before, and now perturbances mock us with discomfort and increasing negative symptoms. What the Earth needs is a good “ex-lax” and a large glass of prune juice, then afterwards a juice detox until the system stabilizes.
The fires across Australia are just one example of a negative symptom of climate change. 17.9 million acres have burned, 3,000 homes have been destroyed, 28 animals have been displaced and 480 million people have died. Actually, those last two statements were switched for emphasis: in reality only 28 people have died but about 480 million animals have been displaced since September 2019.
Photo by unknown via UOW Blogs
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Australia is becoming drier as a result of climate change, with the Bureau of Meteorology marking 2019 as the hottest and driest year on record. Dry air and rising heat support fire conditions. Animals that survived the fire are living among the limited vegetation that’s left. Emergency food drops here nicknamed “carrot drops,” are being performed by the New South Wales government. Thousands of kilograms of carrots and sweet potatoes are being dropped out of helicopters to help the animals in fire-affected areas.
The Australian government has a Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Center that warned in August 2019 that “the approaching fire season has the potential to be an active season across Australia, following on from a very warm and dry start to the year.” Other regions with similar latitudes may be next to experience challenges with heat, dry air and agriculture. These countries/regions include Spain, Italy, Greece, California, the tip of South Africa, Chile and Argentina.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison acknowledged that climate change has had an influence on the fires, however him and his cabinet are poster-boys for climate change deniers. Morrison has said that “job-destroying, economy-destroying, economy-wrecking targets and goals on climate change won’t change the fact that there have been bushfires or anything like that in Australia.” Morrison’s goals include using $2 billion to rebuild infrastructure that has been destroyed instead of using funds to support rebuilding the logical and direct victim: the wildlife. It seems that using a majority of that money to plant trees in the millions of acres destroyed by the fires is not a practical solution, according to Morrison. “This money will go towards supporting small businesses, supporting local councils, providing mental health support, investment in social and economic infrastructure, as well as providing environmental protection and protection for native wildlife, which has been so badly hit by these tragic fires.”
Organizations making efforts to help either wildlife and/or humans, or accepting donations include the County Fire Authority, New South Wales Rural Fire Service, Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, Australian Red Cross and an Australian nonprofit GIVIT.
Photo by @c4lpt via Twitter