What the Australian Bushfires Mean for the Rest of the World
Updated: Jan. 10, 2020As the continent's lands burn, it's not only Australians who are suffering.
The worst fires on record
It’s bushfire season in Australia and for months, some of its lands have been in flames. This year’s fires are the worst on record, with at least 23 people dead, an estimated half-billion animals severely impacted or dead, and over 1,500 homes torched to the ground. With at least six weeks left to go in fire season, New South Wales has called a state of emergency, as efforts to rescue stranded residents, bring any kind of aid to parched and singed animals now faced with loss of habitat and depleted food resources, and temper infernal flames, continue in a country that was already contending with drought conditions due to the effects of climate change. Australians of all species are suffering the most. But the fires have grave consequences for the rest of the world, too.
Faster-melting glaciers
New Zealand, one of Australia’s closest neighbours, is feeling the effects of the bushfires. Acrid, lung-filling smoke made it 1,000-plus kilometres across the Tasman Sea, where it was reducing visibility and increasing risk for locals of complications from smoke inhalation such as respiratory distress. The most consequential effect of the fires, though, might be on the country’s glaciers, about which Helen Clark, New Zealand’s former prime minister, tweeted: “How one country’s tragedy has spillover effects: Australian bushfires have created haze in New Zealand with particular impact on the south of the South Island yesterday and now spreading more widely. Impact of ash on glaciers is likely to accelerate melting.”
Trapped heat
Raging fires, and the enormous amounts of ash and soot they create, cause a cyclical warming effect that was noted by CBS News as large tracts of Russia burned this summer (are you beginning to sense a trend?). Namely, when this soot inevitably gets blown around and inevitably falls on ice, snow, and glaciers, it has the effect of darkening them. While this may not sound like a precipitous occurrence, it actually reduces snow and ice’s surface reflectiveness, which causes heat to be trapped beneath it. The Russian fires have caused Arctic ice and permafrost to melt, releasing more carbon dioxide and exacerbating global warming. The Australian fires will only add to this calamity.
Find out how climate change is making you sick.
Increased carbon emissions
By some estimates, the bushfires in Australia are putting the country on track to at least double its carbon emissions for the year (not including the emissions from melting glaciers elsewhere). In fact, as the Guardian reported in mid-December, the fires had already spewed 250 metric tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere—about half of its usual annual load. And with forests and grasslands, which both sequester and store carbon, effectively destroyed in some instances, the ability of systems to repair this damage has been greatly reduced—creating what a fire ecologist interviewed in the article called “a nasty negative feedback cycle of a biosphere carbon sink becoming a source [of carbon].” This could have grave global implications, as the world is nowhere near on track to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions to stave off climate disaster.
Try these simple ways to reduce your own carbon footprint.
Changing weather
There’s no such thing as weather that happens in isolation—storms in one place on our planet often have their origins in fronts that begin over oceans or mountains thousands of kilometres away. And, as a recent Forbes article reports, fires—including those from erupting volcanoes—have the potential to not only block visibility for airplanes, grounding them, but to create giant thunderstorms. They might also create pockets of hotter or colder air, or create situations where the weather is increasingly less stable overall—although no one is yet certain how far from the Australian continent those effects might roam, or how deleterious they may prove to be.
Displacement of peoples
The world is already reeling from the effects of increased migration as people in the regions most impacted by climate change pack up their families and some scant belongings and head for places where they hope to find a better, safer, future. Many host countries have turned against their newest residents, though, claiming that they overburden their resources. With the 2019-20 bushfires, a good number of Australians are now displaced and on the move, and one could speculate about what might happen if such extremes of fire are the new normal—making large swaths of, not just Australia, but any drought-ravaged country and fire-prone unliveable.
Learn about the islands that will disappear in the next 80 years.
Decreased exports
In addition to coal, Australia also exports all kinds of agricultural products—like beef, wheat, dairy items and wool—particularly to Asian countries including China, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia. In fact, 65 per cent of the country’s agricultural products are sent overseas, accounting for 14 per cent of its exports and a significant portion of its GDP. But what happens when the land it uses to grow all that food and fiber is destroyed by fire? Obviously, no more goods to export, which puts a huge economic burden on Australian citizens. But it also creates a huge kink in the international supply chain. Thanks to globalization, pretty much no country eats only the food it grows. What happens to the global food supply as agricultural land in Australia and other export nations burns to a crisp?
A harbinger of our global future
Australia, the world’s third-biggest exporter of fossil fuels, is also one of the western world’s greatest climate change deniers, with its prime minister, Scott Morrison, refusing to take meaningful action to reduce emissions despite the protestations of some of his constituency, and seen to be “unwavering” in his dismissal of the climate crisis, according to the New York Times. But as of this writing, the fires continue to burn, mirroring calamitous fires in other places like California and Brazil, New York magazine offers a prediction that should make everyone’s blood run cold with fear: Powerful forces are mobilizing to normalize such fires, making them seem less horrific than they truly are. And with that normalization comes inertia: a luxury none of us in a burning world can afford.
Next, read on to find out about the animals that may become extinct due to the wildfires in Australia.
To help people affected by the Australian wildfires, donate to the Australian Red Cross’ Disaster Relief and Recovery.
To help wildlife affected by the Australian wildfires, donate to WIRES, an organization committed to helping the wildlife of the country.
