Why is Australia on Fire?

Since June 2019 the “Forever fires”, as they are unofficially called, have been burning through Australia. At the time of recording the wildfire has destroyed 10.7 million hectares of bush, forest and parks, killing 28 people - including 3 volunteer firefighter, and an estimated 1 billion animals, shown most notably with the iconic video of the koala rescued from fire.
In this video essay we discuss the root cause of the 2019 and 2020 bushfires, the relation to anthropogenic climate change in general, and the lessons relevant to the environment we can learn from this.
FEMA: www.ready.gov/...
Our Changing Climate (occ), a channel who shares similar interests to us, has recently uploaded a video in a similar vein, but tacking different information, we would highly recommend a watch: • Why does climate chang...
Please consider following us on the following media platforms:
Instagram - / oureden_uk
CZcams - / @oureden
References:
[1] en.wikipedia.o...
[2] www.cnet.com/g...
[3] www.bbc.com/ne...
[4] www.bbc.com/ne...
[5] www.dpaw.wa.go...
[5.A] www.bbc.co.uk/...
[6] en.wikipedia.o...
[7] reliefweb.int/...
[8] borgenproject....
[9] www.ipcc.ch/re...
[10] doi.org/10.103... , www.scientific...
[11] ca1-eci.edcdn.... , eciu.net/news-...
[12] doi:10.1038/ngeo357
[13] www.bom.gov.au/...
[14] www.oecd.org/e...,
www.csiro.au/e...
[15] www.iea.org/da...
[16] en.wikipedia.o...,
www.worldstopex...
[17] theconversatio...
[18] www.statista.c...
[19] www.abs.gov.au...
[20] www.accuweathe...
[21] www.reuters.co...
[22] www.abc.net.au...
[23] www.climatecha...
[24] atmosphere.cop...
[25] an...
[26] www.terrapass....
[27] www.express.co...
Video Sources:
Bushfire Regrowth - • Australian Bushfire Re...
El Nino and La Nino Weather Systems - geography.name...
Fire Footage From Space - • AUSTRALIAN FIRES SEEN ...
Selection of stock clips from www.pexels.com/ and www.videvo.net/
Mitchp
Audio Sources:
Sample: Seductress by Francis Preve via the CZcams Studio Audio Library or via • Seductress - Francis P...
Remixed by OurEden
#oureden #forestfires #climatechange

[@OurEden]

Transcript With References Part 1:
Australia is on fire. Since June 2019 the “Forever fires”, as they are unofficially called, have been burning through the continent, with flames as high as 70 m tall. At the time of recording the fire has destroyed 10.7 million hectares of bush, forest and parks, killing 28 people - including 3 volunteer firefighter [1], and an estimated 1 billion animals [2]. To put that into context; the total area of the fires to date is 80% the size of England, and 4 times the size of Massachusetts. However, they are spread across the country making fighting the blaze extremely tough.
Hot, dry weather combined with prolonged drought and strong winds have created the perfect conditions for fire to spread rapidly. Not to mention the 40°C temperatures and strong winds, which have only exacerbated the issue. [3]
On the idyllic coastal getaway of Mallacoota, fires forced residents to flee to the beach on December 31st, with only a change in the wind direction keeping the fire from reaching them on the shore.
Evacuations via Black Hawk helicopters and naval vessels took place on January 2nd and 3rd to whisk holidaymakers and residents away from the area.
The military has also sent troops, ships and aircraft to the region to help relocation and firefighting efforts.[3,4]
What does the Data Show
Bushfire is an integral part of the Australian ecosystem, with many of its plants and species evolving alongside seasonal fires [5]. But the past 20 years have seen different trends; the fires are more frequent, more eruptive and more damaging. Suggesting that climate change has made favourable conditions for the fire to spread.
The summer of 2019 has been especially hot, with the all time temperature record being broken at an atonishing 41.9 degrees celsius.
The other main climate driver is the Indian Ocean Dipole or IOD. Which describes a difference in ocean surface temperature between the western and eastern sides of the Indian ocean, where the warmer side receives more rainfall and the colder side receives less [5] A positive IOD event results in a wetter eastern Africa and a drier Australia. A similar dipole exists in the Pacific ocean and is known as “El Nino”. The Indian Ocean Dipole is usually stable about the mean ocean temperature, but occasionally can fluctuate to extreme negative or positive dipoles, causing extreme weather known as IOD events. However, Since 1980 there has only been a few negative IOD events and many consecutive positive IODs events. The strongest of which occurred Oct 2019, during the “Forever fires”. [3,4,6]
If you think the dipole causing extreme weather in Australia should also cause extreme weather in east Africa, then you’d be right. From October to November the horn of Africa has seen rainfall up to 300% above seasonal averages. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, nearly 3 million people have been affected and at least 280 have died as a result of the floods [7].
Ad lib Tim: bit we didn’t see nearly so much coverage of this in the news?
To illustrate exactly how unprecedented these extreme weather events are, we need only to take a glimpse from the past. Since we started industrially mining fossil fuels to drive our rapid technological progress, the number of natural disasters per year has increased dramatically. As scientists have predicted, this is a result of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions [8]. Anthropogenic meaning “originating from human activity”.
This link between the frequency of natural disasters, climate change and emissions of anthropogenic greenhouse gasses has been growing stronger for the last 30 years, since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published their first assessment reports [9]. Recently however, scientists have been able to study the effects of climate change on specific disasters [10], with a conclusive scientific consensus between this link [11]. Regarding Australia and the Indian Ocean Dipole, a paper published in nature geoscience 2008, has studied the coral records in the Indian Ocean and found that the strength and frequency of positive IOD events has increased during the 20th century as a result of anthropogenic greenhouse gases [12]. This suggests that natural disasters such as the fires in Australia, are worsened and potentially even caused by anthropogenic climate change.
Due to climate change, Australia has already become 1 degree celsius hotter since 1910 [3,13]. This trend is likely to continue to over 4 degrees by 2100, if Australia’s bare bones climate policies are upheld [14]. Lack of climate action in Australia can be directly linked to the counties economic dependency on the fossil fuel industry. With 60% of its energy supply from burning coal and 20% from gas [15]. Coal production in Australia increased 13.6% between 2005 and 2010. With 75% of the coal mined being exported over the Great Barrier Reef to Eastern Asia, making Australia the largest global exporter [16]. In total this accounts for a significant 4.2% of GDP, and employs almost 2% of the workforce [17]. Although the industry is slowly declining due to pressure from environmental groups [18], there is so much economic reliance on the mining industry in general - 8.5% GDP [19] Australia is highly unlikely to meet 1.5 degrees conditions set by the IPCC [special report 1.5 degrees IPCC].
The total damage and economic loss is estimated to exceed $100 billion US dollars [20], about 5.3% of Australia’s GDP in 2019. This is including the 32 billion dollars in lost tourism for the next 3 years, and over $500 million in insurance losses estimated by the Insurance Council of Australia. These costs are expected to rise as the fires continue. Australia’s inaction on climate change may certainly be due to their economic dependence on their lucrative mining industry, but what Australian policymakers are failing to recognise is that the economic opportunity of acting against climate change, and reducing the impact of disasters, is potentially enormous!
Unfortunately Australia's government, lead by Scott Morrison, has not engaged with the climate crisis; so much so that they received the satirical Fossil of the Day award from the Climate Action Network at COP25, in recognition of Morrision claiming that the bushfires are unconnected to climate change, and that Australia doing more on climate change would not change the outcomes of the fire. COP25 was the second meeting of the parties to the Paris agreement, and the 25th UN Climate Conference. Australia has promised to reduce emissions by 26% by 2030, but it plans to get 90% of the way there using carbon credits earned through the Kyoto protocol, where Australia was allowed to actually increase emissions. Effectively claiming they only have to achieve 10% of their Paris Agreement Targets [22]. Australia was accused of cheating, and along with Brazil and America created a political deadlock from which no agreement could be met. In fact, Costa Rica’s environment and energy minister Carlos Manuel Rodríguez called out Australia, Brazil and the US for blocking progress, stating: “Some of the positions are totally unacceptable because they are inconsistent with the commitment and the spirit that we were able to agree upon [in Paris in 2015],” he said.
“On the last day of the Cop we should be very concerned because that high ambition for environmental integrity is being threatened by the lack of agreement,” he warned. [23]

[@user-wl1ul7nh7h]

My CZcams proceeds are used for Australia.

[@spongekeks]

it baffles me how some people still deny climate change

[@user-wl1ul7nh7h]

My CZcams proceeds are used for Australia.

[@mehranhaidari]

I wish Australia wasn’t that hot

[@OurEden]

Transcript With References Part 2:
Global climate is in the name, “Global”. The causes and effects of the Australian wildfires are not contained wholly to Australia; and the same goes for emissions from their mining industries. The carbon emissions from these most recent fires have already emitted more than 400 million metric tonnes of CO2, and has released smoke covering more than 20 million square km [24]. That’s just bigger than Russia and more than double the size of America [25].
This disaster has contributed a significant amount to co2 into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change. Additionally the smoke released is a major health hazard that will impact communities across australia, new zealand and possibly south america [3].
Given the interconnectedness of our nations, thanks to the world trade organisation, natural disasters are expensive to economies, locally and internationally. They also increase our greenhouse emissions either directly, in this case by burning carbon sinks, or indirectly by carbon cost of aid, re-location, and re-building. Of course, these costs are necessary after a natural disaster, however, in the long run it is cheaper to prevent than it is to repair.
What You Can Do
We’ve shown how human driven climate change is causing natural disasters to increase in frequency and strength, and this trend is likely to increase if we continue business as normal. So what can you do to reduce the impact of disasters, and lessen the intensity of future ones?
Improve family and community preparedness by knowing your community disaster plan, and having a family disaster plan and be prepared to execute it. Follow the FEMA link in the description to start creating a strategy for your family - especially if you live in a disaster prone region.
You can actively act against climate change, by seeking ways in which to reduce your carbon footprint, such as: eating less meat, cycle or use public transport to commute, grow some of your own vegetables or taking less international flights, to name a few.
Supporting sustainable community projects that help adapt to climate change. This includes sustainable community gardens and sustainable community businesses. You can also help by funding larger projects globally that help the environment and supporting the local economy. [26]
There are a large number of organisations aiding in the firefighting and recovery efforts. Different organisations help different aspects of the crisis from the protection of wildlife to helping the firefighting and evacuation effort [2,27]. If you can’t afford to donate money you can still raise awareness by sharing this story.
Outro
Thank you for watching this Our Eden video. We hope that you’ve enjoyed the video and make use of the references provided in the description below, which we used to make this video, because talking about the science of climate change without accountable data and resources is dangerous, and risks the spread of miss-information. Please like, comment and subscribe to our channel and be sure to share it with you friends and family. Please also check out our other video on #TeamTrees. We’re a new channel and want to upload much more content on environmental news, sustainability and ways we can all reduce our impact on the planet so we could really use your support. Lets us know what you liked, what you didn’t and any suggestions for future topics.
Look after yourselves, each other and most importantly, the planet around you.
Thanks again
Our eden
[1] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_Australian_bushfire_season
[2] www.cnet.com/g00/how-to/australia-fires-have-killed-more-than-a-billion-animals-so-far-how-you-can-help/?i10c.ua=1&i10c.encReferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8%3d&i10c.dv=19
[3] www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50951043
[4] www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50979613
[5] www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/management/fire/fire-and-the-environment/53-fire-plants-and-vegetation,
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50602971
[6] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean_Dipole
[7] reliefweb.int/report/south-sudan/eastern-africa-region-regional-flood-snapshot-november-2019
[8] borgenproject.org/natural-disasters-increasing/
[9] www.ipcc.ch/report/ar1/wg2/
[10] doi.org/10.1038/nature04099 , www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-can-now-blame-individual-natural-disasters-on-climate-change/
[11] ca1-eci.edcdn.com/downloads/Even_Heavier_Weather_FINAL.pdf?mtime=20190605095407 , eciu.net/news-and-events/press-releases/2018/climate-attribution-studies-highlight-link-to-extreme-weather-events
[12] doi:10.1038/ngeo357
[13] www.bom.gov.au/state-of-the-climate/
[14] www.oecd.org/environment/australia-needs-to-intensify-efforts-to-meet-its-2030-emissions-goal.htm,
www.csiro.au/en/Research/OandA/Areas/Oceans-and-climate/Climate-change-information
[15] www.iea.org/data-and-statistics
[16] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_in_Australia,
www.worldstopexports.com/coal-exports-country/
[17] theconversation.com/australias-five-pillar-economy-mining-40701
[18] www.statista.com/statistics/692159/australia-employment-in-coal-mining-industry/
[19] www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/5206.0Dec%202014?OpenDocument
[20] www.accuweather.com/en/business/australia-wildfire-economic-damages-and-losses-to-reach-110-billion/657235
[21] www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-bushfires-insurance/australia-strengthens-bushfire-defenses-as-economic-environmental-costs-mount-idUSKBN1Z601F
[22] www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-16/australia-climate-carry-over-credits-slammed-cop25/11793818
[23] www.climatechangenews.com/2019/12/13/push-carbon-loopholes-sends-climate-talks-overtime/
[24] atmosphere.copernicus.eu/wildfires-continue-rage-australia
[25] twitter.com/anttilip/status/1213463962085404673?s=20
[26] www.terrapass.com/reduceriskofdisasters
[27] www.express.co.uk/news/world/1224506/Australia-fires-what-can-i-do-how-to-help-Australia-fires