Australia's deadly wildfires are
showing no signs of stopping
Earlier
in December, the smoke was so bad in Sydney that air quality measured 11 times
the “hazardous” level.
Dre K K Aggarwal
President CMAAO, HCFI and Past National
President IMA
Australia is
facing the worst wildfires of the decade with large swathes of the country
devastated since the fire season began in late July.
A total of
27 deaths and in the state of New South Wales alone, more than 2,000 homes have
been destroyed or damaged.
State and
federal authorities are struggling to contain the massive blazes.
Persistent
heat and drought, and climate change is making natural disasters go from bad to
worse.
There have
been fires in every Australian state, but New South Wales has been hardest hit.
Blazes have
torn through bushland, wooded areas, and national parks like the Blue
Mountains. Some of Australia's largest cities have also been affected,
including Melbourne and Sydney.
In Australian
summer, with hot, dry weather makes it easy for blazes to start and spread. Natural
causes are to blame most of the time, like lightning strikes in
drought-affected forests. Dry lightning was responsible for starting a number
of fires in Victoria's East Gippsland region in late December, which then
traveled more than 20 kilometers in just five hours.
About half a
billion animals have been affected by the fires across NSW, with millions
likely dead -- and that's a conservative estimate. That number of total animals
affected could be as high as one billion nationwide.
The figures
for NSW include birds, reptiles, and mammals, except bats. It also excludes
insects and frogs. [Excerpts from CNN
News]
