Climate Change and The Australian Fires

Have you ever thought about how long the Australian fires have been burning and how many indigenous species we have lost to the blazes? Even firefighters say that they have not seen conditions like this in 30 years. So in this essay, I will discuss my opinion on the Australian fires and how they are related to climate change.

The fire in Australia caught many people of the guard as it came 2 months earlier than the usual fire season. This plunged people into chaos and most were not prepared. Moreover, the fire came very sudden and the fire department of Australia was not prepared for the large outbreak of flames. Hence they were not able to contain the blazes early on so the fire was able to spread rapidly. Many people have been evacuated out of their homes with the fire turning areas into ghost towns.

In my opinion, Australia had it coming to them, they are the third-largest exporter of fossil fuels and 80% of their energy is from coal, oil, and gas. For a period, the Prime Minister was in denial about climate change but he soon changed his opinion due to the fires and said that he now hopes to “evolve” climate change policy. I am not saying that it is good that Australia is burning I also feel upset that millions of species that can only be found in Australia are dying but I feel they could have done better in not using as many fossil fuels. Scientists say that if the temperatures rise by 3 degrees on average, fires like this could happen in many more countries all around the world and that would kill many important ecosystems.

People might think that it is just another fire season in Australia but from the facts, I have found I feel that it has a direct link to climate change. This is because of the Indian dipole effect which changes wind and sea temperatures. It has moved warmer water to Africa and cold water to Australia, this cold water has little moisture causing drought in Australia. The air above Antarctica became warm, causing stronger winds in Australia. With these two factors, one can now understand how the fires have started and picked up and in my opinion, this is all related to climate change.

In conclusion, my opinion is that Australia was the cause of their fires because they used too much fossil fuels which causes global warming and because of this they have put their wildlife and population in danger. But it is not too late to turn everything around so they still have a chance to turn to renewable energy to reduce the heat thus minimizing the fires.