Australia fires: A visual guide to the bushfire crisis

Australia fires: Navy rescues people from fire-hit Mallacoota Image copyright Fran Lawson The Australian navy has evacuated around 1,000 tourists and residents who were trapped in the fire-ravaged town of Mallacoota on the Victoria coast. Throughout Friday, landing vessels took people to two ships - MV Sycamore and the much larger HMAS Choules. A local MP, Darren Chester, called it an "unprecedented mass relocation of civilians". Some 4,000 residents and tourists fled to the beach on Monday night, when racing bushfires encircled the town. The evacuees will be taken to Western Port, the navy said - around 16 hours' voyage down the coast. With roads cut off, the military evacuated around 60 people by helicopter on Thursday. The evacuation was voluntary. The larger ship, HMAS Choules, has a "few hundred beds". The evacuees were allowed to take their pets on the ship. Image copyright Darren Chester MP via Twitter Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews declared a state of disaster for six areas and resorts, including Mallacoota. There's plenty to ignite.

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2019–20 Australian bushfires—frequently asked questions: a quick guide 12 March 2020 PDF version [301KB] Lisa Richards and Nigel Brew Foreign Affairs, Defence & Security Lizzie Smith Science, Technology, Environment & Resources This quick guide aims to answer some of the frequently asked questions relating to the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season that started in September 2019. Note: Updates and additions to this quick guide are contained in the July 2021 paper 2019–20 Australian bushfires—frequently asked questions (updates). How many people died? On 4 February 2020 Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed in a speech to Parliament that 33 people died as a result of the 2019–20 bushfires. In a speech to the NSW Parliament on 6 February 2020, NSW Member of Parliament, Greg Piper, was one of several MPs who named another nine people who died (listed below in alphabetical order), and acknowledged a 56‑year-old man who died in the Cobargo fire but was yet to be formally identified: How many firefighters died? How many houses were destroyed? How much land was burned?

Australia marks quietest fire season in a decade | CNN Australia’s most populous state has closed out its quietest fire season in a decade, its fire service said, as the coolest and wettest summer in years offered a reprieve from the uncontrolled blazes that torched large swathes of the country in 2019 and 2020. The current bushfire season has seen half the number of callouts in New South Wales state, at 5,500, as the previous season, the NSW Rural Fire Service said on Wednesday. This season, just 31,000 hectares (76,600 acres) of land burned across the state, compared to 5.5 million hectares (13.6 million acres) during last season’s Black Summer wildfires. The less hazardous fire conditions were underpinned by a La Nina weather pattern, which saw Australia registering its wettest weather in four years and its coolest in nine – though it also had the downside of causing massive floods in parts of the country’s east coast. Australia’s last wildfire season began in June 2019, and continued through the following spring.

Tony Abbott, former Australian PM, tells Israeli radio the world is 'in the grip of a climate cult' | Australia news The Israeli public broadcaster has come under fire from angry listeners after broadcasting an interview with Tony Abbott in which he said the world was “in the grip of a climate cult”. During the interview, recorded on 15 December while his home state of New South Wales was fighting terrifying bushfires, Abbott denied that carbon dioxide was driving global warming. The interview was broadcast on New Year’s Eve in a special show reviewing key international issues of the decade. Abbott said: “While we still seem to be in the grip of a climate cult, the climate cult is going to produce policy outcomes that will cause people to wake up to themselves.” After claiming, incorrectly, that a focus on emissions reduction in Australia had caused blackouts and rising power prices, Abbott said: “Sooner or later, in the end, people get hit over the head by reality.” Mor-Cicurel asked Abbott if he was “denying that fact we are in the process of global warming and global change”.

on line classes.. teachers and students collaborating during a pandemic HALIFAX — As Canadian universities begin an unprecedented shift toward online classes, Nicole Mensour is experiencing the challenges the sudden plunge into digital learning creates for students. “To be honest, it is a bit overwhelming,” said Mensour, a bachelor of education student at Mount Saint Vincent University — who also has a teenaged daughter and son to look after at her Halifax home. As COVID-19 is leading to the closure of campuses, the 48-year-old student is faced with a deluge of emails on how to use online forums for six courses, while she prepares to spend hours viewing online lectures and learns to upload her voiceover for a powerpoint presentation. “Some classmates were scheduled to make presentations and had to make the shift (to online) over the weekend,” she said, adding that professors have been flexible with deadlines and are also coping with uncharted territory. “This is challenging for everybody,” she said. “Are teachers prepared?

WWF to fund solar powered ear tags to save koalas during bushfires A solar panel the size of a five cent coin could be the key to saving koalas the next time bushfires ravage* the country. Scientists are working on a way to quickly find koalas in the path of a bushfire using ear tag tracking devices that weigh less than a slice of bread. Once the koalas are located they can be kept safe until their habitat regenerates and monitored once they are released. Koalas have already been fitted with bluetooth ear tags that allow mobile phones to detect their location within 20m, but scientists are now working to fit solar powered ear tags with VHF* transmitters* detectable from 250m away. Tests have shown that drones flying in grid patterns can map the VHF signal from the transmitters, allowing wildlife rescuers to swoop in and nab the koalas before a bushfire engulfs them. An estimated 5000 koalas perished in the Black Summer bushfires in 2019-2020, sparking fears koalas could become extinct in NSW before 2050. Census to count every koala in bid to save species 2.

Australia's summer bushfire smoke killed 445 and put thousands in hospital, inquiry hears | Royal commission into national natural disaster arrangements Smoke from the Australian bushfires of the 2019-20 summer caused an estimated 445 deaths and put more than 4,000 people in hospital, a royal commission has heard. Eighty per cent of the Australian population was affected by smoke from the fires, which burned in six states across six months. Associate Prof Fay Johnston, an environmental health expert from the University of Tasmania, said the health problems from bushfire smoke were much greater than the health impact of the fires themselves. The total health cost for the 2019-20 season was $2bn, four times higher than the second most severe season for bushfire smoke in 2002-03. The total value of bushfire insurance claims nationally was $2.2bn. Johnston told a hearing of the royal commission into natural disaster arrangements that small smoke particles triggered an immune response similar to fighting off an infection, which in people with underlying chronic conditions like asthma or heart disease could cause “serious illness or even death”.

Australia fires: Smoke turns New Zealand skies 'eerie' yellow Media playback is unsupported on your device Smoke from huge bushfires in Australia is drifting as far as New Zealand, 2,000km (1,200 miles) away, leading to haze and a burnt smell in the air. Australia is grappling with a bushfire crisis fuelled by record-breaking temperatures and months of drought. The smoke first reached New Zealand's South Island on 31 December, turning skies a murky yellow. Since then, the south's famous glaciers have vanished in haze and even North Island has seen its skies turn "eerie". At least 18 people are confirmed to have been killed by the bushfires, which have burned vast areas of several Australian states. Several people are still missing and conditions are expected to worsen over the coming weekend. Image copyright Alpine Guides Blue skies turned yellow "I have never seen anything like the haze over the past 48 hours," Arthur McBride of glacier tour company Alpine Guides told the BBC. Image Copyright @MissRoho @MissRoho Image copyright Rey 'Twilight' over Dunedin

Businesses not taking reusable containers to prevent COVID-19 spread | Regina Leader Post The temporary move away from reusables has sparked some criticism on social media for its environmental impact. “I guess we have to put environmentalism on hold during this common cold season,” said one tweet directed at Tim Hortons. While we are all concerned about the environment, said Blondeau, the world is facing the potential continuing global spread of a virus that has a mortality rate associated with it and part of the recommendations from professionals and governments across Canada is to try and prevent that. “If there is a short-term cost to the environmental movement here, I think that people will say that it’s a reasonable thing to do to prevent loss of life,” he said, adding he wouldn’t be surprised if Canadians begin to see even more measures or suggestions of how to prevent further spread of the virus as time goes on. “We are all learning about this as each days goes by and it’s very difficult to predict what the next month or two is going to look like,” said Blondeau.

Well-watered mulberry tree credited with saving home on NSW South Coast from summer bushfires When Brett Hawkins returned to his remote property in Upper Brogo, north of Bega, after the 2019 New Year's Eve bushfires, he never expected to find his home and one tree left unscathed among total devastation. Key points: The mudbrick home of Brett Hawkins and Wendy Wolff survived the summer bushfires alongside a mulberry treeThey believed that by keeping the tree watered, it helped it to resist the fireThe bushfire survivors were given a new purpose to stay on the property Living in dense bushland on the edge of Wadbilliga National Park, on the New South Wales Far South Coast, Mr Hawkins and partner Wendy Wolff evacuated as the Badja Road Fire encroached, and spent the night with hundreds of other evacuees in Bermagui, before returning three days later. "It was apocalyptic," Mr Hawkins said. "There was not a tree left, ash on the ground and smouldering embers everywhere." But among the blackened trees, Mr Hawkins found his mudbrick house and mulberry tree in full leaf. Key points:

Australia's wildfires released as much smoke as a massive volcanic eruption, study finds | CNN Australia’s devastating recent wildfires thrust as much smoke into the Earth’s atmosphere as a powerful volcanic eruption, causing cooling over the region’s oceans with potentially long-lasting impacts, according to the authors of a new study. Dozens of people died in Australia’s 2019-2020 bushfire season, which was one of the worst on record. More than 10 million hectares of land burned and over a billion animals are estimated to have died, with many species pushed close to extinction. Using data from two satellite missions, scientists found “record-breaking AOD (aerosol optical depth) levels resulting from smoke from the Australian bushfires that were injected into the stratosphere,” according to the study, conducted by researchers at the Israel Institute for Biological Research and the Weizmann Institute of Science. Aerosols in the atmosphere’s lowest layer – the troposphere – have a much shorter lifetime, lasting anywhere from minutes to weeks.

Tens of thousands flee in mass bushfire evacuation – as it happened 12.03am GMT00:03 HMAS Choules is expected to reach Hastings at 11pm tonight after leaving Mallacoota today. 11.59pm GMT23:59 The New Zealand government is sending a further 22 firefighters to Australia to assist in the fire effort. In a statement, the NZ prime minister Jacinda Ardern said: “The devastation caused by these fires is taking a substantial toll on our Australian neighbours and we will continue to do what we can to assist as they deal with this extremely dynamic, dangerous and ongoing situation. “New Zealanders around the country have expressed their condolences to those who have lost loved ones and sympathy to all affected, and I extend mine too. “I’ve been in contact with prime minister Scott Morrison again this week to share our collective support for our neighbours and friends, and what they’re experiencing.” The government’s press release states: Updated at 12.03am GMT 11.52pm GMT23:52 The ABC has just broadcast some of the PM’s visit to Lucknow. 11.47pm GMT23:47 11.38pm GMT23:38