Sofia Rositani – Reporter
Australia has been up in flames since July of 2019. This fire has harmed or killed over half a million animals, and one-third of the koala population has been decimated due to these wildfires. So far 3,000 people have lost their homes, and 28 have lost their lives, but we do not realize that this is just the beginning.
Climate change has been affecting this world for years and only now are we catching on. These wildfires usually happen in Australia in July due to the heat and dryness of the country but it has not been this bad since 2009 when 173 people were killed in wildfires recognized by Australians as the “Black Saturday,” according to CNN.
In the past week, it has rained in Australia, but the lightning that came from the rain caused more fires due to the areas being dry. According to the New York Times “Early this month, NASA began tracking a plume of smoke from the fires that was the size of the continental United States.” This means it is going to get worse before it will get better. Many people will most likely get sick from the smoke, and this can also cause severe respiratory problems for millions who live in or near Australia.
According to the New York Times who interviewed Dr. Bradstock, a scientist said this kind of problem of long dry seasons in Australia should not have happened for another 40 to 50 years.
What does this mean for the rest of the world? If we do not work to stop climate change then we are dead men walking, it has been admitted that due to climate change, the world is starting to get diseases that existed a long time ago, we are getting flooding in areas that should not be flooding, and warm weather during the winter.
Iceland even had a funeral for their Okjokull glacier that melted with a plaque that read “In the next 200 years, all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path, This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.”
Paul Reed, the co-director for the National center for Research in Bushfire and Arson at Monash University in Melbourne said in New York Times interview said, “The wildfires decimating Australia, killing people, ravaging wild habitats and pushing communities and firefighters to their absolute limits are growing and coalescing into the country’s worst peacetime catastrophe precisely because of climate change.”
As students in college who want a future, we should work to find a solution to this climate issue or else what we do now will be for nothing. We will not have a future if we decide to not do anything to help the world we live in. What is happening in Australia will continue, and grow Australia will become uninhabitable, certain animals will go extinct, there will be havoc. Australia will be the least of our problems but we must act now before it is too late. How long must we wait before it becomes too late for us?
