Summer is coming

2 minute read

The 2019/20 Australian bush fire season was long anticipated to be a severe one. Record high temperatures and low rainfall sparked local authorities' to beg policy makers for additional resources to prepare – requests that largely fell on deaf ears. Prime Minister Scott Morrison's public response and general attitude towards climate change is felt by many to be lacking. When he did eventually return from his Hawaiian holiday, he skirted the role climate change has played in this disaster, preferring instead to highlight that his policies that preserve Australian jobs and the economy. Australia emits 16.9 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide per capita, which according to data at the Global Carbon Atlas is second only to Saudi Arabia (19.2) out of the G20 countries (the UK emits 5.6 tonnes per capita, Switzerland 4.4).

The blazes have put entire species at risk, with estimates on the number of animals impacted ranging between 500m and 1 billion. The sheer scale of the fires is difficult to fathom; easily larger that the Amazon and California wild fires combined and a degree of magnitude bigger than the fires Australians would see in a typical year. Estimates vary but some satellite data suggests that as at January 7th 32,400 square miles had burnt, an area roughly twice the size of Switzerland. Had the fires been in England, then London, Birmingham, Manchester, York, Norwich, Bath (and everywhere in between) would all have been lost. Consultancy firm SGS Economics estimate that impact on the economy of Sydney alone is AUD50m for each day it was blanketed in toxic haze. Recent rains have brought a brief respite, but with them come the risk of floods. Fears are that blazes of this size could become Australia's new normal.