Australia, no stranger to wildfires – or bushfires as they’re known as here –has already seen a dramatic increase in the severity of this phenomenon over the past two decades.
Just this month, climate change-related wildfires destroyed at least five homes and 60,000 hectares (equivalent to 60,000 international rugby fields) of land in Western Australia. With the current La Niña weather system, our region is likely to see yet more wildfires develop, experts say, as wetter conditions allow plant life to flourish. When followed by drought, as the cycle typically operates, there will then be more fuel for the fires.
The report comes as koalas were announced as endangered in several states, in part because of reduced habitat following wildfires.
The new report that projects increases, Spreading like Wildfire: The Rising Threat of Extraordinary Landscape Fires, was released today by UNEP and GRID-Arendal, a UNEP collaborative communications centre. The report also finds an elevated risk in regions previously unaffected by wildfires, including the Arctic.
“Wildfires differ to ordinary, seasonal fires – they are uncontrollable,” said report co-editor and co-author, Professor Elaine Baker from the University of Sydney’s School of Geosciences.
“The Australian Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20, which killed 30 people and indirectly killed 450 others through smoke inhalation, are an example of this.”
