Images of burnt koalas and kangaroos spread across the globe throughout the month of January as news of the abnormally severe bushfire season in Australia spread from the land down under. The news garnered international attention as an irregular and devastating weather event. Forest fires are natural, but not to this scale and in this hotter, drier and windier environment. The blazes overtaking vast stretches of the bush reveal a much more subtle and alarming reality. 2019 was the hottest and driest year in recorded history.

Graphic courtesy of the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

Graphic courtesy of the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

Australian Hannah Melville-Rae, Class of 2019, did her capstone on drought in Australia and continues the research as a member of NYU Abu Dhabi's Post-Graduation Research Fellowship Program. She claims that the deviant activity of these fires is due to “underlying issues of temperature rises and climatic changes. That’s really what made the bush so flammable… I think the scariest part [is that] this could be the new normal.” The trends in the graphs show natural variation in rainfall as well as temperature, but there is a new pattern moving toward a more arid and warmer Australia.

Although the wildfires have fallen out of popular media, it was only on Feb. 13 that all the fires were contained in New South Wales. Fires still rage in some parts of the country but are mostly under control. As a result of the changing local atmosphere, there are now flash floods due to heavy rainfall. After the drought, the vegetation may thin out and the ground can lose its ability to retain water, causing floods from the water runoff.

On Jan. 27, Escape from New York Pizzeria in the Marketplace pledged to donate all its sales to provide relief for the Australian wildfires. The following message from Student Life Newsletter: February 2, 2020 highlights the results of that endeavor.

This event came after weeks of Australian bushfires making headlines with images of singed koalas, devastated forests and aerial footage of large areas set ablaze. If you purchased some infamous garlic knots or jalapeño poppers at the pizzeria on the day of the fundraiser, the proceeds went to Australia via the Emirates Red Crescent which is affiliated with the Red Cross globally. The Emirates Red Crescent has an initiative called “Mates Help Mates to help provide relief to bushfire victims with the Australian Red Cross. Both these bodies have a humanitarian focus, so donations go to people who have lost loved ones or their homes and sustained injuries from the fires. Over 30 people have died from the fires, including 11 firefighters and more than 2,400 homes have been destroyed. Beyond the shocking effect of these fires on human lives, their environmental ramifications have been a major part of global conversations.

Wildfires of this scale can trigger small-scale, contained weather systems that cause thunderstorms. As these fires continue to burn, more carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, with more than 350 million metric tons of carbon dioxide released during this fire season. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that traps energy from the sun in the atmosphere. While we cannot predict the consequences that these fires will have on the global climate, these flames have left long standing damage on the land and its inhabitants. For a country that is already wrought with ecological tribulations, this season’s fires exacerbate harm on the already strained habitats. An estimated one billion mammals — not including bats, birds and reptiles — have perished amidst falling trees and burning fields. Some species that are going to be put at risk of imminent extinction are the long-footed potoroo, Kangaroo Island dunnart and the glossy black-cockatoo. Up to 100 threatened species are estimated to be at risk of habitat loss. These species may not have a flexible enough niche — the multidimensional position a species occupies within an ecological community — to adapt and therefore may disappear. The long-footed potoroo has a small distribution in East Gippsland, where its habitat has been ruined almost completely by fires. The diet of the potoroo is mainly the fruiting bodies of fungi that are important for plant growth. The ingestion and subsequent excretion of the fruiting bodies are a method of dispersal for the fungi. In this way, the potoroos help in forest regeneration. Anything that eats plants — or that eats something that eats plants — may be affected by the species decline. This is just one example of the vast complexity of ecosystems that will be altered in the wake of these fires.

We are starting to witness more abnormalities in climate worldwide that can be linked to climate change. As students, it may seem like we have no power to change global weather patterns or alter rainfall. However, if we work towards better preparedness plans for disasters such as wildfires, communities will have an easier time dealing with these imminent events. As of now, most of the intrigue is reactionary and thus much of the legislation and funding only come after an event has occurred. Pressure on authorities and governing bodies to have better implementation strategies, as well as building better infrastructure in case of such emergencies, is crucial to making a difference. The fundraiser by Escape from New York Pizzeria is a step in the right direction. Keep the conversation alive and hold your local governing bodies accountable for the decisions they make. Most importantly, keep yourself educated on climate politics and their ecological impacts.

To read more about potential long-term and systematic changes the administration could implement, see also 5 Simple Things NYU Abu Dhabi Can Do to Combat Global Warming by The Gazelle’s Editor-at-Large, Jakob Plaschke