Unprecedented bushfires continue to ravage south-east Australia, with at least 24 people confirmed dead so far and almost 2,000 homes destroyed.
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in New South Wales and Victoria, in some cases only with help from the Australian navy.
Serious fires have also burned in South Australia, where three people have died, Western Australia and Queensland. By the end of the first week of January, more than 8.4m hectares (20.8m acres) had been burned across the whole country – an area bigger than the size of Scotland.
Satellite data from Nasa showed a stark increase in the number of fire detections in November and December compared with previous years. Satellites detect fire “hotspots” by measuring the infrared radiation emitted by the blazes.
In previous years, between 2,000 and 3,000 such hotspots were recorded each December in the south-east, while in 2019 the number reached 227,000.
The fires have had catastrophic effects on the local wildlife, killing millions of animals and threatening the survival of entire species.
Smoke plumes posed a significant health threat even to those living miles away, as the wind carried heavily polluted air to Sydney and Canberra, and as far as New Zealand.
Wildfire smoke contains poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide and fine particles known as PM2.5 which pass through the lungs and can harm virtually every organ in the human body.
A monitoring site in the Monash suburb of Canberra measured an air quality index of 5,185 on Friday, more than 20 times the level that is considered hazardous.
The devastation from the bushfires has been fuelled by the global climate crisis. Last year was Australia’s warmest on record and followed a clear long-term trend. It was also the driest year on record.
The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded more than a decade ago that human-caused global heating was “virtually certain” to increase the intensity and frequency of fires in Australia.
“As a climate scientist, the thing that really terrifies me is that weather conditions considered extreme by today’s standards will seem sedate in the future,” wrote Dr Joëlle Gergis in the Guardian.
“What’s unfolding right now is really just a taste of the new normal.”
