The region of Australia has experienced an ongoing issue of wildfires ever since the start of the bushfire season that started way back in June 2019, specifically the province of New South Wales. This issue continues to rage on even now, causing both the people and wildlife within the area to suffer. This bushfire season has been particularly devastating, achieving a new record of the hottest and driest year as of 2019 and an average temperature of 107°F throughout the whole country of Australia surpassing the old record by 3°F. The 2019-2020 bushfire season within Australia is often regarded as one of the worst bushfire seasons Australia has experienced with a current death toll of 34 people, the destruction of over 5,900 buildings, including over 2,800 homes, and over 18 million hectares of land being burned.
Australia is home to some of the most bizarre wildlife that cannot be found anywhere else on earth. Australia is the only country to have all three major mammal groups: monotremes, marsupials, and placentals. This strange selection of animals ranging from cassowaries, kangaroos, koalas, platypuses, and other large variety of animals is largely due to the isolation of Australia. After Australia had broken away from a supercontinent called Gondwana, which had resulted in Australia becoming isolated for millions of years, The sheer size of Australia had allowed the country to develop several different climates throughout the region.
The most influential factor of Australia’s climate is the subtropical high-pressure belt and Indian ocean that Australia has a close proximity to. The harsh environment and isolation had allowed animals within this region to adapt to it without any outside interference resulting in strange animals one may not be able to find outside the country.
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The bushfires within Australia have caused the deaths of a large amount of wildlife within Australia, about 1 billion animals are estimated to have died as a result of the ongoing wildfires. The bushfires can destroy the habitat and sources of food for several animals, most notably arboreal animals such as a Koala can greatly suffer if the trees they live in are burned down. This can result in the endangerment or extinction of a species. If that were to happen, the world could potentially lose some of the rarest and unique species on the earth, causing a loss of biodiversity.
While others may cause a more ecological impact causing other species that rely on a certain species as a source of food or a method of population control will be lost. This will result in a loss of another species or a large growth of another animal, which can potentially cause the decrease of the population of others as competition grows and they can’t keep up. The resources of the environment might also be drained as a result of this negatively affecting the whole ecosystem to be harmed and loss other animals that may be extremely important.
The wildfires of Australia are caused by the Indian ocean and a phenomenon it causes called the Indian Ocean Dipole effect causing dry air to flow into Australia. Paired with long droughts and high temperatures causes an increase of wildfires, which has caused bushfire season to happen earlier and lasts longer than previous bushfire seasons. One of the biggest issues of this is global warming. Global warming has increased the potency of the Indian Ocean Dipole effect causing the most destructive wildfires that Australia has had in a long time.
Sustainable Development Goals have pushed for combating climate change in order to decrease the severity and frequency of wildfires. They plan on reducing the impact of bushfires by protecting the environment, helping it recover quickly, and increasing the resilience of the population for future bushfires while the NSW Rural Fire service has received donations and volunteers to help combat and contain the wildfires within Australia.
