Even if the proper infrastructure is implemented, it’s hard to say what course of action could possibly extinguish a fast-moving rural bushfire within an hour.
Ahead of National Science Week, Chief Scientist Alan Finkel reflects on the growing value of citizen science, emphasising the need for more collaboration as we deal with an evolving climate.
The teddybear bee is a native Australian species.
James Dorey
Australia can learn from how India used community hubs to bridge the gap between government and local communities in the challenging years of reconstruction.
The United Nations predicts the world will be home to nearly 10 billion people by 2050 – making global greenhouse emission cuts ever more urgent.
NASA/Joshua Stevens
To be clear, I’m not advocating compulsory population control, here or anywhere. But we do need to consider a future with billions more people, many of them aspiring to live as Australians do now.
Glossy black cockatoo populations on Kangaroo Island have been decimated. But a few precious survivors remain.
Flickr
The destruction of recent fires is challenging our belief that with enough time, love and money, every threatened species can be saved. But there is plenty we can, and must, now do.
A targeted, coordinated online campaign has tried to mislead the public. While the myths have been debunked, the culpable parties remain unknown.
SEAN DAVEY/AAP
By understanding how bushfire maps are created, and what their features represent, you can get better at spotting fake ones.
Comedian Celeste Barber’s fundraising efforts have gained monumental support. But we need to think of long-term engagement in climate action too.
Facebook
Celeste Barber’s $45 million fundraiser is amazing, but battling Australia’s fires should be an ongoing effort. With the help of social media, it can be.
Use the slider tool in the images below to see before and after NASA satellite images of Australia’s fire and drought effects.
NASA
Local, self organised, community groups can be supported to do strategic hazard reduction through a range of techniques – including targeted grazing, and prescribed or fuel reduction burning.
Fire can kill animals and destroy their habitats, leading to extinction.
Lukas Koch / AAP
The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs sparked global firestorms. On land, only creatures that could evade fire survived
Residents of Grantham pay their respects during the dawn memorial service after the 2011 Queensland flash floods. Research into natural disaster recovery suggests there is a long road ahead for survivors of the current bushfire crisis.
AAP/PATRICK HAMILTON
We escaped through blackened landscapes where sheep wandered paddocks with the wool burnt off their backs. My three-year-old son, sensing the mood, asked why his dad and I were so quiet.
Bushfires are not the only weather and climate events set to ravage Australia in coming months.
Dave Hunt/AAP
The peak time for heatwaves in southern Australia has not yet arrived. Many parts of Australia can expect heavy rains and flooding. And northern Australia’s cyclone season is just gearing up.
An evacuation centre at the Hanging Rock Sports Club Function Centre at Batemans Bay, Friday, January 3, 2020. Maybe it’s time to rearrange Australian calendar and reschedule the peak holiday period to March or April, instead of December and January.
AAP Image/DEAN LEWINS
With smoke haze this week at its most hazardous level yet, people on Australia’s east coast have been taking precautions to protect their health. But some methods are more effective than others.
Smoke is blanketing Australia’s most populated city, making it impossibly to ignore the reality of climate change.
Joel Carrett/AAP
Thousands of people in Australia and around the world have rallied to knit and crochet comfort items for wildlife. Their efforts are the latest in a long history of crafting for a cause.