The Australian fires have affected millions of animals and have killed over 30 people since they started in September, according to a recent article from Time magazine. But why are these fires so much more severe than past wildfires and how can these kinds of fires be prevented in the future?
Rising climate temperatures have created drier environments and less rainfall in some areas. This in turn affects the severity and rapidness of these Australian wildfires.
“The issues with why it’s so bad because of the warmer, drier climate. The vegetation dries out and becomes more flammable,” Jennifer Schafer, a biology professor at Winthrop, said. “Also, if there’s not enough rainfall that contributes to the dryness. These habitats would burn naturally but the combination of climate makes it more severe and widespread.”
Plant vegetation and wildlife are historically adapted to these natural fires because of the dryness of certain habitats. These drier plant communities are naturally flammable.
“Many ecosystems [and] many vegetation communities naturally burn and depend on fire to maintain the plant community structure and the species diversity that exists there,” Schafer said. “If there are no fires in those systems…diversity is reduced, there’s less habitat for [certain animals]. Fire is a common disturbance.”
Another reason why wildfires are worse is because of their rapid spread. Although this typically does not affect vegetation, it causes problems for humans and wildlife.
“The ecosystem is designed to withstand it. Animals move away to safer locations and then return. But in many cases, [they] have no place to go,” Scott Werts, a professor of geology at Winthrop, said. “Due to the higher…temperature[s] and drier than usual conditions, these are burning hotter and are harder to put out.”
Although natural fires occur and are not completely preventable, humans can do controlled fires to burn the flammable vegetation and prevent less damage.
“They clean out smaller, lower, vegetation and create low grade fires. It makes it harder for severe fires to occur because they can’t build as easily. However, once a severe fire starts, it doesn’t much matter if there was a controlled fire there before,” Werts said. “The fire spreads through the tree tops and through the weather systems that the fire itself creates…controlled fires can keep larger regions from fires getting severe.”
It is encouraged that people become more aware of their effects on and contribution to these wildfires, as well as voting for people advocating to combat climate change.
“A ton of fires are started by humans who do silly things. Humans need to be thoughtful about when they are burning things and making sure they are not contributing to these fires,” Schafer said. “[Vote] for people that don’t deny climate change or advocate for reducing the CO2 emissions. [The wildfires are] this horrible because of climate and at this point it’s only getting worse.”
Photo Tate Walden/ The Johnsonian
