How Australia bushfire is affecting the environment and livelihood of people?
New Zealand police had to ask the locals to stop calling emergency lines about the Australia bushfire
Australia bushfire is one of the country’s(Australia) worst fire seasons on record. This area is almost larger than West Virginia, and more than eight times the area that burned in California in 2018, the state’s most destructive year for wildfires. Australia’s bushfires are 46 per cent bigger than last year Brazil’s Amazon fires.
Australia fires have killed at least 27 people and destroyed almost 2,000 homes. The fire-flames are so high that it turned skies orange and made breathing the air in Sydney as bad as smoking 37 cigarettes. These are just the impacts on human beings. The destruction to the country’s land and biodiversity is harder to comprehend. About 1 billion animals have lost their lives and scientists fear long-term damage to many sensitive ecosystems. ‘
How Australia bushfire is affecting the lives of people?
An estimated 400 million tons of carbon has been generated so far from Australia bushfire. For perspective- all of the industrial emissions in Australia last year from energy production, transportation and other ways were just about 530 million tons.
These smokes have irritating pollutant that exacerbates respiratory illnesses and heart problems. Fine particles of soot and smoke can be smaller than 2.5 micrometres- tiny enough to lodge themselves into the crannies of the lungs and pass into the bloodstream.
The smoke from fires is so pervasive that New Zealand police had to ask the locals to stop calling emergency lines about the haze.
Thousands of lives are being disrupted. State of emergency is declared in Victoria and New South Wales. Apart from the army, volunteers are fighting the fire by dodging their regular work. Power, food supplies, fuel are severely interrupted in the affected areas.
Apart from the immediate destruction from the bushfires, Australians face other risks to their well-being- which might stay long after the fires are subdued. The extreme stress of losing homes, pets, livelihoods, property can be difficult to cope with. Mental health would be a big concern for the affected people.
Read more: Why 2019 was the second warmest year ever?
How oceans are affected by Australia bushfire?
Australian bushfire affecting the ocean might not be immediately apparent, but nothing happens in isolation in the natural world. The marine resources and ecosystems of Australia will surely be affected. Currently, Australia is experiencing the hottest and driest year on record. So when the earth heats up, so does the ocean.
The carbon dioxide released by the ocean has to go somewhere, and the ocean acts much like a sponge, pulling the carbon dioxide which then reacts with water to create an acid that makes the ocean water more acidic. Animals such as corals and shellfish which are particularly not fond of the acidic water tend to produce thinner skeletons and shells, brittle and utterly breakable.
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