Sunday, January 12, 2020

How Howard the Duck ended up in a nearly blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in 'Avengers: Endgame'

AS A COMIC AFICIONADO AND FAN HOWARD THE DUCK WAS FABULOUS CHEEKY WITTY IRREVERENT AND SUBVERSIVE AS MOVIE IT WAS ABOUT A FAT DUCK WHO WAS OBNOXIOUS AND SO IT LOST MONEY BIG TIME IN THE DISNEY DONALD DUCK UNIVERSE NOW A SLIMMED DOWN NASTY LOOKING HOWARD THE DUCK REAPPEARS IN SPACE

 Marvel fan-favorite character Howard the Duck appears in the big "Avengers: Endgame" battle for less than a second to the right of the Wasp.

 Marvel VFX producer Jen Underdahl and Weta Digital VFX supervisor Matt Aitken told Insider how his appearance came together in the final few weeks of production.

 Though "Endgame" codirector Joe Russo threw the idea out there, Underdahl says he and his codirector-slash-brother Anthony Russo didn't know Howard would actually be added into the film.

 Howard is only in the movie for 17 or 18 frames. The VFX team didn't expect people to notice his appearance until the movie's home release.

 His appearance is a pretty natural fit. Howard was in an early version of "Infinity War" where Peter Quill would have stolen his ship, leaving him stranded on the planet Contraxia. That's the portal we see him come through in "Endgame."


Howard the Duck shows up for a few fleeting moments in "Avengers: Endgame" during the film's climactic battle.
The visual effects team didn't expect viewers to find the character — who was first introduced at the end of "Guardians of the Galaxy" — in the movie right away. But on opening weekend, excited fans not only found him, but started posting picture of Howard in the final battle online.
"I can't remember exactly who it was, it was either [codirector] Joe Russo or [Marvel Studios' president] Kevin Feige and we were talking about the different characters that were going to come through the different environments at each of the portals that had opened up," Marvel visual effects producer Jen Underdahl told Insider of the idea coming up three weeks before visual effects needed to be completed on the film.

Howard the Duck is first seen speaking with the Collector after the credits roll in 2014's "Guardians of the Galaxy." 
Marvel Studios

"So you had Wakanda in one and you had Contraxia in another and we just got to talking in the screening room about who would be coming through Contraxia," Underdahl added.
Introduced in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," Contraxia is the planet where the Ravagers like Yondu (Michael Rooker), Kraglin (Sean Gunn), and Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone) were seen. The team also believed it was the last location where Howard the Duck was seen. More on that in a bit. 

Kraglin and Yondu are members of the Ravagers. 
Disney/Marvel

How Howard wound up in 'Endgame' with three weeks to go before the VFX team was done with the film

"Somebody threw out Howard the Duck and all of a sudden the room sort of laughed and was like, 'Huh, wouldn't that be a great idea?'" said Underdahl. "So that afternoon we gave Weta a call and said, 'Hey, if we were able to get you an old model of Howard the Duck, do you think you guys could get him into some frames of that shot?' They didn't even blink. They said yes."


Here's an earlier progression image that shows some of the work that went into creating the many portals that brought our heroes onto one battlefield. 
Marvel Studios

Russo told Comicbook.com in May he was the one to bring up the idea. But, at the time, he didn't know it was something that could actually wind up in the film. 
"We just thought it was such a cool idea and something for the fans, something for the people who really scrutinize the movie frame by frame, although it didn't take long for them to find him," said Weta Digital VFX supervisor Matt Aitken who thought viewers may not find the character until they could pause the film upon its home release months later. 
Aitken was mostly impressed people were able to spot him in theaters because Howard is on screen for less than a second. 
"It was tight. We had to rig and create a feather groom for Howard and get him into our pipeline and animation," said Aitken of the amount of work that went into getting the small duck into the film late in the game. "He actually shows up in about 17 or 18 frames in the movie. So it's definitely a fleeting glimpse we get of him, way less than a second of screen time."

Weta Digital even had enough time to give Howard a gun almost as big as him for the scene. 
Marvel Studios

"I think if you looked at the complexity of getting him ready for the shot, and the amount of time that he's in the movie, I think it's probably one of the most skewed characters I've ever built for a movie, in that respect," he added. "But it was so much fun. We really enjoyed it."
The best part was that while all of this was happening, the directors didn't even know Howard was really being inserted into the film. Underdahl says they didn't even notice the character in the scene the first few times they watched it, which made the moment even sweeter.
"They didn't even know," said Underdahl. "The filmmakers had no idea we were going to try and get this in, so that when the shot came through, [and] we're sitting in dailies, we let it play a few times. Then I think it might have been Joe [Russo] who was like, 'Oh my God, there's Howard the Duck!'"
"The whole room kind of erupted like, 'That's amazing!'" said Underdahl of everyone seeing Howard the Duck during the battle scene. "Mind you, we're in the very end of the cycle. We have had this long three-year push, we're right up against it. So to have something like that show up was our true gift to the room and it was appreciated across the board."

Why it made sense for Howard the Duck to be there: He was in a version of 'Avengers: Infinity War'


Peter Quill originally would have stolen Howard's ship, leaving him stranded on the planet Contraxia. 
Marvel/Guardians of the Galaxy trailer

"There was a version of 'Infinity War' when we were going to spend some time with Howard the Duck and Peter Quill on Contraxia," said Underdahl of why the idea even came up. 
Underdahl said the scene would have involved Peter stealing Howard the Duck's ship, stranding him on the planet. But it became too much of a side story.
"They've got to service all these different MCU characters and groups of heroes," said Underdahl of why Howard didn't make it into "Infinity War." "So things like that, that kind of departure into Contraxia, it ultimately would've taken too much weight of the film. We had to kind of stay on target with the storytelling."
"So when you're watching the portals open in Contraxia in the background, we're talking about, OK what are the things that we can see back there that are going to let us know kind of in a few frames where we're coming from?" Underdahl continued. "We just started talking again about who would be there, flashing back to the story point for 'Infinity War.'" 
It was a nice way to bring in an idea that was discarded in "Infinity War" back into the fold in "Endgame." And, hey, maybe we'll see Howard confront Quill in James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

Howard the Duck Deserves Another Chance | Den of Geek


https://www.denofgeek.com › Movies


When Howard the Duck was released on August 1, 1986, it marked the first time in history a big budget film based on a Marvel Comics character was released.
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A photographer captured the sun looking like devil horns off the coast of Qatar during an eclipse



Ben Mack
  Jan 10, 2020
Snapcha

An eclipse in the Arabian Gulf. 
Elias Chasiotis

  • The sun appears to have devil horns in stunning pictures taken off the coast of Al Wakrah, Qatar by photographer Elias Chasiotis.
  • The photos were taken during an eclipse at sunrise on December 26, 2019, and went viral after Chasiotis posted them on Facebook, appearing in the likes of CNN, NBC, and The Sun.
  • He told Insider it was "a truly unforgettable experience" and that he "intentionally chose the coastal area of Al Wakrah, Qatar, so that the horizon would be completely open, and the eclipsed sun would rise from the sea.
There's no actual man in the moon, nor is the sun really the devil in disguise — though some people might come to such a conclusion based on some stunning snaps a photographer took during an eclipse in the Arabian Gulf off the coast of Qatar on December 26.
The images went viral soon after Elias Chasiotis posted them on Facebook, and he told Insider that capturing the eclipse was "a truly unforgettable experience."
One of Elias Chasiotis' photos of an eclipse at sunrise in the Arabian Gulf. 
Elias Chasiotis

"My passion for photography started when I was a small kid, together with my interest in the sky and the stars," Chasiotis said.
"I became an amateur astronomer very early, and I observed my first solar eclipse when I was 14."

A plane flying overhead during an eclipse at sunrise. 
Elias Chasiotis

He added: "I have photographed many solar and lunar eclipses. For this eclipse, I intentionally chose the coastal area of Al Wakrah, Qatar, so that the horizon would be completely open, and the eclipsed sun would rise from the sea.
"I desired to capture inferior mirage effects that would make the eclipsed sunrise even more thrilling."
Chasiotis captured his images of the sun appearing to have "devil horns" off the coast of Al Wakrah, Qatar, 
Elias Chasiotis

Chasiotis said the mirages are caused by "inversion layers on the atmosphere."
"They are not rare, but not present every day. I was finally lucky!
"The sun rose in two parts that reminded me of a crab claw, a very unusual and breathtaking sight. Soon the two separated parts united in one deep red crescent. An 'Etruscan vase' effect was visible, exactly what I had hoped for. I stood in awe."

Chasiotis says it was the most awesome sunrise of his life. 
Elias Chasiotis

"Soon, the eclipsed sun vanished in clouds, so I missed the annular phase of the eclipse. During that phase, the sun is visible as a bright 'ring of fire.'
"When the sun reappeared, it was a crescent again."

The sun rises during an eclipse off the coast of Al Wakrah, Qatar. 
Elias Chasiotis

As for what's next for the photographer, he told Insider: "Now I'm getting ready for the next annular solar eclipse of June 2020, and the total solar eclipse of December 2020.
"A total solar eclipse is the most spectacular natural phenomenon on earth, a truly unforgettable experience."

Chasiotis says he can't wait to experience more eclipses. 
Elias Chasiotis

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A Florida community could lose a beloved nurse and father. Here's how Trump's policies stand to disproportionately affect black immigrants.

Kenya Evelyn
Jan 10, 2020, 
Rony Ponthieux. Kenya Evelyn


President Donald Trump's proposed merit-based changes to the current immigration system wouldn't change the number of immigrants permitted in the US, but does look to redefine the type of migrants accepted.
Critics call these policy changes discriminatory, accusing the administration of singling out poor, mostly black and brown countries in favor of European immigrants and would-be tech workers.
"There are 1.8 million black immigrants who are already disproportionately vulnerable to immigration enforcement. Attacking the legal ways they come here sends a clear message they aren't wanted," Nana Gyamfi, executive director for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, said.

Sunset over Rony Ponthieux's Miami Gardens home signals time to head inside. After a few comical attempts, his 12-year-old daughter Christina gives up teaching him how to throw a football. Rony prefers soccer anyway and the hot, November sun makes him sweat. Sundays begin the busy week for this family, a mix of hospital shifts, school trips, and recitals.


Play soon leads to prep. Christina rehearses chords on the living room piano while Rony gets ready for work. Tonight is the first of four, 12-hour shifts at Jackson Memorial Hospital where Rony is a registered nurse. Nights are split between wards, aiding patients post-surgery and emergencies.
Rony Ponthieux and his daughter. Kenya Evelyn
For many Haitians living in South Florida, the Ponthieux story is a familiar one: escape from political turmoil and hard work to achieve an education. After years of sacrifice, together they live their own American dream — complete with Saturday church services in Kreyol. As Rony fills up on leftovers in the family's modest kitchen, he steals a minute to sit beside Christina as she plays.

Bonding moments like these are under threat now as the family's future in America remains uncertain.

"It's a terrible situation," Rony said. "You come to America for a better life but it's almost like we're being punished for wanting to give back to the country that welcomed us."

Rony, who came to the US with his wife Majorie in 1999, is among 50,000 Haitians living under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a legal protection granted to countries experiencing catastrophes of war or natural disaster. President Barack Obama granted TPS following the devastating quake. It allowed Rony and his wife to stay and work in the country.

But in 2017, the Trump administration announced it would terminate TPS for Haitians, giving Rony just months to leave the country he's called home for 20 years. Due to multiple appeals, his legal right to stay has been in limbo ever since.

"I couldn't believe after all these years we'd just be told 'ok, now leave,'" he said. "Without TPS, I would have to go back to Haiti where I have no job, no resources and few connections. My entire life is here."
Trump's policies could disproportionately affect migrants from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean

President Donald Trump's proposed merit-based changes to the current immigration system wouldn't change the number of immigrants permitted in the US, but does look to redefine the type of migrants accepted. Critics call these policy changes discriminatory, accusing the administration of singling out poor, mostly black and brown countries in favor of European immigrants and would-be tech workers. Rony points to the president's own rhetoric.

"He calls them 'shithole countries.' He said he wants more people from Norway," he said. "My skin is black, my accent is Haitian but I work hard to be part of America like anyone else."

Proposed changes to US immigration policy do stand to disproportionately affect migrants from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. According to the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), black immigrants are more likely to enter the US legally through asylum, TPS or visa programs including the diversity lottery. Trump has vowed to "restore the integrity of" what he calls a "broken asylum system" and gut the diversity visa altogether. BAJI executive director Nana Gyamfi says these steps are designed to restrict black immigration.

"It's to ensure that only rich Europeans are coming into the country, essentially the whitening of America," said Nana Gyamfi, executive director for BAJI. "There are 1.8 million black immigrants who are already disproportionately vulnerable to immigration enforcement. Attacking the legal ways they come here sends a clear message they aren't wanted."

Black migrants, mostly from Africa and the Caribbean, represent 10% of the immigrant population. While they continue to be one of the most educated, 19% of black immigrants live below the poverty line, 12% are unemployed, according to BAJI. In September, the US Department of Homeland Security introduced a change to a public charge policy that would deny green cards to immigrants receiving federal benefits like Medicaid and food stamps. BAJI estimates that one in 20 black immigrants and their families could be affected. A court blocked the change four days before it was to take effect.

Gyamfi says even if never enforced, policies still achieve their intended chilling effect.

"Fear of immigration enforcement keeps black immigrants from seeking the public services they qualify for, and deters would-be applicants from seeking asylum or a visa," she said. "In recent years our work has been just as much myth-busting and addressing hysteria as it is advocacy."

With each new announcement, Rony also worries about any potential effect on his legal status.

"Everything is so temporary you almost feel scared to take a breath," he said. "But our lives here, our families here, aren't temporary."

Rony has been a permanent fixture of Jackson Memorial Hospital for years. Traffic turns tonight's commute from 30 minutes to an hour, giving Rony time to browse his phone. He swipes past dozens of photos of a wide-eyed youth in uniform. The young man stares stoically in front of the American flag but poses jokingly with his comrades in the US Army. Rony's 19-year-old son, Christopher, finished boot camp in Georgia earlier that month. He calls often, but they keep the conversation light.
Rony Ponthieux looks at a picture of his son. Kenya Evelyn"It's a lot of pressure for him," Rony said. "You volunteer for your country and worry that it may not let your parents stay."

The Ponthieux were hopeful that Christopher's military service would aid in their green card quest. But they'll have to wait until the end of 2021, when Christopher turns 21. A court order extended TPS through January of the same year. The timeline leaves a near nine-month gap, putting Rony's legal status in jeopardy.

If TPS expires, Rony and more than 315,000 other recipients from 15 countries would face an immediate deadline to leave the country and be subject to detention and deportation in the process. The Trump administration's proposed 79% spike in application fees for green cards may also take effect by then, a measure activists criticize as politically motivated and designed to keep low-income migrants out.

In their effort to stay, the Ponthieux parents will now face a permanent residency fight that is more stringent, and possibly, more expensive.

The 18,000 American children born to Haitian TPS recipients add to the uncertainty, including Christopher and 12-year-old Christina. Thousands of Haitian families face the reality that their lives together in the US may be limited. Christina, only a seventh grader, fears her family could be split up. It's an uncomfortable conversation between piano practice, schoolwork and at-home lessons on the historical bond between the US and Haiti.
'The anxiety is difficult but I have to be here for the patients, for my family'

Rony heads toward Jackson Memorial's automated glass doors, backpack in tow. The hospital is where his advocacy is most successful. Occasional quips about immigration from patients create opportunities to show the difference he and other migrants make.

"I tell them how, without TPS, I wouldn't be here to care for them," he says. "Their hearts drop and they tell me they don't want to lose their favorite nurse."

Minds also begin to change when considering all the other community members they'd lose — 320,000 TPS recipients from Central America and the Caribbean alone.

Together with his shiftmate, Rony will spend the night checking IVs, monitoring patient breathing and other vital signs. While his work on the night shift is an asset for others, his own health has experienced the effects of uncertainty. Rony's been hospitalized twice over the year for blood pressure spikes and stress-related dehydration.

"The anxiety is difficult but I have to be here for the patients, for my family," he said. "I want to stay part of this community until I can't."
Rony Ponthieux Kenya Evelyn

Just as Rony's shift begins, a beggar stops him wanting a cigarette.

"Smoking is no good for you, brother. I care about your health," he said. He offers the man change for dinner before heading inside.

Sunrise will mark a day's work done, just in time to take Christina to school. Before long Rony will fix another plate of leftovers and head out for another 12-hour night. Stolen moments with Christina on the piano or calls with Christopher help to break up the routine.

He doesn't take them for granted. Rony can only guarantee those bonding moments until January 4, 2021.
---30---
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PHOTO ESSAY 
Devastating images of burned koalas and wallabies are emerging from Australia as 1 billion animals are feared dead

Morgan McFall-Johnsen Jan 8, 2020

An injured koala resting in a washing basket at the Kangaroo 
Island Wildlife Park in Australia on Wednesday. 
Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
Since September, unprecedented bushfires have razed an estimated 25 million acres in Australia.
More than 1 billion animals are feared dead in the blazes.
Horrifying images show burned koalas, birds, and wallabies.
.
This week, the estimated number of animals feared dead in Australia's devastating bushfires soared to more than 1 billion.

As the country enters its third year of an unprecedented drought, blazes have burned an estimated 25 million acres — 46% more than the total that burned in the Brazilian Amazon last year. Australia's dry season still has another two months to go.

Despite rescue efforts, tens of thousands of koalas are estimated to have died on one island alone. Ecologists fear the fires could wipe endangered species off the map.

Disturbing images from the fires' aftermath are beginning to emerge.

Warning: This post contains graphic images of dead animals.

Unprecedented, deadly bushfires have raged across Australia since September.

A satellite photo of Bateman Bay on the southern coast of 
New South Wales, Australia, on December 31. Copernicus EMS

Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate, and at least 25 have died. An estimated 2,000 homes have been destroyed.

The fires have razed an estimated 25 million acres across the continent.

Shayanne Gal/Insider

That's an area larger than South Korea and 46% bigger than that which burned in the Brazilian Amazon last year.

In some areas the fires are so large they've created their own weather
A diagram showing how fires form pyrocumulonimbus clouds.
Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria

The smoke generates clouds that create thunderstorms, ultimately leading to more fires.

Despite rescue and treatment efforts, 1 billion animals are feared dead amid the blazes.
Tracy Dodd, a volunteer for Wildlife Information, Rescue
 and Education Services, holding a kangaroo with burned
 feet pads that was rescued from bushfires in Australia's
 Blue Mountains area. Jill Gralow / Reuters

Warning: The following images contain graphic content.


Last week, ecologists estimated that 480 million mammals, birds, and reptiles had died in the fires. But on Monday that number skyrocketed.

A dead koala among blue-gum trees on Wednesday after 
bushfires ravaged Australia's Kangaroo Island. 
Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Chris Dickman, an ecologist at the University of Sydney, told HuffPost that last week's estimate was conservative and considered only the state of New South Wales.

"Over a billion would be a very conservative figure," Dickman told HuffPost.

A dead Australian native bird washed up among ash and
 fire debris on Boydtown Beach in Eden, Australia, on
 Tuesday. Tracey Nearmy/Reuters

Dickman said researchers didn't have population data for animals like bats, frogs, and invertebrates, making it difficult to know how many had died.

The fires could wipe out some endangered species, including the southern corroboree frog and the mountain pygmy-possum.
Photo by Rick Stevens/The Sydney Morning Herald/Fairfax
 Media via Getty Images via Getty Images

The fires have burned one-third of Kangaroo Island, known for its nature preserves and endangered bird species.

Kangaroo Island is off the coast of Adelaide. Sinéad Baker/Business Insider


Ecologists estimate that 25,000 koalas have died in the island's Flinders Chase National Park.

A dead koala in the bushfire-ravaged outskirts of the Parndana region on Wednesday on Kangaroo Island. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

That's half of the park's koala population.

Koalas can't move fast enough to escape the fires, the ecologist Mark Graham told Parliament in December. Koalas also eat leaves from eucalyptus trees, which are highly flammable.

"The fires have burned so hot and so fast that there has been significant mortality of animals in the trees, but there is such a big area now that is still on fire and still burning that we will probably never find the bodies," Graham said, according to The Guardian.

Each day Australians have brought about 30 injured koalas to the Kangaroo Wildlife Park, at the edge of the island's fire zone.

The Adelaide wildlife rescuer Simon Adamczyk with a koala rescued at a burning forest near Cape Borda on Kangaroo Island. AAP Image/David Mariuz/via REUTERS

"At least a third of what has been brought in we've had to euthanize unfortunately," Sam Mitchell, a co-owner of the park, told The Guardian.

Mitchell, a co-owner of the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park, carrying a dead koala and a dead kangaroo to a mass grave on Wednesday on Kangaroo Island. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

He said residents had also brought in kangaroos, wallabies, and pygmy possums.

"We are seeing many burns to hands and feet – fingernails melted off," Mitchell said. "For some the burns are just too extreme."

The burns on the feet of koala named Kate from Bellangry State Forest seen as she was treated for burns at The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital on November 29 in Port Macquarie, Australia. Nathan Edwards/Getty Images


Rescuers fear many animals simply can't escape the fires.

A dead wallaby in Australia's Wingello State Forest on Monday. Brett Hemmings/Getty Images

"We're not getting that many animals coming into care," Tracy Burgess, a volunteer at Wildlife Information, Rescue, and Education Services, told Reuters. "Our concern is that they don't come into care because they're not there anymore, basically."


On Thursday, Mitchell and some staff members of the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park said they were going to stay despite the threat of fires on the island.

Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park. Google

According to 7 News, they are staying to protect the roughly 700 animals in their care.
The nearby town of Parndana was evacuated by the Country Fire Service and the Australian Defence Force.

For those looking to donate to organizations assisting with relief efforts in Australia, here are some to consider.

A koala drinks water from a bottle given by a firefighter in 
Cudlee Creek, South Australia. This image was made from a
 video taken on Dec. 22, 2019, and provided by 
Oakbank Balhannah Country Fire Service brigade. 
Oakbank Balhannah CFS via AP

To help animals (and the humans caring for them):

World Wildlife Fund Australia hopes to raise $30 million Australian dollars (about $20 million US) for an Australian Wildlife and Nature Recovery Fund.

The New South Wales Wildlife Information, Rescue, and Education Service (WIRES) rescues and cares for animals. The group is seeking donations for volunteer carers and rescuers.

The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital has a GoFundMe page that seeks funding for recovery work to help koalas affected by the bushfires.

Other organizations include:

Australian Red Cross

Salvation Army

St Vincent de Paul Society

New South Wales Rural Fire Service

Country Fire Authority (CFA), Victoria

The Victorian Bushfire Appeal

SEE ALSO: Australia's bushfires are ravaging the country. Here's how it all happened.More: Features Australia Bushfires Animals Austral
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Thousands of Australians are calling for their prime minster's resignation. He's vowed to keep exporting coal, despite the link between fires and climate change.

AUSTRALIA POWER IS COAL FIRED AND ITS INCOME IS BASED ON COAL EXPORTS 

Aylin Woodward Jan 10, 2020
Left, Australian prime minister Scott Morrison issues a press 
statement in Adelaide, Australia, January 6, 2020. Right, a
 firefighter hoses down trees in an effort to secure nearby
 houses from bushfires in the town of Nowra in
 New South Wales, Australia, December 31, 2019.
 Rohan Thomson/Saeed Khan/Getty


In the last five months, bushfires have razed an estimated 25 million acres in Australia. That's an area larger than South Korea.

Prime minister Scott Morrison has said that he doesn't think more aggressive cuts to Australia's carbon emissions would have changed the outcome of this fire season.

On Friday, thousands of Australians took to the streets to call for more robust action on climate change.

Science shows that the drought conditions and high temperatures caused by climate change lead to larger, more frequent fires.The carbon dioxide that fires send into the atmosphere further contributes to climate change, raising the risk of more intense blazes.Australia has become an inferno: Since the start of the bushfire season in September, an estimated 25.5 million acres have burned, according to Reuters.At least 27 people have perished, and more than 1 billion animals are feared dead. An estimated 2,000 homes have been destroyed, with hundreds of thousands of people forced to evacuate.

On Friday, more than 10,000 Australians took to the streets to protest what they see as prime minister Scott Morrison's inadequate response to the fires. Many demanded more robust action to address climate change, and some even called for Morrison's resignation, chanting "ScoMo has got to go," according to The Washington Post.

Australia's bushfires erupted amid exceptionally hot and dry conditions there. The country experienced its driest spring ever in 2019. December 18 was the hottest day in Australian history, with average temperatures there hitting 105.6 degrees Fahrenheit (40.9 degrees Celsius). Eight of Australia's 10 warmest years ever have come in the last 15 years. Meanwhile, winter rains, which can help reduce the intensity of summer fires, have declined significantly, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Protesters march through the streets of Melbourne, Australia
 on January 10, 2020. Robert Cianflone/Getty

But Morrison has said his government will not consider downsizing Australia's coal industry, despite the known link between fire risk and climate change. Australia is the biggest exporter of coal worldwide; its annual coal exports total to about $47 million US.

"I am not going to write off the jobs of thousands of Australians by walking away from traditional industries," Morrison told Australian broadcaster Channel Seven last month, according to the AP.

'Coal interests and politicians on the one side, and then firefighters and volunteers on the other'

In a protest in Melbourne, a speaker named Jerome Small said politicians like Morrison represent a "massive political and economic roadblock" on the path to better climate policies, the Post reported.

Gavin Stanbrook, one of the organizer of Friday's protests, told the Post that there's a schism between politicians and the people most impacted by the fires.

"We are divided between coal interests and politicians on the one side and then firefighters and volunteers on the other and the rest of us who are either impacted or our friends and family are on the front line, or in cities surrounded by smoke," Stanbrook said.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison visited a fire 
damaged property on Stokes Bay on Kangaroo Island, 
southwest of Adelaide, Australia, January 8, 2020. 
David Mariuz-Pool/Getty

Morrison's political rivals have also criticized his administration for its approach to climate policy,

"His totally inadequate response to these fires and his obstinate refusal to accept what we have known for decades: that burning climate-changing fossil fuels would lead to more frequent and intense bushfires is putting the lives of Australians at risk," Richard Di Natale, leader of Australia's Greens parties, said of Morrison last week.
Morrison wants to keep emissions down but does not plan to downsize the coal industry

In November, Morrison told the Herald that he doesn't think more aggressive cuts to Australia's carbon emissions would have made a difference in this fire crisis.

"To suggest that with just 1.3% of global emissions that Australia doing something differently, more or less, would have changed the fire outcome this season, I don't think that stands up to any credible scientific evidence at all," he said.

Angus Taylor, Australia's minister for energy and emissions reduction, told Reuters on Monday that he does not think Australia needs to cut its emissions more aggressively.


"When it comes to reducing global emissions, Australia must and is doing its bit," Taylor said.

Morrison's administration has not, however, denied the link between global warming and fire risk overall.

"There is no dispute in this country about the issue of climate change globally and its effect on global weather patterns, and that includes how it impacts Australia," Morrison said in a press conference over the weekend, according to the Associated Press.

He added: "I have seen a number of people suggest that somehow the government does not make this connection. The government has always made this connection and that has never been in dispute."
A kangaroo is seen in bushland surrounded by smoke haze 
early morning in Canberra, Australia, January 5, 2020
 AAP Image/Lukas Coch via REUTERS

When asked what his government's plans were to mitigate and plan for the long-term impacts of climate change, Morrison said: "Our goal is to meet and beat our emissions reductions."

"What we will do is ensure that our policies remain sensible, that they don't move towards either extreme and stay focused on what Australians need for a vibrant and viable economy, as well as a vibrant and sustainable environment," he said.

However, Morrison was noticeably absent from the September United Nations climate summit in New York. At the UN's December climate talks in Madrid, meanwhile, world leaders accused Morrison's administration of cheating to meet 2030 emissions targets by using carryover credits — the amount of carbon dioxide by which Australia beat previous, less stringent targets set under the Kyoto protocol.
'One of the key drivers of fire intensity is temperature'

Climate change increases the likelihood, size, and frequency of wildfires, since warmer air sucks away moisture from trees and soil, leading to dryer land. Rising temperatures also make heat waves and droughts more frequent and severe, which exacerbates wildfire risk, since hot, parched forests are prone to burning.

"Climate change is exacerbating every risk factor for more frequent and intense bushfires," Dale Dominey-Howes, an expert on disaster risk at the University of Sydney, told Business Insider Australia. "Widespread drought conditions, higher-than-average temperatures — these are all made worse by climate change."
 
A CFA firefighter sprays water after a fire impacted 
Clovemont Way, Bundoora in Melbourne, Australia, 
December 30, 2019. AAP Image/Julian Smith via REUTERS

On average, Earth has warmed about 1 degree Celsius. July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded, and 2019 will likely be the third-hottest year on record globally, according to Climate Central. Only 2016, 2015, and 2017 were hotter (in that order).

"One of the key drivers of fire intensity, fire spread rates and fire area is temperature. And in Australia we've just experienced record high temperatures," Mark Howden, director of the Climate Change Institute at Australian National University, told Reuters.

Climate scientist Michael Mann, who has been on sabbatical in Sydney this winter, put it simply in an article published January 2 in The Guardian:

"The brown skies I observed in the Blue Mountains this week are a product of human-caused climate change," Mann wrote. "Take record heat, combine it with unprecedented drought in already dry regions, and you get unprecedented bushfires like the ones engulfing the Blue Mountains and spreading across the continent. It's not complicated."

A carbon-dioxide feedback loop

Firefighters struggle against strong winds in an effort to
 secure nearby houses from bushfires near the town of
 Nowra in the Australian state of New South Wales,
 December 31, 2019. Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty

Climate activist Greta Thunberg also criticized Morrison's response to the fires on Twitter.


"Not even catastrophes like these seem to bring any political action. How is this possible? Because we still fail to make the connection between the climate crisis and increased extreme weather events and nature disasters like the #AustraliaFires," Thunberg tweeted on December 22.

Already, this season's fires have released 350 million metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. That's roughly 1% of the total global carbon emissions in 2019, and two-thirds of Australia's carbon emissions from 2018.

And there are least two more months of bushfire season to go.

Carbon emissions from these and other fires could become part of an ominous feedback loop: The more land burns, the more carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere, and the more trees — which act as natural carbon sinks — disappear.

The more CO2 gets released, the warmer our planet gets; that raises the risk of more big and deadly fires.

SEE ALSO: Australia's fires are 46% bigger than last year's Brazilian Amazon blazes. There are at least 2 months of fire season to go.

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