Issued on: 10/01/2020 - 10:56
Eden (Australia) (AFP) EDEN NO MORE
Gale-force winds in Australia merged two enormous fires into a megablaze across land almost four times the area of New York City on Friday, while thousands rallied to again demand action on climate change.
"The conditions are difficult today," said Shane Fitzsimmons, rural fire service commissioner for New South Wales state, after days of relative calm.
"It's the hot, dry winds that will prove once again to be the real challenge."
Temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of New South Wales and neighbouring Victoria, where attention was focused on the two fires that linked to form yet another monster blaze.
A "state of disaster" was extended 48 hours ahead of Friday's forecast of scorching temperatures, and evacuation orders were issued for areas around the New South Wales-Victoria border.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said there were more than 130 fires burning in the state, with just over 50 not yet under control.
On Kangaroo Island off south Australia, the largest town was cut off as firefighters battled dangerous infernos, forcing some residents to flee to the local jetty.
The catastrophic bushfires have killed at least 26 people, destroyed more than 2,000 homes and scorched some eight million hectares (80,000 square kilometres) -- an area the size of Ireland.
University of Sydney scientists estimate one billion mammals, birds and reptiles have been killed in the fires.
The severe conditions have been fuelled by a prolonged drought and worsened by climate change, with experts warning that such massive blazes were becoming more frequent and intense.
Australia experienced its driest and hottest year on record in 2019, with its highest average maximum temperature of 41.9 degrees Celsius recorded in mid-December.
- 'Scott, take it personally' -
In Sydney and Melbourne, thousands of people again took to the streets to demand Australia's conservative government do more to tackle global warming and reduce coal exports.
"Change the politics not the climate" read one sign, reflecting an increasingly charged argument over the cause of the fires.
Researchers say the bushfire emergency has sparked an online disinformation campaign "unprecedented" in the country's history, with bots deployed to shift blame for the blazes away from climate change.
One hashtag in particular, #arsonemergency, has gained traction rapidly and conservative-leaning newspapers, websites and politicians across the globe have promoted the theory that arson is largely to blame, rather than climate change, drought or record high temperatures.
Timothy Graham, a digital media expert at the Queensland University of Technology, told AFP his research showed half of the Twitter users deploying the hashtag displayed bot- and troll-like behaviour.
"Our findings show a concerted effort aimed to misinform the public about the cause of the bushfires," Graham said.
"The campaign is nothing on the scale of what we have been seeing in other countries, such as the 2016 US election, but this amount of disinformation in Australia is unprecedented."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday tried to parry journalists' questions about whether climate change would make horrific bushfire seasons the norm.
"Look, we have covered that on a number of occasions now," Morrison said testily, adding that reviews will take place once the bushfire season is over.
Towamba volunteer firefighter Tony Larkings, 65, said battling the fires in recent weeks had been a "hot, dirty and dangerous" task.
"It's been horrendous. It's never been like this before," he told AFP.
He was deeply critical of Morrison's response to the bushfires, calling it mere "lip service" and slamming the leader's response to public criticism.
"His great statement was 'I don't take this personally'. Scott, take it personally," Larkings said.
© 2020 AFP
Australian authorities advise nearly a quarter million people to 'Get out' ahead of heat wave
Issued on: 10/01/2020 - 06:08
Australian firefighters in Corryong, north-eastern Victoria,
on January 7, 2020. © Jason Edwards, REUTERS
Text by:NEWS WIRES|
Video by:FRANCE 24Follow
Australian authorities urged nearly a quarter of a million people to evacuate their homes on Friday and prepared military backup as soaring temperatures and erratic winds were expected to fan deadly bushfires across the east coast.
Temperatures were expected to shoot well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in several parts of the country on Friday, accompanied by high winds, threatening to inflame fires that have already left thousands of people homeless.
"If you can get out, you should get out, you shouldn't be in the remote and forested parts of our State," Andrew Crisp, emergency management commissioner for the state of Victoria, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Emergency alert text messages had been sent to 240,000 people in Victoria state alone, telling them to leave, Crisp said. People in high-risk regions in New South Wales and South Australia states were also urged to think about leaving, but authorities had not provided numbers.
Twenty-seven people have been killed and thousands subjected to repeat evacuations as monster - and unpredictable - fires have scorched through more than 10.3 million hectares (25.5 million acres) of land, an area the size of South Korea.
John White, Mayor of East Gippsland, an area that was ravaged by fires on New Year's Eve, told Reuters that residents were on the move: "People aren't taking any chances."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he had given instructions to the military so "that they are to stand ready to move and support immediately" as firefighters battle 150 blazes across the country.
Australia's wildfires have dwarfed other catastrophic blazes around the world. Combining 2019 fires in California, Brazil and Indonesia still amounts to less than half the burnt area in Australia.
Australia's government has maintained there is no direct link between climate change and the devastating bushfires, a stance that has prompted campaigners to plan worldwide protests for Friday.
"We don't want job destroying, economy destroying, economy wrecking targets and goals which won't change the fact that there are bushfires or anything like that in Australia," Morrison told 2GB Radio, referring to calls for the government to commit to higher carbon emissions cuts.
Following are some highlights of what is happening in the bushfire crisis:
There were 134 fires ablaze across New South Wales, with around 50 uncontained on Friday. All other fires were at the "advice" level, the lowest alert rating.
Victoria state had 16 fires, two of which were so severe that evacuation orders have been issued. One more fire was at an emergency level.
In South Australia state, nine fires were ablaze, one of which was at a emergency level.
Climate protests were planned for Friday in several cities, including Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra, targeting the Australian government handling of the crisis and its position on climate change.
Prime Minister Morrison said on Friday he was considering holding a wide-ranging national inquiry into the bushfires after the immediate crisis had passed.
NSW authorities said just shy of 2,000 homes have been destroyed in the state, half of those in the past 10 days.
Australian cricketer Shane Warne's prized "baggy green" cap raised more than A$1 million at an auction for bushfire relief efforts
Authorities have warned that the huge fires, spurred by high temperatures, wind and a three-year drought, will persist until there is substantial rainfall. The weather agency said there was no sign of that for months.
Ecologists at the University of Sydney have estimated 1 billion animals have been killed or injured in the bushfires, potentially destroying ecosystems.
Moody's Analytics said the cost of the fires could easily surpass that of deadly 2009 Black Saturday fires that destroyed 450,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) of land, which cost an estimated A$4.4 billion.
Morrison has pledged A$2 billion ($1.4 billion) to a newly created National Bushfire Recovery Agency.
About 100 firefighters from the United States and Canada are helping, with another 140 expected in coming weeks.
The fires have emitted 400 megatonnes of carbon dioxide and produced harmful pollutants, the European Union's Copernicus monitoring programme said.
Smoke has drifted across the Pacific, affecting cities in South America, and may have reached the Antarctic, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said.
(REUTERS)
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