
Nearly 500M animals killed in Australian bushfires - edgefield0
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/australian-bushfires-new-south-wales-koalas-sydney-a4322071.html
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9nGQluzmnq3M
Reading any article like this, it's worth bearing in mind that bushfires are a
natural seasonal phenomenon in Australia, and both flora and fauna are adapted
to them. There are even some Australian plants that reproduce _only_ after
fires.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrophyte](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrophyte)

The worrisome thing this time around, though, is the accompanying drought.
Droughts too are a fact of life in the world's driest continent, but if this
is now the "new normal" due to climate change, the land will not be able to
recover.

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gonzo41
Have a look at this. The scale is different from a regular wildfire.

[https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-
inter...](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-
interactive/2019/dec/07/how-big-are-the-fires-burning-on-the-east-coast-of-
australia-interactive-map)?

~~~
cmroanirgo
This is not accurate.

This is the current state of fires in nsw: [https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-
information/fires-near-me](https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/fires-
near-me)

There are fires in other states too.

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nealabq
The fires aren't the only things killing Australian wildlife. Cats kill 4
times as many animals every year:

[https://www.livescience.com/65915-australia-cats-wildlife-
ki...](https://www.livescience.com/65915-australia-cats-wildlife-killers.html)

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pergadad
There are probably entire species that we haven't even discovered that have
gone extinct just from these fires.

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docuru
Oh no!

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kewball
Sucks but what can fix it?

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mavdi
I’d say not voting in climate change deniers would be good first step.

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cmroanirgo
I've seen this argumentation quite a lot, even in the local media, but there
are quite a lot of factors that have built up to a series of bushfires the
size of Belgium (some 3 million hectares): notably has been the refusal to
allow back burning (a safety measure), failing to follow the advice of the
indigenous in fire management, reduction in spending on the fire brigades
itself, the remoteness and inaccessibility of the fires (Oz had a very low
population density, meaning no roads), and rugged terrain. To then have 30m
flame height, means that fire trucks are ineffective.

As someone who's been in the shadow of fire for nearly 2 straight months, I
can clearly attest to the death of animals. Never before have I seen so many
roos in my area, hit by cars, as everyone is fleeing the choking smoke and
flames.

To chalk it all up to climate change (which is clearly a factor) is both
disingenuous and rather disrespectful to the amazing volunteers that are out
there fighting these monstrous fires.

Please refrain from deliberately adding a political angle to what is a highly
stressful time.

~~~
jamil7
Can I ask in what way the grandparent is being disrespectful? This has been
used as an evasion tactic of the liberal government whenever asked about the
connection between the fires and climate change. The culmination of reasons
you listed in your first paragraph (which I agree with) above are all, in my
opinion political and should be able to be discussed. Please refrain from
policing people's political opinions.

