Australia on fire - a global special edition

As Australia burns, we try and make sense of this crisis. [The Conversation]( Australia's bushfire crisis As vast stretches of the nation burn, how can the world make sense of this disaster? [Read the web version]( Editor's note: The Conversation US is part of a global network of sites, founded in Australia in 2011. With devastating wildfires sweeping the continent, our colleagues there have been working tirelessly to publish expert perspectives, which we bring to you here. Nicole Hasham, Energy + Environment Editor, The Conversation, Australia When I awoke in Bermagui on the last day of 2019, I should have twigged straight away. At 8am, the sky above the south coast town in New South Wales was a gruesome orange-black, the surrounding bush freakishly quiet. Our mobile phones had no signal. Outside, my car was coated in soot. We knew fires were burning more than 100km up the coast at Batemans Bay, but Bermagui had seemed a safe distance away. Suddenly, it wasn’t. Fire was bearing down on the seaside town, burning so fiercely it created its own thunderstorm. Residents evacuated to the beach after emergency text messages at 4am, but with our phone service down we’d slept on, oblivious. When my partner and I woke and worked out what was happening, we too bundled our bewildered young son into the car and fled. With all roads out of Bermagui closed, we spent New Year’s Eve at a local club which had hastily been converted into an evacuation centre. Many evacuees were from the nearby fire-hit town of Cobargo. They watched, hands over their mouths, as the club’s giant plasma screens beamed images of their once-charming town, now a jumble of rubble and corrugated iron. We lay our things down between rows of poker machines and lined up for dinner with hundreds of other evacuees. Food supplies in the town had already run short – the shelves of the local Woolworths were all but empty. To feed the hordes, volunteers began rationing dinner portions to just half a sausage and a slice of bread. They had no idea where tomorrow’s meals would come from. When a road was finally opened, we escaped through blackened landscapes where sheep wandered paddocks with the wool burnt off their backs. My three-year-old son, sensing the mood, asked why his dad and I were so quiet. All this raises inevitable questions. To what extent is climate change driving these fires, and how much of that is Australia’s fault? Do we need a permanent, paid rural fire-fighting force to deal with this “new normal”? Are our fuel, food and communications systems resilient enough to cope with these disasters? And how do we cope with the deep anxiety these fires provoke, on both a personal and societal level? Over the past few days, from The Conversation's bureaux across Australia, we've been examining the tough questions emerging from this crisis. In coming weeks, our authors, international experts in the field, will continue to cut through the political spin and barrage of information to help you understand this national disaster, and what it means for the future of the country, and the world. The view of Australia from above, before and after the bushfires “When I look at these images I think: this is a crisis we have seen coming for years. It’s something I have been watching unfold.” – Grant Williamson, Research Fellow in Environmental Science, University of Tasmania 👇 Use our click-and-slide tool to see images of Australia, before and after the fires [4 photos of Australia from space, before and after the bushfires]( Have you met Australia's PM? “Above all, we look for authenticity in these moments, rather than obviously scripted photo opportunities. And in times of crisis, we’re more attuned to those out-of-touch moments when authenticity seems to be lacking.” – Rosemary Williamson, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, University of New England A badly timed holiday to Hawaii. A forced handshake on a victim of the bushfires. A promotional video published of the government’s response to the bushfires. Many Australians have reacted with fury to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s response to the bushfires, criticizing him for being out of touch and lacking in empathy. What should a leader do in times of crisis? What qualities do people respond to? Rosemary Williamson, who has studied how prime ministers have responded to disasters throughout Australian history,[writes that people’s expectations]( of their leaders changed with the advent of television, and now the explosion of social media. For example, in response to the Black Sunday bushfires in Victoria in 1926, The Age newspaper printed a speech by Prime Minister Stanley Bruce in which he promised federal government aid and praised the heroism and altruism of Australians. A leader wouldn’t get away with that these days. Our politicians are expected to be visible after a crisis, offering real comfort to victims and listening to their needs. And above all else, Williamson says, we look for authenticity in these moments, not obviously scripted photo opportunities. [Scott Morrison’s biggest failure in the bushfire crisis: an inability to deliver collective action]( [Listen to your people Scott Morrison: the bushfires demand a climate policy reboot]( The toll the bushfires are taking on Australia's wildlife “We estimate most of the range and population of between 20 and 100 threatened species will have been burnt.” Images of desperate, singed koalas in blackened landscapes have come to symbolize the damage to nature this bushfire season in Australia. These [six academics estimate between 20 and 100 threatened species]( are currently being affected by these bushfires. One of those species includes The South Australian sub-species of the glossy black cockatoo. With the horrible news out of the way, let’s look at some uplifting facts: how animals survive, and what challenges they overcome in the days and weeks after a fire. A bushfire-ravaged landscape might appear as nothing but charcoal and ash. But look closely, and you might find a few surprises. From bush rats to lizards, beetles to echidnas, Australia’s native wildlife have developed cunning ways to survive, and thrive, during and after an inferno. As [Dale Nimmo writes,](some animals can detect a distant fire and flee, while others stay put: perhaps diving into another animals’ burrow or hiding under a rock. [A season in hell: bushfires push at least 20 threatened species closer to extinction]( [Animal response to a bushfire is astounding. These are the tricks they use to survive]( What's the best way to help? It's worth thinking carefully about how to give, to ensure you're not wasting your contribution or inadvertently making things worse. The big thing to be careful of is scammers. If you aren’t sure about an organisation that you’ve been approached by, you can always check whether they’re a registered charity using the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission’s online [register](. [How to donate to Australian bushfire relief: give money, watch for scams and think long term]( Trust the experts Know someone who would find this newsletter helpful? Forward it to them and help spread trusted information. [Subscribe to The Conversation's newsletter]( The Conversation is an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the public. To stop receiving our newsletter, [Unsubscribe](.