Dinculescu Alina

Ionescu Teodora-Felicia
Miu Claudia-Maria
Munteanu Diana
Group: 1753, D
Australian Bushfire Season 2019-2020

1. Causes of the disaster

There has been considerable debate regarding the underlying cause of the intensity and scale
of the fires, including the role of fire management practices and climate change, which during
the peak of the crisis attracted significant international attention.

In 2008, The Garnaut Climate Change Review warned that recent projections of fire weather
suggested that fire seasons will start earlier in the following years, and will generally become
more and more intense. It also stated that around the year 2020 these effects of climate
change should be directly observable.

In April 2019 a group of former Australian fire services chiefs, Emergency Leaders for
Climate Action, warned that Australia was not prepared for the upcoming fire season. They
called on the next prime minister to meet the former emergency service leaders "who will
outline, unconstrained by their former employers, how climate change risks are rapidly
escalating". Greg Mullins, the second-longest serving fire and rescue commissioner in New
South Wales and now a councillor with the Climate Council, said he thought the coming
summer was going to be "the worst I have ever seen" for fire crews, and renewed his calls for
the government to take urgent action to address climate change and stop Australia's rising
emissions.

In August 2019 the federally funded Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC published a seasonal
outlook report which advised of "above normal fire potential" for southern and southeast
Queensland, the east coast areas of New South Wales and Victoria, for parts of Western
Australia and South Australia. In December 2019, the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC
updated their advice of "above normal fire potential".

2. Consequences of the disaster

As of 9 March 2020, the fires burnt an estimated 18.6 million hectares (186,000 square
kilometres), destroyed over 5,900 buildings (including 2,779 homes) and killed at least 34
people. Nearly three billion terrestrial vertebrates alone – the vast majority being reptiles –
were affected and some endangered species were believed to be driven to extinction. At its
peak, air quality dropped to hazardous levels in all southern and eastern states.

Economists estimated that the Australian bushfires may cost over A$103 billion in property
damage and economic losses, making the bushfires Australia's costliest natural disaster to
date. Nearly 80 per cent of Australians were affected either directly or indirectly by the
bushfires.

1
Dinculescu Alina
Ionescu Teodora-Felicia
Miu Claudia-Maria
Munteanu Diana
Group: 1753, D
By 7 January 2020, the smoke had moved approximately 11,000 kilometres across the South
Pacific Ocean to Chile and Argentina. As of 2 January 2020, NASA estimated that 306
million tonnes (337 million short tons) of CO2 had been emitted. During the ensuing crisis,
an air tanker and two helicopters crashed during firefighting operations, the air tanker crash
resulting in the deaths of the three crew. Two fire trucks were caught in fatal incidents caused
directly by fire conditions, killing three firefighters.

An estimated A$500 million was donated by the public at large, international organisations,
public figures and celebrities for victim relief and wildlife recovery. Convoys of donated
food, clothing and livestock feed were sent to affected areas.

3. Responsible person/institution for the disaster:

In June 2019, the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service acting director warned of the
potential for an early start to the bushfire season which normally starts in August. The
warning was based on the Northern Australia bushfire seasonal outlook noting exceptional
dry conditions and a lack of soil moisture, combined with early fires in central Queensland.
Throughout the summer, hundreds of fires burnt, mainly in the southeast of the country. The
major fires peaked during December–January.

So, the state and territory governments have primary responsibility for care and management
of the environment. National environment law does not generally regulate fire prevention
measures taken by state and territory governments, and only applies in limited circumstances.
More than that, responsibility for fire suppression and management, including planned
burning on public land such as State Forests and National Parks, which makes up about 7.1
million hectares (18 million acres) or about one-third of the State, sits with the Department of
Environment, Land, Water, and Planning (DELWP).

There were many causes for the Australian Bushfire Season (known colloquially as the Black
Summer), such as:
- for the started fires we can talk about: lightning strikes, accident and alleged arson;
and
- for the enhanced fires, the problem was because of: drought, global warming, positive
Indian Ocean Dipole and record-breaking heat.

By 4 March 2020, all fires in New South Wales had been extinguished completely (to the
point where there were no fires in the state for the first time since July 2019), and the Victoria
fires had all been contained. The last fire of the season occurred in Lake Clifton, Western
Australia, in early May.

There has been considerable debate regarding the underlying cause of the intensity and scale
of the fires, including the role of fire management practices and climate change, which during

2
Dinculescu Alina
Ionescu Teodora-Felicia
Miu Claudia-Maria
Munteanu Diana
Group: 1753, D
the peak of the crisis attracted significant international attention. Politicians visiting fire
impacted areas received mixed responses, in particular Prime Minister Scott Morrison. An
estimated $500 million was donated by the public at large, international organisations, public
figures and celebrities for victim relief and wildlife recovery. Convoys of donated food,
clothing and livestock feed were sent to affected areas.

4. Communication during the crisis:

The communication during the crisis was terrible. The misinformation, incorrect reporting
and social media claims about the extent of the fires, its precedents and causes, and matters
like funding of fire fighting services have been circulated during the fire season. Media
outlets of differing political allegiances have also disputed each other's coverage. More than
that, there were misleading graphs and maps, exaggerated extent of the arson, funding for the
Rural Fire Service, hazard reduction activities and other reports such as:
- fires would clear land to benefit a high-speed rail project
- ISIS was somehow responsible or involved
- The fires were a false flag operation deliberately lit by climate change activists

5. Disaster media coverage

The world did not remain silent to this catastrophic event; very soon it became an
international disaster and viral news. Everyone was sharing on social media shocking images
of the damaged that has been done; from koala bears that are being fed and given water to the
firefighters, everybody was touched by the those pictures and spreading them (the hashtag
bushfires has more than 140k posts and content shared with #supportingaustralia received
over 2.1M views on TikTok, without counting the twitter and endless stories that were there
at the time). Facebook may receive a lot of criticism but proved to be an invaluable tool not
just for storytelling and connecting both local communities and the world, but for providing
practical, on the ground support for emergency crews.
As the stories reached around the world and the impact of the fires started to feel personal,
it became clear that people wanted to help. Not-for-profits including the RFS, WIRES and
The Red Cross created their traditional fundraisers, but Australian’s had a tool we’ve not had
in previous emergencies – Facebook Fundraisers. This gave people the power to personally
fundraise for their favoured charity in the simplest, and most shareable way, possible. We’ve
seen a steady stream of people running “Birthday Fundraisers” since Facebook launched the
feature in Australia in late 2018, but the fires saw thousands take fundraising, and the choice
of who to donate to, into their own hands more than ever before. The results are phenomenal,
and more than anyone could have anticipated.
More than 19,000 Facebook fundraisers have been created in response to the fires since
November 2019.

3
Dinculescu Alina
Ionescu Teodora-Felicia
Miu Claudia-Maria
Munteanu Diana
Group: 1753, D
Over $73M has been raised using Facebook to date; donations have been received from 75
countries – showing how eager the world was to participate in a meaningful way. More than
250 non-profit organisations were nominated as fundraiser recipients, to help with their relief
and recovery efforts.

6. Measures taken to avoid any other future disaster

After the season ended and the fires have stopped, more than one projects have been
created to prevent from this happening ever again. MSSI (Melbourne Sustainable Society
Institute) has focused its interests and cause to the climate change and global warming. The
Australian Green are all about hazard reductions (controlled burns during winter in order to
reduce flammable material).
Crime Stoppers Victoria and Australian Research Council have decided to examine
malicious ignition of bushfires, to better understand how to improve voluntary reporting of
suspicious behaviour around fires. Working also with the Victorian Police to examine the
behaviour and characteristics of people most likely to maliciously light another bushfire.
The prime-minister of Australia, Scott Morisson is more concerned on the other hand
about the carbon emissions, who are “among the highest in the world”, according to The
Economist. Whatever line has every citizen of Australia or even the entire globe, as long as
the purpose is still the same- to prevent- they can try this multiple solutions to approach and
solve this disaster from happening.

7. References:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-australia-report/australias-massive-fires-
could-become-routine-climate-scientists-warn-idUSKBN1ZD06W
https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/how-the-australian-bushfires-will-impact-
health/ar-BBZ4JgI
https://theconversation.com/with-costs-approaching-100-billion-the-fires-are-australias-
costliest-natural-disaster-129433#:~:text=With%20costs%20approaching
%20%24100%20billion%2C%20the%20fires%20are%20Australia's%20costliest%20natural
%20disaster,-January%2016%2C%202020
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/pilot-swims-to-shore-after-water-bombing-helicopter-
crashes-into-dam-while-refilling-20200109-p53q7i.html
https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/wayback/20190509072839/http://www.garnautreview.org.au/c
hp5.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/09/former-fire-chiefs-warn-australia-
unprepared-for-escalating-climate-threat
https://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/publications/factsheet-bushfire-management-and-
national-environment-law
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-27/bushfire-outlook-queensland-2019/11251150

4
Dinculescu Alina
Ionescu Teodora-Felicia
Miu Claudia-Maria
Munteanu Diana
Group: 1753, D
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/08/twitter-bots-trolls-australian-
bushfires-social-media-disinformation-campaign-false-claims
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/12/disinformation-and-lies-are-
spreading-faster-than-australias-bushfires
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-51020564
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666449620300098
https://paperandspark.com.au/social-media-engaging-the-world-in-australias-bushfire-crisis/
https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/264860037/biodiversity-being-applied-to-
prevention-of-bushfires-in-australia
https://greens.org.au/bushfires