Australia is currently facing one of the biggest forest fires in its history. From September 2019, the forests of the land of Kangaroos have been burning. The forest fires have largely affected the Australian state of New South Wales. The continuous rise in temperature & the prolonged drought in the state have forced the government to declare a state of emergency in December 2019. As of 14th January 2020, these blazing infernos have charred around 18.6 million hectares of forest land and had claimed 29 lives. Over 2900 homes have been destroyed and over half a million animals have been burnt alive or choked to death. Besides the ravaging affect it had on the flora & fauna of the island nation, the fires have also degraded the quality of air in the country. The smoke & soot from the burning infernos have had a serious blow on the air quality index at several places. A plume of smoke has even crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached the Argentinean capital, Buenos Aires.
Many celebrities & countries across the world have lent their helping hands to the people of Australia. Some foreign governments have expressed their intention of helping the Australian government with manpower or with donations. This unfortunate event has showcased the spirit of universal solidarity but more pertinent are the lesson that the world, especially India could learn from Australia, so that such a colossal destruction of flora & fauna could be avoided in the future. Many countries share the same climatic and geo-political scenarios with Australia which includes similarity of terrain & of the general political attitude towards environment. In 2019, India witnessed two conflicting scenarios. On one side, the drought-afflicted locals of Chennai were praying for some rainfall while Mumbai was reeling under a deluge. Long ago, these disparities were considered to be caused by nature’s vagaries, but science has now shown that human induced climate change is the cause behind such disparities. Human actions have been credited for making the world warmer, disrupting rainfall patterns and increasing the frequency of extreme events.
It is high time now for us to accept that climate change is a reality now & it needs to be acknowledged. Worldwide, fire seasons are getting longer & more damaging. World is becoming hotter & drier and rainfall is decreasing. In 2019, the Australian temperature was 1.5° C higher than the long run average. We cannot forget the California fires of 2018 which claimed 80 lives and caused the evacuation of a part of the city of Los Angeles. India is no better in its record. According to the Indian Meteorological Department, the temperature in India has risen by 0.6° C over the last century. According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, around 2400 Indians lost their lives to extreme weather events in 2018-19. Yet the issue of climate change is the elephant in the room which nobody talks about. Climate change is hardly the issue in our election campaigns. We could spare our attention to Pakistan during our election debates but not to the perils of climate change & what policy a particular party holds in that regard. As a matter of fact, no political party in India has an ardent desire to address the issue of climate change. This is rather disappointing when we see elections in some other countries being won by several political parties solely on their stance on climate change. We need to stop relegating the issue of climate change as an issue of secondary importance.
As fires get worse, the old ways to address & contain them become obsolete. Australia’s fire-fighting services & strategies are one of the best in the world yet they proved to be inadequate to protect the nature & wildlife from the blazing woods. The enforcement of fire safety regulations in India is quite a challenge in itself. Non-compliant construction & a gross overlook of the fire safety standards & measure are rampant in India. Whenever an incident of fire takes place, the media could be seen reporting the absence of fire-extinguishers & other basic safety equipments. How can we forget the fire in a coaching institute in Surat (Gujarat) which claimed the lives of about 20 innocent children? Indian fire safety services need a complete overhaul and the regulations concerning land-use & safety requirements need strict enforcement. It is rightly said that prevention is better than cure. Attention is also required to explore scientific measures and structures that could resist flames and to recognize areas not suitable for a particular human use.
Climate change not only affects the nature but it also affects the economy of a country. A very recent example could be the Australian inferno itself which has caused a severe blow to the Australian markets and has left its mark on the global economy as well. The timber plantations have been destroyed and tourists were scarce. The supply of various other agrarian & diary products has been negatively hit. The final nail in the coffin has been the debt on the insurance sector of the country. Insurance claims have reached the mark of 375 million Australian dollars. Similarly, the California fires have cost their insurance firms $24 billion. Now such firms are unwilling to underwrite homes in dangerous places. It has now become clear that if the government or residents will not act, the financial markets will surely do. Indian economy is already going through tough times, having faced a slump in its GDP growth rate. At this juncture, it will not be able to bear the burden of huge debt which could be another blow to the economy. Today, India needs the awareness among its citizens & their acknowledgement of the perils of climate change. Climate change should be an agenda in our elections and the politicians who fail to deal with climate change disasters must find their credibility going up in smoke. The world needs to be quick in learning the lessons from the Australian disaster & to act on it so that we could protect our planet & our own existence in the future.
The Resilient Knight 