Australia has faced a horrendous fire season this year, starting at the end of winter, intensifying over Christmas, and there’s still over a month of summer to go. Lives have been lost, firefighters injured, homes, property and livelihoods destroyed. Large areas of our native bushland and our precious wildlife has been wiped out, including half of Kangaroo Island and a large section of the Adelaide Hills. Estimates are 80% of the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains in NSW has been bushfire affected. In the past, native bushland has been able to regenerate after fires, but these have come on top of drought weakened areas, with ferocious, extreme temperatures.
While in shock from these catastrophic fires, the impact is going to be long lasting. For that reason, I’m going to list donation and help sites as they come up, that focus on funding our emergency rural fire services, communities in need, wildlife rescue and preservation efforts, and anything else fire or drought related that will help the recovery. According to some scientific opinion, we may have now reached the tipping point of climate change, and the future is unknown in terms of extreme weather events, except to say they will become more frequent.
The fact is we are not going to get through this alone. Australians have shown amazing community spirit to date, especially our rural fire service volunteers that have put their their own lives and property on the line. We have also been overwhelmed with the generosity and support of people internationally.
If you have any links you would like included, please add a message below. Genuine sites only please, I moderate any comments that come through this blog.
Eucalypso 