Wake Up and Smell The Fire, Australia
We scanned the desolate landscape for signs of life. But all we could see was black, and then more black—blackened rolling hills and charred trees surrounded us from every direction. Once a lush and thriving forest, this place was now unrecognizable. It looked post-apocalyptic, as if a bomb had been deployed here, instantaneously incinerating everything in sight.
And while the views were deeply unsettling, it’s what was missing from the picture that was most distressing.
We stood in a forest without life. The trees were dead. The wildlife was gone. No rustling, no birdcalls, no clambering koalas or kangaroos. The place was empty and quiet.
The damage was confronting and extensive. And when the wind picked up it brought along with it the acrid scent of burnt life. The reality was inescapable and followed you wherever you went—something had gone terribly wrong in this place.
This was the scene of James Fitzgerald’s Two Thumbs Wildlife Trust, over a year after the catastrophic Australian Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020 decimated his wildlife sanctuary and destroyed his home.
James Fitzgerald in a burned out forest in Nerriga while performing wildlife rescues. Image © Olivia Katz
James is the owner and founder of The Two Thumbs Wildlife Trust, a sanctuary dedicated to the rehabilitation of sick, injured and orphaned koalas.
This protected and pristine forest sanctuary also served as a safe haven for thousands of other animals, birds, and reptiles.
James had purchased and expanded this trust over the last 17 years in order to be sure this crucial wildlife habitat was protected and preserved. He wanted the wildlife to have a safe place to call home, without the threat of their habitat being logged, polluted, or interfered with by industrial expansion.
Two Thumbs was considered to have one of the healthiest populations of koalas in New South Wales. It also served as a release site for a variety of other wildlife groups and was home to many of Australia’s threatened species including the Greater Glider, the Rosenberg Goanna and the Quoll.
But in 2019 as the Black Summer bushfires began to spread, with his property and home surrounded by drought-stricken bushland and located in the epicenter of the bushfire crisis, it was with dread and trepidation that James awoke each morning.
After a series of arduous evacuations, Two Thumbs had finally been cleared as safe. He and his animals returned home.
On January 23rd, 2020, James woke up, checked on his koalas, and then headed out for a long day of rescuing animals. That morning at Two Thumbs, there hadn’t been even a hint of fire or smoke.
But by the afternoon, the air had changed.
A capricious shift in the winds had sent a new and unexpected fire rushing towards Two Thumbs.
By the time James managed to get home in the afternoon, desperate to save his animals, everything was gone. His entire world had been burned to the ground.
In a matter of hours, this fire had swiftly burned through 1,810 acres of pristine wildlife habitat. It had left James’ house and the entirety of his worldly possessions in a pile of smoldering rubble. It killed every single animal he had in care and led to the devastating C130 plane crash, in which three American firefighting pilots died.
In January of 2021 I visited James for the second time, to see how he and his property had been recovering since the fires. I imagined I would find the forest progressing, with new epicormic growth and a resurgence of fresh life. But, I didn’t.
A year after the Black Summer bushfires, the Two Thumbs forest remained hushed. The wildlife had not returned and the trees were struggling to recover. A year after the fires, this place looked more akin to a graveyard, than a forest.
“People say to me, ‘it’s been a year, surely things must be recovering?’ ”, James remarked as we walked along the burnt hillside.
“But these trees were a hundred years old. Do you know how long it will take for these trees to regrow? A hundred years.”
James knew this property like the back of his hand after caretaking for it for 17 years. It was unrecognizable after the bushfires. Image © Olivia Katz
Eucalyptus tree on the Two Thumbs property struggling to heal, with low lying epicormic growth. Image © Oivia Katz
Koala being seen by Dr Hamish Cameron after the bushfires. Image credit James Fitzgerald
The fire had burned so hot and so extensively that it didn’t just damage the trees, it killed them. And a year later, they were still black, with new growth emerging in spurts, and then quickly dying.
And while James undertook extensive animal search and rescues in the wake of the bushfires, there were very few survivors. The animals simply could not escape a fire this hot and this fast.
The damage caused by the Black Summer’s bushfires left the entire world in a state of shock and horror.
Ranking as the worst fire season in Australia’s recorded history, these fires burned approximately forty-six million acres over a span of roughly six months—an area roughly the size of Syria.
This fire season killed thirty-three people and killed or displaced upwards of three billion animals.
Three. Billion. Animals.
The fires also emitted an estimated 430 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.[1]
Some will argue that fires are an essential part of an ecosystem. But, these were no ordinary fires. Climate scientists and environmental experts agree that the unprecedented severity of the Black Summer bushfires was a consequence of a rapidly deteriorating climate due to Climate Change.
We are witnessing not only in Australia, but around the world, a pattern of intensifying natural disasters. Philip Zyastra, a fire behavior scientist, explained: “with climate change, we aren’t just getting a fire, we are getting a fire in the midst of severe water stress.”
The Australian landscape was essentially kindling leading up to the Black Summer fires, following a devastating three-year drought. The trees were brittle without moisture and much of the native wildlife was already severely compromised.
The State of Climate 2020 report by the NSW Bureau of Meteorology reported that 2019 was Australia’s warmest year on record. And the seven years leading up to it have ranked as the warmest in its history.
Since 1960, Australia has warmed by more than 1 °C. This long‑term warming trend means that most years are now warmer than almost any observed during the 20th century.[2]
Australia’s days are getting hotter. The fire seasons are getting longer and the droughts are getting worse. [3]
Australia is often regarded by the rest of the world as a country rich in untouched wilderness, awe-inspiring biodiversity, and teeming with wildlife. The disheartening truth is that here on Australian soil, these precious resources have in great part been forsaken on the path towards economic growth.
Australia has not only one of the worst rates of deforestation, but also one of the highest rates of mammal extinction in the world. Additionally, it is one of the world’s biggest per-capita greenhouse gas emitters. In the UN’s Sustainable Development Report for 2020, Australia’s score for “climate action” saw it rank second to last, sitting at 176th of 177 countries evaluated. Hanging out with some of the world’s most complacent countries, Australia ranked worse than fossil fuel-heavy countries including Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Norway and Qatar. [4]
Burnt foot of koala, raw after trying to escape the bushfires. Image credit James Fitzgerald
James with a baby koala rescued after the bushfires. Image sourced from James Fitzgerald
Based on land clearing calculations, agricultural reports, and threatened species reports, we now know:
· Only 50% of Australia’s forests and bushlands remain intact compared with pre-European arrival.
· The other 50% has been either permanently destroyed and replaced with other kinds of land use or they are now are classed as degraded forests and bushlands.
· Austalia has lost 27% of its rainforest, 19% of open forest, 11% of woodland forest and 28% of mallee forest since 1750.
· Australia is the worst offending country in the world for mammal extinctions.
· Fifty-five wildlife species plus thirty-seven plant species have gone extinct in Australia [5]
While it may be difficult to attribute a single fire event to climate change, long-term trends illustrate how climate change is affecting Australia’s meteorologic conditions over time. Climate change affects the amount of moisture in the vegetation and therefore the amount of fuel for a fire; this shift occurs through changes in rainfall, air temperature, and moisture in the atmosphere that all serve to exacerbate the landscape drying. [6]
Further compounding this vicious cycle, bushfires and forest fires emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, a powerful greenhouse gas, that in turn accelerates global climate warming.[7]
And then, compounding this cycle once more: forests serve as carbon sinks, absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and converting it into carbon. A burnt forest, however, will no longer be able to perform that job. [8]
In the wake of this fire season, the World Wildlife Fund had been conducting research to understand its implications and consequences. The findings have been sobering. Nearly 61,000 koalas, Australia’s most beloved marsupial, are estimated to have been killed or impacted. Additionally, over 300 threatened species were affected, pushing more of our precious wildlife on the fast track towards extinction.[9]
If Australia is ready to be a part of a global solution, the answer lies in taking responsibility for its personal contributions to climate change, global warming, and the 6th mass extinction crisis. The first and arguably biggest shift that Australia is being asked to make is a drastic reduction in greenhouse gases. “To stop climate change, we must transition from burning fossil fuels to using clean energy resources that do not involve the emission of CO2.” [10] Additionally, replanting forests, managing forests more sustainably, and taking proactive measures to protect our wildlife and biodiversity will also be crucial.
Stories like James’ are being echoed all over the world as weather events continue to intensify due to climate change. From droughts to fires, fires to floods, and fires to pandemics, life on earth is changing—and it’s changing fast.
Climate scientists agree that this is the decisive decade that will determine the fate of life on earth. Nature’s call has never been more urgent and we can’t afford to wait. This is the message the Black Summer Bushfires left us with.
Author: Olivia Katz
This is Amelia, a baby Koala that was rescued in Southern New South Wales. She was found in an area that had been badly burned. Her mum was starving and near death when James Fitzgerald rescued them. Amelia recovered well in the care of James and Dr.Karen Ford. Image © Olivia Katz
James with his nephew William at Two Thumbs. Image © Olivia Katz
If you are interested in making a charitable donation to The Heart Atlas, your generosity will help this project continue to grow. The Heart Atlas is committed to finding stories that matter and shedding light on issues that aren’t always covered by the mainstream media. The stories are driven by the heart, on a quest for justice, truth, and reparations. While this past year’s stories have been focused on environmental issues facing Australia, the ultimate aim of The Heart Atlas is to tell stories from all around the world, spanning not only issues of environmental and climate justice but also social and racial justice.
At The Heart Atlas, we love the underdogs, the quiet do-gooders, people who overcome adversity against all odds, and hope that emerges from the most unexpected places. We dig random acts of kindness, generosity, and a good hearty laugh.
The Heart Atlas is the seed of a much bigger dream and your continued support is received with the utmost gratitude and humility.
From the bottom of my heart, thankyou. Olivia Katz (Founder)
Please click on the “Make A Donation” link to find donation information, not only for The Heart Atlas, but for all the organisations we support including James Fitzgerald’s Two Thumbs Wildlife Trust.
References:
[1] Jalaludin, B., Johnston, F., Vardoulakis, S. and Morgan, G., 2020. Reflections on the catastrophic 2019–2020 Australian bushfires. The Innovation, 1(1).
[2] State of the Climate 2020 CSIRO
[3] Deb, P., Moradkhani, H., Abbaszadeh, P., Kiem, A. S., Engström, J., Keellings, D., & Sharma, A. (2020). Causes of the widespread 2019–2020 Australian bushfire season. Earth's Future, 8(11), e2020EF001671.
[4] https://reneweconomy.com.au/australia-ranks-second-worst-in-world-on-climate-action-outside-top-50-on-clean-energy-90879/
[5] https://www.wilderness.org.au/news-events/10-facts-about-deforestation-in-australia
[6] State of the Climate 2020 CSIRO
[7] Jalaludin, B., Johnston, F., Vardoulakis, S. and Morgan, G., 2020. Reflections on the catastrophic 2019–2020 Australian bushfires. The Innovation, 1(1).
[8] State of Climate 2020 CSIRO
[9] 2020 Review By Darren Grover, Head of Healthy Land and Seascapes, WWF-Australia
[10] Shu, F.H. Stopping and Reversing Climate Change. Reson 24, 181–200 (2019). https://doi-org.ezproxy.scu.edu.au/10.1007/s12045-019-0770-z
We make every possible effort to assign credit to correct authors for referenced material and statistics. If you would like to request any corrections, please don’t hesitate to email theheartatlas@gmail.com so we can remedy our mistake.
