Pregnant women should try to stay inside when the air pollution is high.
From shutterstock.com
Pregnant women exposed to bushfire smoke face a higher risk of complications including gestational diabetes, high blood pressure and giving birth prematurely.
Birds are disoriented by smoke and often cannot escape a fire.
James Ross/AAP
In a matter of weeks, the fires have subverted decades of dedicated conservation efforts for many threatened species.
The burnt out remains of a house in the Southern Highlands town of Wingello. There are three main factors to consider when thinking about the impact of bushfires on your personal treasures – smoke, heat, and water.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Items can be recovered after a fire – here is how to look after them.
Some animals stay put after a bushfire and rebuild their populations from charred landscapes.
LUKAS COCH/AAP
Wildlife can smell and hear a fire coming, and have developed novel ways to evade it. But they must watch out for cunning predators rushing in for a feed.
It’s in our power to influence the climate by influencing the nations who help determine the climate.
Victorian government
Australia has an outsized ability to influence others.
Morrison has been too timorous to take the tough decisions needed to prepare for the bushfire season, including confronting rancorous dissenters in his own ranks.
James Ross/AAP
A crisis of this scale requires a willingness to listen to the best sources of advice and generate bipartisan consensus. But Morrison has struggled to put the national interest above party politics.
A volunteer sorts through donated clothing as part of a bushfire appeal. Generally, it’s best to give money - unless the organisation to which you are donating has requested specific goods.
AAP/DEAN LEWINS
It’s worth thinking carefully about how to give, to ensure you’re not wasting your contribution or inadvertently making things worse.
Use the slider tool in the images below to see before and after NASA satellite images of Australia’s fire and drought effects.
NASA
We pulled four before-and-after NASA satellite images and asked bushfire researcher Grant Williamson to reflect on the story they tell.
Warnings about poor drinking water quality are in place in some areas affected by the bushfires.
From shutterstock.com
Damage to water supply infrastructure and catchments during and after bushfires inhibits the treatment processes that normally make our water safe to drink.
Locally managed hazard reduction could give communities greater ownership over prevention and leverage local knowledge.
David Bowman
Local, self organised, community groups can be supported to do strategic hazard reduction through a range of techniques – including targeted grazing, and prescribed or fuel reduction burning.
The consequences of underinsurance aren’t just personal. They potentially harm local communities permanently, as those unable to rebuild move away.
Dean Lewins/AAP
One lesson from Australia’s past bushfire disasters is that too many homes are underinsured. But it’s a lesson we’ve failed to learn.
Scott Morrison’s response to the bushfires has been roundly criticised as being too slow and out of touch.
James Ross/AAP
As the bushfire crisis worsens, the prime minister’s fallback positions on climate change and lack of urgency on a federal disaster plan are no longer tenable – the public is demanding more.
Australia needs a nationally mobile, fully-funded emergency management workforce.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
As this horrific summer of disaster continues to unfold in coming weeks, we need to overhaul our emergency management plan.
Hazard reduction burns reduce bushfire fuel loads, but the current approach is not working.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Relatively little has changed since the Black Saturday tragedy. It is as though Australia suffers amnesia when it comes to bushfire preparedness.
Fire can kill animals and destroy their habitats, leading to extinction.
Lukas Koch / AAP
The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs sparked global firestorms. On land, only creatures that could evade fire survived
Residents of Grantham pay their respects during the dawn memorial service after the 2011 Queensland flash floods. Research into natural disaster recovery suggests there is a long road ahead for survivors of the current bushfire crisis.
AAP/PATRICK HAMILTON
Research on other natural disasters tells us there’s a long road ahead for survivors of the current bushfire crisis – but there are some key lessons.
When the immediate threat of this bushfire crisis passes, many questions will remain.
Dean Lewins/AAP
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.
Bushfires are not the only weather and climate events set to ravage Australia in coming months.
Dave Hunt/AAP
The peak time for heatwaves in southern Australia has not yet arrived. Many parts of Australia can expect heavy rains and flooding. And northern Australia’s cyclone season is just gearing up.
An evacuation centre at the Hanging Rock Sports Club Function Centre at Batemans Bay, Friday, January 3, 2020. Maybe it’s time to rearrange Australian calendar and reschedule the peak holiday period to March or April, instead of December and January.
AAP Image/DEAN LEWINS
Sending holidaymakers directly into forests and national parks right in the middle of peak bushfire season is madness.
A firefighting helicopter tackles a bushfire near Bairnsdale in Victoria’s East Gippsland region, Australia.
State Government of Victoria
Here’s how Australians and their overseas family and friends can monitor the movement of fire fronts in real time.