How can a bushfire be described as “under control” if it’s still burning? Here’s an explanation of what the terms mean.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on bushfires 2020
Displaying 41 - 60 of 79 articles
There is a real risk a national inquiry could get bogged down in politics, or not lead to real change. But we need more federal action on bushfires. Our old approaches are broken.
Universities can help students affected by the bushfires by learning from what others have done in past crises.
Australia’s rural firefighting organisations hold a special place in the nation’s heart. Part of what makes them so interesting is how they are organised and funded.
To be clear, I’m not advocating compulsory population control, here or anywhere. But we do need to consider a future with billions more people, many of them aspiring to live as Australians do now.
One problem with the Australian Curriculum bushfire content statements is that they are relatively abstract and detached from children’s lived experiences.
The destruction of recent fires is challenging our belief that with enough time, love and money, every threatened species can be saved. But there is plenty we can, and must, now do.
Some students are grieving the loss of their homes or loved ones. Even those not directly affected by fires may be distressed by stories they’ve heard or images they’ve seen. How can schools help?
For attracting attention and money to a cause, celebrity-driven attention is hard to beat. But there’s also a downside.
Approximately 70 nationally threatened species have had at least 50% of their range burnt, while nearly 160 threatened species have had more than 20% burnt.
Estimates of the cost of Victoria’s 2009 Black Saturday fires provide a staring point for calculating the much bigger cost of these ones.
When ecosystems aren’t able to repair themselves, it’s up to us to intervene.
There’s logic in burying carcasses as they can harbour nasty diseases, but they also help landscapes recover from fire.
Bushfire smoke accumulating over Australian cities contains a complex chemical mix which does all sorts of things to the human body.
Artists and entertainers have raised millions of dollars for the current bushfire crisis – so why are they still at the receiving end of so much criticism and so little funding and support?
I saw the performance the first day the smoke was clearing. We need connection to find a way forward; I found it in the theatre.
The latest bushfires cannot be compared to Ash Wednesday or Black Saturday. Our nation’s fire history is being rewritten.
Once you include insects, snails, worms and other small creatures, it’s clear the fires could cause one of the biggest extinction events of the modern era.
If the aim is to minimise the number of buildings damaged or destroyed in extreme fire events, Australia’s building regulations are clearly inadequate. But that’s not their aim.
Fire debris flowing into Murray-Darling Basin will exacerbate the risk of fish and other aquatic life dying en masse in a repeat of the shocking fish kills of last summer.
Top contributors
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Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania
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Deputy Head of School, School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle
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Professor in Evolutionary Biology (jointly appointed with South Australian Museum), Flinders University
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Research Fellow in Environmental Science, University of Tasmania
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Journalist, author, broadcaster, Queensland University of Technology
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Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle
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Professor, The University of Queensland
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Professor of Conservation Biology, Charles Darwin University
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Visiting Research Fellow, University of Adelaide
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Professor, Bushfire Science, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University
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Emeritus professor, University of Wollongong
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Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Queensland
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Professor of Wildlife Ecology, Australian National University
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Professor in Conservation Science, School of Ecosystem and Forest Science, The University of Melbourne
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle
