Humanities Assessment-Letter to Anthony Albanese

19 May 2022

Mr Anthony Albanese MP

PO Box 6022

MARRICKVILLE NSW 2204

Dear Mr Albanese,

I am writing to implore you to address the growing problem of Global Warming and how it has led to catastrophic bushfires throughout Australia.

I am a student living in Western Australia, and I am passionate about our environment and preserving it for later generations. I have recently been researching how Global Warming has caused both an increase in the frequency and duration of bushfires.

As I am sure you are well aware the intensity, frequency and scale of bushfires in Australia has been getting worse over many years. I was recently aghast to see the Sydney Morning Herald reported that over the last 32 years there has been an 800% increase in the area burned by these fires. Furthermore, when I looked into this in more detail, I discovered a study by the CSIRO which confirmed that burned areas had increased by 350% from 2000 to 2018 compared with an earlier period in the study. Indeed, I also discovered fires are four times more likely now than they were in 1900. I’m sure you will agree these are startling figures.

The personal toll and tragedy of these fires cannot be understated either. The BBC reported that the horrific fires which ravaged NSW in 2020 claimed the lives of 33 people. In addition, they reported that 11 million hectares of land had been decimated. Another article, on the same subject written in Scientific America described how cities were left blanketed in smoke, thousands of structures were destroyed and hundreds of millions of animals were wiped out. Eighty percent of the National Park near Canberra was consumed by fire.

Apart from the direct impact these bushfires have on people and places, they also have indirect consequences as well. Businesses and homes are destroyed as well as livestock, which inflates insurance premiums and has significant economic impact for the community. The toll fighting these fires takes on the people involved cannot be underestimated either. Professor van Oldenborgh of the World Weather Attribution Consortium stated that “last year the fire prevention system in Australia, which is extremely well prepared for bushfires, was straining” and “volunteers were working for weeks on end”. I am sure you will agree that this current situation is unsustainable in so many ways.

I am well aware there are many who deny the effects of climate change on weather patterns and catastrophes such as bushfires. The Bushfire Front, which admittedly has some notable academics working with it, argues that it is a myth that climate change leads to these megafires. I must stridently disagree with this point of view. The Royal Bushfire Commission clearly identified climate change as a key risk to ongoing bushfire catastrophe. The CSRIO study, which was published in the renowned journal Nature, provides evidence showing changes in weather due to global warming were the driving force behind the increase in Australia’s bushfires. This study also established the correlation between the forest fire danger index and the rise in bushfires and area of forest burned since the 1930s.

It is admirable that Australia committed to reach net zero emissions by 2050 at the cop 26 climate talks in Glasgow, but more radical action is needed to stop our dependence on fossil fuels and reduce CO2 admissions before this date.

It is imperative that you place tackling climate change on the top of your agenda, the people of Australia cannot endure many more years of extreme weather and calamitous bushfires.

Yours Sincerely

Dylan Maxwell