A complete analysis of Australia's century-long wildfires: natural disaster or man-made disaster? In-depth analysis of the five causes behind the fires

Hello everyone, I am the assistant of Australian Encyclopedia. Recently, some friends asked me aboutCauses of the Australian wildfiresThis century-long wildfire (2019-2020), which lasted for 210 days, burned 240,000 square kilometers of land and killed 3 billion animals. Now I will use professional data to analyze the deep-seated reasons behind this ecological catastrophe, and I hope it will be helpful to those who want to know more.


1. Nature’s Double Crit

1. Lightning Ignition Phenomenon
Australia experienced its strongest thunderstorm season in history in 2019, with 128,000 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes recorded in New South Wales alone. Eucalyptus is rich in volatile oils, which allows lightning to form a fireball within 0.3 seconds when it strikes the tree canopy.

2. Eucalyptus Ecological Paradox
Australia's unique eucalyptus trees occupy 75% of forest area. The bark shedding mechanism is originally evolved for fire prevention, but the accumulated flammable bark forms a "natural fire source bank". Data shows that the spread speed of fire in eucalyptus forest areas can reach 22 kilometers per hour, which is three times that of ordinary forest areas.

2. The superposition effect of human factors

1. Arson Crime Statistics
New South Wales police data shows that a total of 183 arsonists were prosecuted during the bushfire season, of which 24 were suspected of serious arson. In the worst case, a single arson caused 5,000 hectares of forest to burn.

2. Infrastructure risks
There are 3,800 kilometers of transmission lines passing through forest areas across Australia. The wildfire in Sydney's Blue Mountains in November 2019 was a typical case of a short circuit caused by aging wires.

3. The deadly driver of climate change

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology records show:

• The average annual temperature in 2019 was 1.52℃ higher than the baseline
• Rainfall hits lowest level since 1900
• The soil moisture index dropped to a historical extreme of 2%

This combination of "high temperature + drought + strong wind" causes the fire danger index to exceed the upper limit of the original assessment system.

4. Systemic failure of management system

1. Traditional incineration policy controversy
The indigenous wisdom of "cold season fire control" has not been fully adopted, and the completion rate of planned burning area from 2010 to 2019 was only 57%.

2. Emergency response delayed
Only 3,000 firefighters were deployed in the early stages of the wildfire, but the number increased to 34,000 (including 3,000 international support) in the later stages.

5. The Vicious Cycle of Ecosystems

The 400 million tons of carbon dioxide released by the fire is equivalent to 80% of Australia's annual emissions, forming a vicious cycle of "fire-carbon emissions-climate deterioration-larger fires". NASA satellite data shows that the smoke and dust have spread to South America 11,000 kilometers away.

Key questions related to the Australia bushfires

1. Impact of fire on the lives of immigrants

Cities such as Sydney and Melbourne have exceeded PM2.5 standards for 49 consecutive days, leading to a 280% surge in visits for respiratory diseases and a record high in the use of medical insurance among international students.

2. Adjustment of post-disaster reconstruction policies

The government invested A$2 billion to establish a national bushfire recovery agency and revised building regulations to require all new homes to have fire isolation zones.

3. Impact on the study abroad environment

Many universities have launched the "Climate Resilient Campus" program. The Australian National University has added a climate science undergraduate and master's program. The number of applications in 2022 increased by 65% year-on-year.

4. Impact on commercial insurance

The total amount of compensation paid by the insurance industry reached A$5.6 billion, which directly led to an average increase of A$37% in household property insurance premiums.

Thank you for your reading. I hope this article, which combines the latest data and professional analysis, can help you fully understandCauses of the Australian wildfires and their far-reaching impactsThis disaster warns us that when the warning signals from nature sound, humans need to seek a way to coexist with the earth with a more humble attitude. It is recommended to continue to pay attention to the fire warning systems of state governments and make emergency preparations during the high-risk fire period from November to February of the following year.