Why Human activities are the major cause of ignition and spread of Australian Bushfires
Introduction
In Australia, Bushfires are considered as one of the most destructive forces of nature. Firefighters have risked their lives each year trying to control bushfires. Despite the fact that bushfires occur naturally, the main cause of the spread is loss of biodiversity due to human induced climate changes, and lack of effective household safety responses. Bush fires have resulted in massive destruction leading to personal hardship and loss of life to families and communities. The ignition and spread of bushfires is caused by human activities, such as human induced climate change and lack of effective bushfire safety programs.
Australia is considered the world’s hot and driest continent, which leads to drought and many regular occurrences of bushfires that sadly, over the years, have become Australia’s weather cycle. Australia has had a history of bushfires. The Australian climate is prone to bushfires since it is hot. In the Southeast, there are occasional strong winds during the summertime cold fronts that can result in extreme fires. Many of Australia’s native plans are prone to fires since most consist of high oil content that makes them burn easily. The dominant trees in Australia are eucalyptus, which is highly flammable. Relatively, the big areas that consist of dry grass in the mid-late summer are also prone to burning. The Australian bush fires have been severe since the eucalyptus tree leaves contain large quantities of oil, thus making it possible for them to burn very fast.
Department of Sustainability and Environment Victoria. 2009. www.dse.vic.gov.au
Bushfires have been widespread and common in the Australian environment but the wettest parts such as the rain forest ecosystems have been highly affected. The fire regimes in Austral vary due to the rate of vegetation and ignition. The Department of sustainability and environment Victoria estimated that 26 percent of the bushfires are a result of lighting strikes. Considerably, human activities have accounted most of the fire accidents which are linked to campfires, burning off and machinery as the most common source of ignition. It is evident that most of the bush fires have been maliciously lit through involvement of humans.
Hayward et al. (2016). Could biodiversity loss have increased Australia’s bushfire threat?
The article reveals that the extinction of various range of mammal fauna has contributed to the increase of fuel that has the potential of affecting the rate at which fire spreads in Australia. Considerably, the article indicates that leaf litter is the main source of flammable material that allows the extent of fire in the savanna, especially due to the eucalypt communities in Australia. Over the years, Australia has suffered the death and loss of small-sized ground-dwelling mammal species. The loss of these species in Australia means increased fires due to increased accumulation of fuel. Considerably, there is a linkage between the impact of changes in the ecosystem and the potential of households to respond to the bushfires. This is because a lot of changes in the ecosystems are as a result of human activity. Since a number of populated areas are at a high threat of bushfire, it is important to understand how the changes in the ecosystem through biochemical and biophysical processes may lead to fires that lead to changes in function, structure, and composition of the ecosystem.
McLennan, J., Paton, D., & Wright, L. (2015). At-risk householders’ responses to potential and actual bushfire threat
Several settled areas within Australia are at a great threat of bushfire. All rural and state fire services have the public bushfire safety education programs which have been used to offer advice and information to residents about the dangers of bushfires, planning, and preparing to escape the danger and the household risk assessment. However, the safety programs have been less effective due to lack of effective education to the households on risk management. This article has focused on the disastrous bushfires that happened in Victoria to assess the preparedness of residents. The results showed that a number of houses had low levels of pre and post bushfire insights of planning and preparation. This means that despite the agencies in the community education program, a considerable percentage of residents have lacked a potential response to the bushfire threats.
In conclusion, the ignition and spread of bushfires can be caused by human activities, natural reasons such as lightening, loss of biodiversity and lack of effective bushfire safety programs. These articles reveal the environmental circumstances around bushfires in Australia as well as the household preparedness and response to the natural disaster through educational programs offered are essential in reducing bushfire threats.
References
Hayward, M. W., Ward‐Fear, G., L’Hotellier, F., Herman, K., Kabat, A. P., & Gibbons, J. P. (2016). Could biodiversity loss have increased Australia’s bushfire threat?. Animal Conservation, 19(6), 490-497.
McLennan, J., Paton, D., & Wright, L. (2015). At-risk householders’ responses to potential and actual bushfire threat: an analysis of findings from seven Australian post-bushfire interview studies 2009–2014. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 12, 319-327.
Department of Sustainability and Environment Victoria. 2009. www.dse.vic.gov.au