Climate change is poised to deliver more Black Saturdays in decades to come

Ten years ago, on February 7, 2009, the Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people. More than 2,000 houses were destroyed in Victoria, including at Kilmore, Kinglake, Vectis (Horsham), Narbethong, Marysville, Strathewan, Beechworth, Labertouche (Bunyip), Coleraine, Weerite, Redesdale, Harkaway, Upper Ferntree Gully, Maiden Gully, Bendigo, Eaglehawk, Lynbrook, St Andrews, Flowerdale, Narre Warren, Callignee, and my home town of Churchill, where my mother and father still lived. Their home wasn’t burned, but many of their neighbours were badly affected by the worst bushfire day in Australia’s history.

Treacherous bushfire conditions are predicted to
grow even more frequent as the climate changes.

A week before, my uncle and aunt had to seek refuge at Mum and Dad’s place when a fire ember landed in their front yard during the Boolarra bushfires. Mum has since passed and Dad still lives in Churchill.

The climate is changing due to human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, and this means more bushfire danger days in what is already one of the most fire-prone countries in the world. Unfortunately, we have not done enough to curb climate change and the situation is getting worse.

Read the piece from The Conversation by a Strategic Advisory Panel Member from the Australian-German Energy Transition Hub at the University of Melbourne, Scott Hamilton - “Climate change is poised to deliver more Black Saturdays in decades to come.”

Heat is our greatest natural enemy

H

eat has proved to be humans’ greatest natural enemy.

According to an ABC story heatwaves have caused more deaths in Australia in the past 200 years than any other natural hazard.

Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires in 2009 illustrate that perfectly as the bushfires themselves killed about 170 people and resulted in media saturation, but what was very little reported was the fact that extreme heat in the week preceding the fires killed more than 300 people.

And now the ABC reports: “Western Australian researchers say they have discovered the best way to predict the impact a heatwave will have on the health system, through the same formula used to predict the heatwave itself.

“The group from Curtin University and the health department found the formula, developed by the Bureau of Meteorology to predict the severity of a forthcoming heatwave, could also be used to accurately predict the resulting demand on health services.”

Read the ABC story - “Impact of heatwaves on health system can be accurately predicted, WA researchers say.”

Heatwave deaths almost ignored as bushfire deaths steal the headlines

R

eporting of the 300 plus deaths in the week leading up to the February 2009 “Black Saturday” bushfires was almost ignored as the 173 deaths from the actual event stole the headlines.

A week of punishing temperatures proved more deadly than the fires themselves.

Such extreme events will become more common as global warming tightens its grip on earth.

The Pakistani newspaper Dawn tells how heat alone has ripped through parts of India.

It reports: “Another 105 people died of heatstroke on Thursday, bringing the death toll to 1,116 in Sindh, even though the harsh weather that has overwhelmed the province for a week subsided considerably.

“Officials said the number of heatstroke patients arriving at hospitals had reduced significantly on Thursday because the weather was quite windy and, at times, cloudy, but it failed to completely stop the heatwave attacking them.

“On Thursday, at least 90 people died in Karachi and 15 in other districts of Sindh,” a government official said.

“Hyderabad, Thatta, Matiari and Benazirabad were among the districts where these fatalities occurred,” the paper said.

Read the Dawn story - “Heatwave death toll in Sindh tops 1,000”.

India experiencing its own 'Black Saturday' prelude

V

ictoria’s “Black Saturday” bushfires in 2009 killed 173 people and destroyed 2029 homes.

The media focus, subsequently, was relentless with much being made of 173 people who died in the fearsome fires.

However, what went largely unnoticed by most was that nearly three times that many died in the oppressive heat in the week leading up to the first.

Yes, the fires were deadly and serious, but in the simple number of deaths, the extreme heat of the previous week was even more deadly and serious.

India, according to Sky News is now wrestling with something similar, at least from the point of view of extreme temperature.

Sky News reports: “At least 800 people have died in a major heatwave across India, melting roads in New Delhi as temperatures neared 50C.

“Hospitals are on alert to treat victims of heatstroke and authorities advise people to stay indoors with no end in sight to the searing conditions.

“In the worst-hit state of Andhra Pradesh, in the south, 551 people have died in the last week as temperatures hit 47C on Monday.”

Read the story - “India heatwave kills 800 as roads melt”.