January 5, 2015

This Is What Every Fire Season Could Soon Look Like

Australian fire crews are battling terrifying blazes.


Jane Derijcke sorts through her burnt possessions in Hastings, Victoria, after a wildfire destroyed her home. Mike Keating/Newspix/Rex Features via AP

Australian fire crews are battling some of the worst wildfires the state of South Australia has seen in decades. The South Australian Country Fire Service, the agency in charge of response, says 22 firefighters have been injured so far. The service says the conditions over the weekend are rivaled only by those experienced during the notorious “Ash Wednesday” fires of 1983, which killed 75 people.

The South Australian blazes, centered in the Adelaide Hills that surround the state capital, began last Friday. Since then, the fires have consumed more than 46 square miles, and destroyed or damaged 26 homes, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. While residents have begun the tortuous process of picking through the rubble of burnt-out houses, the battle across southern Australia, including in the neighboring state of Victoria, is far from over. On Monday, roughly 700 firefighters took advantage of relatively cooler temperatures—they are currently battling fires into the night. But conditions are expected to worsen on Tuesday and Wednesday, with temperatures likely to soar above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

The fires have reignited the country’s ongoing debate about how best to tackle climate change, which is helping fuel an ever-increasing number of wildfires, and lengthening Australia’s fire seasons. “Every year we are going to face these extreme weather events, which are going to cost lives and infrastructure, and enough is enough,” said Christine Milne, the leader of the country’s Greens party.

Here are some photos from this weekend:

Columns of smoke rise from the Adelaide Hills in this photo taken on January 2. More than 30 homes are already feared destroyed. Hewitt Wang/Xinhua/ZUMA

Firefighter Lukas Lane-Geldmacher rescues a dog from the Tea Tree Gully Boarding Kennel and Cattery during the Adelaide Hills fire on January 3. Dylan Coker/Newspix/Rex Features via AP

Fire crews battle a wildfire in Kersbrook, outside Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. Campbell Brodie/Newspix/Rex Features via AP

South Australia wasn’t the only state impacted by fires. Here, John Gaylor stands amid the wreckage of his firewood business in Hastings, Victoria. Mike Keating/Newspix/Rex Features via AP

Trees blackened by this weekend’s fires in the Adelaide Hills. Hewitt Wang/Xinhua/ZUMA

This spectacular and frightening photo, taken by Ben Goode, and shared on his Facebook page, Earth Art Photography:

 

Post by Earth Art Photography.

And finally, these firefighters have a pointed message for the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, who is known for scrapping the nation’s cap-and-trade program, and gutting various government agencies tasked with fighting climate change:

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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