Infographic – Australia’s Wildfires Eclipse Others

Click on image for full-size view (Statista)

4 Jan. 2019. Science & Enterprise covers research on climate change and business initiatives taking that research to the marketplace. But the biggest climate story today is happening in Australia, where wildfires linked to unusually hot and dry conditions are consuming large sections of the country.

Our friends at Statista put together a chart this week comparing Australia’s fires in size to other recent wildfire outbreaks, our infographic for this weekend. Data for the chart, compiled from state, national, and news media sources show Australia’s fires burning over 12 million acres. Some 10 million of those acres are in the southeastern state of New South Wales, burning entire towns, and affecting air quality and darkening day time skies in the state capital Sydney.

In comparison, the size of Australia’s fires are nearly twice as large as the 6.7 million acres consumed in Siberia’s wildfires earlier in 2019, also helped along by a changing climate. Plus, the wildfires in California in 2018 and burning forests in the Amazon last year are about one-sixth the size of Australia’s fires.

Australia’s Bushfire and Natural Hazard Cooperative Research Centre in Melbourne provides updates on the fires as well as research underway to deal with the crisis.

More from Science & Enterprise:

• Climate Action Cost Accounting Standard Proposed
• Infographic – Most in US Say Climate Change Affects Them
• Challenge Seeks Circular Economy Start-Ups

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