Australia has always had bushfires, but never like this year.
The record breaking drought has meant huge fires burning for months, and they are where people live, around Sydney, Adelaide, Perth etc. not in sparsely populated farmland.
New South Wales fire service estimates 13,000 square miles has burned so far in this year’s fire season (in comparison the area of Wales is 8,000 square miles).
South Australia has lost one third of its vineyards in the Adelaide hills. And the pollution from smoke in Sydney has been 11 times the level safe for humans for more than 30 days, in scorching temperatures!
So spare a thought for the Australian people on Christmas Day.
Most of this information and the image come from the Guardian online of 24th December http://tiny.cc/frl0hz
BUT, two thirds of their electricity is currently generated by burning coal, and they are one of the world’s largest exporters of coal. Their government is reluctant to accept they will have to change this. See http://tiny.cc/2yl0hz
