Australia has been hit with one of its worst bushfire periods in recorded history.
The country has been burning in an increasing pace since July of 2019.
Multiple fires have been sparking all over.
Many of which slowly combining to become mega fires that span millions of hectares, tearing
through towns, farmlands, and forests, and disrupting everything from regular life to
holidaying.
Homes are being flattened.
Businesses are becoming rubble.
Properties are being destroyed.
Lives are being lost.
It’s a disaster.
A crisis.
An emergency.
Like a war—an ongoing, dangerous, devastatingly confusing, intense, depressing, anxiety-inducing
experience.
Those directly affected by the fires are living through hell.
They are being hit emotionally, physically, financially, over and over again.
Thousands of people haven’t worked in weeks—including volunteer emergency service workers who haven’t
been to their regular job.
Others, haven’t slept or eaten or chilled on the couch or played with their kids for
a very long time.
But it’s not just the people who are directly affected when it comes to these fires.
It’s also the family and friends of those, the empathetic, the people on the sidelines
and behind the scenes who are taking on daily emotional pressure.
It might seem strange that fires have this effect.
But consider what it feels like to not know what will happen tomorrow, what might happen
while you sleep, or even what might happen while you battle the flames head on.
Furthermore, consider what it means to be in the front seat onboard the ongoing emotional
and mental rollercoaster that comes about from monitoring fire conditions every day.
What it means to always wonder whether or not you will have a place to sleep that night,
what you will do when you don’t have power for days, not have access to clean water or
be able to purchase food.
But that’s not all.
It’s the loss of being able to contact your loved ones and check in on them or let them
know you’re okay when telecommunications go down.
It’s the closing of highways and roads, being barricading in an area that is prone
to lighting up.
It’s the waking in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke and being on ember watch
in your own front yard.
It’s the knocking on your front door from firefighters and police, telling you to get
the hell out, and not knowing where you will go next, who will take you in, where you will
put your animals.
Being hit with any disaster is guaranteed to play on anyone’s mind far more than a
lot of people may initially think.
And one of the worst parts about all of this is that these effects can stay with people
for many years—perhaps even forever.
This is a given, of course.
Living through any kind of traumatic experience that disrupts life, causes an irregular routine
and a loss of creature comforts, can displace people and alter a sense of self.
People may say, ‘well, hey, belongings are replaceable.
As long as you’re safe, it’s okay.’
And sure, this makes sense to a certain extent.
But it’s not just about the loss—or potential loss—of personal items.
It’s not just the sad reality that after going through hell while facing the fires,
that you may be left without a home, a pet, a loved one, that entire box of family photos,
those passed-down-through-generations Christmas decorations, that little trike your daughter
first learnt to ride on.
It’s not just the fact you have been without work and an income for weeks, your insurance
premiums have increased, and you haven’t even begun to clean up.
It’s everything the whole experience entails.
Everything that resides below the surface.
And everything, that will be in Australia’s future.
We’re all aware of what it can mean for fire to burn life and land.
But the aftereffects, the long-term ramifications, these are going to be catastrophic for Australia
as it begins to navigate one of its most challenging hurdles.
For starters, the emotional effects for thousands—if not millions—of people, will take a long
time to unravel.
Rebuilding lives and homes and towns and getting back on track is a complicated thing to achieve.
And when dealing with what the nation is about to be impacted with, who knows how long it
will take.
The loss of dairy and cattle farms, granaries, wineries, vegetable crops, forestry plantations,
alone, is catastrophic.
Which not only means people have lost their livelihood, but the prices of products, goods,
and services, are all about to skyrocket, leading to an increase in importing, and every
man and his dog will want to complain about how ‘these apples are just not right’
anymore.
Not only that, but tourism infrastructure in many towns has been totalled.
Hundreds of businesses have either been forced to close or have been burnt to the ground
and may never fully recover.
Which means incomes have suffered, bills have piled on, and getting back on one’s feet,
is far more challenging.
My mum and sister, for instance, didn’t work for days at a time during December through
to early January when fires threatened their towns more than a handful of times.
And when you’re on a casual income, you can imagine what that means when you still
need to pay bills and put food on the table.
Health issues are another thing to consider in the long-term.
The air a lot of Australia has been breathing for months now has been toxic.
Dangerous to inhale.
Irritating for almost everybody.
And folk with respiratory issues have suffered immensely, with people even dying.
This may make you wonder what a disaster like this means for Australia in the future?
What will it mean for its population and economy?
What will happen when Australia can’t meet the demand for exports like beef and wool,
cotton, sugar, and wine?
Will jobs be lost?
Will poverty rates increase?
What about health impacts?
Will respiratory disease prevalence rise?
Will cancer rates rise?
Will not being able to afford nutritious food or simply not having access to it, affect
every single person?
It might sound grim.
But it’s a disaster.
It’s what happens.
If bombs were going off every day in Australia, killing people, destroying land and homes,
people would be worried.
People would be paying attention.
People would be understanding what lies ahead.
But with the fires, provided one is not close to them, they can be blasé to what is going
on and more than happy to join the community of outraged folk on social media, believing
they are doing their part to help.
Of course politics and topics such as climate change should be discussed in any disaster.
It’s a nation under crisis, and leadership and support from intelligent people who know
what they’re doing and are delegating what happens next so everyone is sheltered, fed,
and safe, is necessary to slow the descent into chaos, where everybody is hoarding and
stealing, conning and killing.
But when we focus too heavily on what the media is feeding us, stoking our emotions
and keeping us clicking on their links to boost their ad revenue, like count, and popularity,
we can forgo what we all should be focusing on in the years to come.
Australia has always had bushfires.
It always will.
But instead of dividing ourselves over every single issue in the world, we should be coming
together to help those affected—mentally, physically, emotionally—giving where we
can, paying attention to what is happening, and listening to authorities.
This will ensure the country bounces back faster than it otherwise would.
And while many people all around the world have already been incredibly generous with
their time, money, and emotional support, if you would like to help, please check out
the description below to support the organisations that are doing what they can to help those
in need.
In spite of the rain that has hit recently, there are still thousands of displaced people.
Some have not been home yet, some are in the midst of a clean-up, some are restructuring
their entire lives, while others are beginning to do their best to move on with the losses
they have faced, and the months and months of recovering and rebuilding their lives.
It will take some time for the country to recover.
We’re only just past the halfway point of summer here in Australia, and in a way, the
fires are far from over.
which is why the more help and support we can give each other, and those who have been
affected, or might still be affected, the better.