now what's happening in Australia is
unprecedented the bush fires have killed
18 people they've killed close to half a
billion animals they're over twice as
big as the amazon forest fires and
they're exerting extreme political
pressure on Prime Minister Scott
Morrison earlier he was heckled in
Kabongo in New South Wales there two
people have died and many homes have
been lost The Guardian has compared its
main street before and after the fires
and its residents wanted to talk to the
Prime Minister and here he is meeting
another angry resident he wants to talk
about more support for the Rural Fire
Service the Prime Minister shaking a
woman's hand and then walking away as
she continued to talk about the help her
community needs
he then encountered a firefighter who
was equally unenthused at the idea of
shaking his hand
well after these encounters Scott
Morrison said he wasn't surprised that
people are feeling very raw and
certainly this crisis is bringing
incredible pressure on many Australians
here are some of the most recent
pictures these are from Victoria and you
can see the scale of not just the fires
but the volume of smoke that's being
generated many of these are so big
they're even forming their own weather
events which can then generate lightning
which then in turn sparks more fires
these pictures released by firefighters
in New South Wales again show us the
extreme conditions in which these men
and women are working what's got these
pictures from a small town in New South
Wales called Mogo the devastation is all
but complete and because of all of this
thousands of Australians have decided
they need to leave the areas affected in
part because conditions are predicted to
worsen over the weekend with more hyper
temperatures and more strong winds
because of all of this New South Wales
has declared a week-long state of
emergency that is partly because of the
calculation that the threat level is
likely to increase rather than decrease
another way of viewing the scale of this
is this satellite image which shows you
the volume of smoke spreading across
much of the state or you can look at the
crisis in terms of figures the Amazon
bush fires of last year but through 900
thousand hectares the California
wildfires of 2018 went through 800,000
hectares in just New South Wales in
Australia more than 4 million hectares
have been burnt in the last 6 months
that's brought devastating human costs
and devastating environmental costs to
ecologists at the University of Sydney
are estimating 480 million animals have
been killed by these fires koalas have
been terribly affected 8,000 estimated
to have died to put that in context
that's around one third of the koala
population in New South Wales so that's
here boy from Australians who have been
caught up in this story the fireball
just came through at about 80 K an hour
hit the house and then we ran into the
lake and there all the embers and
everything
were hitting us butter here a little bit
and we're in there for about an hour
before we got rescued and something like
that stares you in the face
it's very frightening so I'd like to
thank everybody that's done something
for me
I think someone's dropped a bomb on us
basically that's what it feels like so
here
kabaah go on the coast move north in the
direction of Sydney and you'll come to a
town called kong jolla
also in New South Wales the BBC Shimer
Khalil is there the extent of the damage
that these huge fires have caused here
in Lake Khan Jolla is all around homes
have been ravaged the earth is scorched
still smoldering still hot you can feel
the smoke three people died in the small
community alone one of them just up the
street over here this is one of the
coastal towns where tourists have been
given 48 hours to evacuate many of them
have been trying to get out it's been
very hard for them to leave because the
conditions around us are still quite
hazardous residents are still in shock
at what happened to their town some have
left when the fires hit others stayed to
defend their homes we could see it
coming and then it was jumping from
house to house we had nearly eight
houses on a lot you know did we sort of
cheat it that we were survived
[Music]
yeah it's pretty traumatic
that's one resident of con Jolla and
this image was photographed in his town
it's been featured on many front pages
around the world and was taken by the
photojournalist Matthew Abbot he tweeted
my last day of the decade felt like the
apocalypse had been covering the fires
for the last six weeks but I haven't
seen anything like yesterday's fire that
decimated the town of conch Ola he's
been speaking to the BBC I came down the
Main Street and this one house was on
fire you know there was lots of
neighbors trying to put the house out
you know trying to remove garbage bins
that were melting and trying to take
their own properties with with hoses
it's a dangerous job there are times
when you know you kind of wondering you
know should I go down this road or
should sure hold back but you know it's
very important for photographers to be
able to to be there and see these things
as they happen and you know this image
is probably you know it is testament to
that it's being seen around the world
and it gives an idea of just just how
serious this current crisis crisis is
for astronomers
well there's Kanchana on the map goes
south and you get to the coastal town of
mallacoota in victoria people they're
about to take shelter on the beach they
did so on New Year's Eve incredibly this
image was taken during the daytime you
may well have seen this image widely
shared of an 11 year old boy steering
his family to safety in a boat there and
we know that dozens of homes have
already been destroyed in this town and
it's also becoming hard to get help into
the people who are there there's only
one Road in mallacoota that gets you in
and out and it's cut off that means
thousands of people are trapped that
also means the Australian Navy is
starting to work on getting people out
by boat so we had the opportunity today
to potentially move about 500 people out
of mallacoota the the interesting thing
about it at the moment is some people
may not want to leave they may want to
stay in there with it with their
four-wheel drives and their caravans
until such time as they may be able to
get out by Road that could be a number
of
weeks there could be two to three weeks
at this stage now meteorologists will
always tell you it's impossible to link
a specific extreme weather event with
climate change they're not so reticent
though when talking about temperatures
in Australia across the last century
coming from 1910 warmer and warmer and
warmer in particular increases in the
last 25 years and these long-term
temperature increases are connected to
climate change which in turn is caused
by human activity and we know there have
been record temperatures throughout
these weeks when the bush fires have
spread all of which means some
Australians argue the fires are a moment
of reckoning Bridgette Delaney is a
journalist with Guardian Australia she
says maybe these fires will be
Australia's Sandy Hook parkland moment
we urge the government to do something
and if they don't create a meaningful
climate policy after this epic
destructive summer they probably never
will now we've seen this view widely
shared the idea that if this doesn't
shift the debate perhaps nothing will
what we'll have to see but the
government so far has yet to move an
inch on its climate policies and the
prime minister Scott Morrison might
argue he doesn't need to
he says he's already acknowledged the
link between reducing emissions and
reducing the risks of bushfire seasons
like this one it's worth remembering
though mr. Morrison's deputy said of
arguments linking these bush fires to
climate change that they were the
ravings of some pure enlightened and
woke capitol city
greenies and he's still the Deputy Prime
Minister prime minister also argues that
Australia is keeping its side of the
bargain on climate change here's more
from him on this what we will do is
ensure that our policies remain sensible
that they don't move towards either
extreme and stay focused on what
Australians need for a vibrant and
viable economy as well as a vibrant and
sustainable environment getting the
balance right is what Australia I think
is always been able to achieve but right
now the focus as I said at the outset is
to fight these fires and to get people
to safety the Prime Minister is talking
about balance let's add a little more
context to that Australia is the world's
third largest exporter of fossil fuels
you can see Russia Saudi Arabia one and
to Australia third and the mature
those fossil fuel exports are cold in
2018 Australia exported 42 billion
dollars worth of coal and of course
fossil fuels are an enormous contributor
to global warming but as the Prime
Minister alluded to they also create
lots of jobs around 50,000 workers in
Australia are connected to the fossil
fuel industry and we know that around 60
percent of Australia's electricity comes
from coal-fired power stations indeed
last year a new coal mine was approved
in Queensland but the way the
australians are calculating their
emissions is also being challenged more
broadly this is all part of the Paris
climate change agreement the government
says it's not doing anything wrong but
the woman who created the Paris Accord a
former French government minister has
said that actually if the Australians
are continuing to can as they do this is
just cheating so there are extreme
pressures again coming on Australia and
its approach to this issue now the
hottest temperatures on record in
Australia unprecedented bushfires you
might think this was a guaranteed lead
story in the Australian news media it is
for some is the Sydney Morning Herald
escaping the red zone as its headline
but here we have the Australian
newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch known
to lean to the right
politically its main pictures about
horse-racing its main story is about it
yet to be confirmed proposal to restrict
alcohol sales in Western Australia and
you can see the bush fires are
positioned here on the left and we saw
something similar before Christmas - on
the day after Australia's highest
temperatures on record the Australian
layered with Asia's cold hunger to lift
exports more evidence that these fires
are more broadly climate change and how
they're covered in the media are
profoundly political in Australia the
conclusions people draw about what's
causing these current bush fires will
impact on how Australians view climate
change how they view their fossil fuel
industry how they want their economy to
be structured and that's why the media
the politicians the people are all
playing close attention not just to
what's happening but the conclusions
that are drawn here's more on that point
from Atika Bourke correspondent for The
Sydney Morning Herald based here in
London
Australia's well used to bushfires but
this extremity this intensity this
degree Australia is not seen before and
these are the worsening living memory
and so while people run around in
Australia saying hey this is not to do
with climate change Australia's always
been in this country of droughts of
fires and floods that's true but the
climate change scientists have always
says that this is what would happen
those things would become more intense
those things would become more extreme
and now people are dealing with this
inferno on their doorsteps they're
seeing their houses raised their homes
lost and in many instances 'im lives
gone Scott Morrison has dealt with this
extremely badly as you can see from that
footage now he was overseas on holiday
in Hawaii when these fires really did
start to get quite intense and there
were lives lost at that point he was
forced to come back I think he resented
that and now he's trying here to say to
his supporters this is a moment change
because the moment he accepts that this
is to do with climate change he's in a
very vulnerable position and there's
much more on what's happening in
Australia via the BBC News