As of mid January 2020, Australian forest fires have burned more than 10 million hectares of land in southern Australia. This unprecedented fire has had a significant impact on human health, infrastructure and wildlife.

The UK's nature climate change magazine published an authoritative current review Thursday to discuss the impact of the fire and its global response in the form of a number of commentary articles, newsletters and editorials on Australian forest fires.

What is the impact of fire on climate change research

Benjamin Sanderson, a scientist at the European Center for scientific computing, and others, in a review paper entitled "calling for climate science", examined the latest climate models and wondered whether they could predict fires in New South Wales. Scientists pointed out that in order to improve the ability to cope with extreme fire events, researchers need to transform the uncertainty of climate science modeling into effective guidance as soon as possible and guard against overconfidence.

If the earth system model cannot "capture" the severity of this Australian fire, there is an urgent need for further development to assess whether we underestimate the risk, the paper said.

In another review, scientists Lauren Ricardo and James Watson from the urban research center of the Royal University of technology in Melbourne, Australia, discussed the impact of fires on current climate change research and how scientists and research institutions need to respond quickly to such events.

They pointed out that the loss of life and property, ecological damage, disruption of people's livelihood services, huge insurance costs, people's mental health problems, etc., which are increasingly recognized and recorded with the impact of climate change, and the prediction and resolution of such impacts are carried out by trained researchers. However, the research itself is far from immune from the impact of climate change, and we should consider the escalating threat of this impact on related research. In order to reduce this vulnerability, there is an urgent need for individual researchers and groups to adapt to large-scale plans and institutions, otherwise the value of these researchers will be weakened.

Public support for climate change action

Leslie Hyde, a researcher at the school of geography at the University of Melbourne, Australia, published a review on whether fires can contribute to climate action, or whether such fires can be seen as a "new normal". He pointed out that the disastrous fire caused a strong public response. The public supported the adoption of transformative climate change actions, should be aware of the potential at this time, and should express, acknowledge and not inhibit the emotional response to climate change.

Some scientists focused on and discussed the damage caused by fire to forest biome, and investigated the natural climate model that caused rainfall in this area.

The international response to the Australian fire was examined in a communication published by Harriet Yeager and Charles constante of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States.

It is pointed out that the risk of wildfire will increase exponentially in the future with the climate becoming warm and dry. The fire has forever reshaped the ecology of the Australian continent and will inspire further commitments to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the world's "global response" should be seen. Individual efforts to help injured wildlife, such as knitting special boots for koala, demonstrate global efforts to help Australian fauna. But they compared personal assistance with measures needed to mitigate climate change in order to protect species and biodiversity, arguing that there was a scale imbalance between small-scale rehabilitation of affected animals and large-scale climate adaptation needed to reduce the number of species extinct.

Turning to the front of climate change

Meanwhile, he published an editorial entitled "in the hot line". The article said that the fire in Australia led to a unanimous call from local and global people to increase efforts to mitigate climate change. News reports of the Australian fire, pictures of the devastating effects on human well-being, infrastructure and wildlife, have drawn international sympathy and assistance. This unity should be accompanied by criticism of Australia's climate policy and an urgent signal to world leaders.

The unusual extent of the fire has led many to call Australia the "zero zone" of climate change, thus stimulating the need for Australia and such countries to strengthen disaster reduction.

"In the face of the fire, Australia undoubtedly deserves sympathy and support," the editorial said. At the same time, it is also worth turning to other places at the forefront of climate change and telling their stories in the process of jointly promoting climate action.

Although "capturing" the effects of such fires on climate models remains a challenge with current research capabilities, it also heralds a better warning system that is about to emerge, the paper said. The incidence of such extreme disaster events is increasing, and people's awareness is also improving.

Source: Science and Technology Daily