The World is Alight

As it is capturing headlines worldwide, you may be familiar with the fact that Australia is experiencing record-breaking heat waves, and rampant bush fires in nearly all six states.  As a result, Lydia and I have donned our fire-retardant attire and forged ahead in our lives as usual (kidding).  While we’ve definitely had some hot days, Melbourne’s weather is fickle as ever, including one recent swing of one day reaching a high of 41C (105F) one day, with the following day reaching no higher than 21C (68F).  For the most part, we’re pretty isolated from the bush fires in greater Melbourne, and it would seem that most of Victoria has been spared this year (thus far).  The same can’t be said for our island neighbour to the south of Tasmania, and rural parts of New South Wales to the north, both of which have experienced some devastating bush fires.

Bush fires aren’t uncommon in Australia during the summer months, as the vegetation dries out quickly in the dry heat and winds, and eucalypt oil in much of the fallen foliage serves as an abundant fuel source.  Even in the relatively temperate and moist Dandenong mountains just east of Melbourne, bush fire has had it’s both devastating and necessary effect, as recently as 2009.  In fact, much of the native Australian flora is dependent upon semi-regular bush fire, whether to clear out old growth to make room for new, or in the case of a few Australian plants, as a necessity for reproduction.  Take for example the Acorn Banksia, which requires fire for its seeds to disperse.

Prior to European settlement, many Aboriginals would intentionally light bush fires, both as a means of hunting as well as to protect from too much dried fuel from accumulating.

And while bush fires can have devastating impacts to many homes and croplands, many times these fires are left unaltered in the rural outback.  Take for instance this image taken by NASA, known colloquially as “Black Marble.”

Source: "WA bushfires light NASA's 'Black Marble' photo of Earth," Herald Sun

Without knowledge of Australian urbanisation and geographic landscape, one might think that Western Australia is full of bustling metropolises, on the magnitude of Tokyo or New York City.  Even NASA had to take a second look at their photographs, which were taken in April and October 2012.  As it turns out, those patches of light are in fact unchecked bush fires in the Australian uninhabited expanse.

It’s pretty incredible to imagine the exact scale of those fires (although as this article reports, they may appear larger than they actually were due to the photographic techniques NASA used to assemble its images), but even more incredible is the fact that these fires would be burning without anyone really knowing.