The fires in Australia from 2019-2020 were nothing I have ever seen, and I grew up in Southern California. Fires aren't foreign to me, but the fires in Australia scared me more than the pandemic (for measure). I live in Melbourne and the closest fires were hundreds of miles from me, but the smoke was so thick over the city my fire alarm went off in the middle of the night. At first I thought fires started near the city and then thought my neighbor had a bonfire at 3am, but it was the remains of the Australian rainforest and bush from New South Wales (NSW).

In 2012, a climate scientist published a report stating before 2020 Australia would endure a seriously catastrophic fire. In 2018 and before the fires started in 2019, the EPA, government funded climate scientists, and fire chiefs approached the government 6 times or so to discuss the natural weather event; the Indian Ocean Dipole and the drought. The government refused to meet with them, banned the term climate change, and threatened their funding. Retired fire chiefs and climate scientists organized a comity and took on the campaign to bring awareness to the communities and government. Still, the government ignored them. Recently, a NSW court case found the government negligent in its approach to climate change mitigation. I don't know if much will change, but the Australian farmers' climate change coalition, the climate council, EPA, and numerous community groups have organized. The Australian fed gov is the worst in climate change agreements, goals, and mitigation, but we haven't pushed them hard enough. Ugh.