Australian bush fires. Are we doing enough?

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of InQuire Media

Image courtesy of TIME

Unless you have been living under a rock recently, you will know about the Australian bushfires.

According to the BBC, the bushfires have been occurring since September last year, killing 25 people and half a billion animals in New South Wales alone. Are we doing enough to help this matter? In short, no.

Although bushfires are a part of a natural earth cycle and help to fertilise and rejuvenate the soil, the scale at which this is occurring is far from natural. Human impact through pollution has created the enhanced greenhouse effect, in turn making the temperatures across the world increase. The result is causing places like Australia to become dryer, making bushfires spread at an unnatural rate. But we donate money to help our commonwealth friends. That is enough right? Again, no.

How do we put a value on the land lost, the animals that have died and the cost of non-governmental organisation intervention? We cannot. If someone could put a price on the life of a koala bear, I would personally shake your hand. To be clear, I am not saying we should not donate. I am saying it is not enough.

Let us look at a national level. The BBC has come under scrutiny for flying reporters to Australia from Britain, only adding to the pollution. At a global level, Cadburys Chocolate company has claimed to donate a week’s profits made from their Caramello Koala chocolate bar to the Australian bushfires. Cadburys is a typical industrial trans-national cooperation that produces goods at a large scale to supply large parts of the world – they are high polluters. These examples display the toxic trait within humans; the concept that money solves everything.

We cannot put a price on nature and the biological world. The parts of the world that we are losing are irreplaceable and cannot be bought. Yes, we could put a numerical value on the land lost because of what is situated on it or what it is worth to a company. But we still cannot replace that land when it is destroyed and becomes worthless.

If we really care about the Australian bushfires, and indeed our planet, we need to focus on the cause and not the response. If we only realise that, even on the other side of the world, we are all still to blame, we might take more responsibility for the destruction happening now and what will inevitably happen again, unless we change our ways drastically.