Former PresidentBarack Obamais joining the world’s top scientists in urging leaders to seriously address climate change, as unprecedented fires rage across Australia, incinerating swaths of its ecosystem and killing at least 24 people and more thana billion animals.
“The catastrophic fires in Australia are the latest example of the very real and very urgent consequences of climate change,” Obama, 58,wrote on Twitteron Thursday. “It’s on us to stay focused and protect the one planet we’ve got for the next generation.”
He shared aNew Yorkmagazinearticlecriticizing “global apathy” toward the ongoing crisis.
“But the response to what’s transpired in Australia — again, over a period that has stretched into months — is unfamiliar, to me at least, and not in a good way,” Wallace-Wells wrote.
President Obama’s message on Thursdaycalled on the world to pay attentionto the continuing effects of climate change and work toward a solution.
“Even with problems of this magnitude, each of us can still find a way to make change,” Obama wrote. “That’s why I’m proud of young people like Alice Mahar, a[n] environmental activist in Melbourne.”
Mahar is the founder and director of the Corner Store Network, an organization “that strives to protect the future for people and the planet through food preservation and climate action,” according to theObama Foundation‘s website.
Obama also shared a“how you can help” articleabout the fires.
Former President Barack Obama.Justin Sullivan/Getty
Australia is the second-largest carbon emitter per capita in the world, behind the United States.
The country’s leaders have been accused of putting profits and loyalty to fossil fuel companies — including the coal mining industry — ahead of efforts to curb climate change.
Australian Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylortold Reuters on Tuesdaythat “when it comes to reducing global emissions, Australia must and is doing its bit, but bushfires are a time when communities must unite, not divide.”
“Climate change didn’t cause these fires, but it sets the stage for making them more devastating,” Bob Deans of the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Counciltold PEOPLE. “They start more easily. They spread faster. They’re harder to fight and they’re more damaging.”
Deans said that “because of hotter, drier weather, we are seeing the fire season starting sooner, lasting longer and becoming more devastating.”
The family of late wildlife expert and television starSteve Irwintold PEOPLE they’ve been taking in hundreds of animals and treating them at their wildlife hospital located at the Australian Zoo.
“The bushfires that we’re seeing at the moment are unlike anything in Australia’s history and they’re some of the biggest in the world,” said Irwin’s 16-year-old son, Robert. “For us, with the devastation we’ve seen with wildlife and with habitat, we’re really just doing our best here… to take in as many species as possible.”
Irwin’s widow, Terri, told PEOPLE the scene in Australia is “very dramatic.”
source: people.com
