Aussie bushfire crisis
How should we respond to Australia’s current bushfire situation?
Published: 17 January 2020 (GMT+10)
Australia’s current bushfire crisis (Summer 2019–2020) has set ablaze news headlines as it has the land. The current death toll stands at 26 with some still missing. Millions of hectares of land have been burned and the estimates of wildlife lost are staggering.
On a personal note, staff in the Aussie office are fine. We are in a metropolitan area and the worst we encountered was bad smoke haze (we were advised to stay indoors as much as possible for a good week or so) back in November, although this was more of a precaution for those with respiratory conditions such as asthma. However, every staff member here knows of someone who has been directly impacted by the fires.
Unfortunately, many of the fires in Australia were lit by firebugs (not an insect, but rather people with a penchant for setting fires; that is, arsonists). The current arrest toll sits at well over 100 for just 2019 for arson related offences.1 Some of these people have undertaken a deliberate fire-lighting act, while others were careless in their actions .2 Professor Ogloff from Swinburne University estimates about 50% of bushfires were lit by firebugs,1 but records show that this figure has been much higher in the past.2 The cause of every bushfire cannot be determined (there’s a large percentage treated as suspicious, but ultimately the cause is not yet known or will never be found).3
While not all intentions are harmful, the outcome has been not only loss of property and wildlife, but loss of human life. Couple that with a lack of controlled hazard-reduction burning during the cooler part of the previous years and a particularly hot, dry summer and you have a recipe for disaster. That’s exactly what we’ve got.4 These bushfires may be reported as unprecedented, but they are not unexpected.
Worldview impacts
Thus the terrible fires have had a tragic impact, and exposed ongoing mismanagement over decades. This illustrates that there is a worldview framing the thinking. In the modern secular view, based on the narrative of evolution over millions of years, humans are the late-comers to the scene. The environment worked perfectly well for hundreds of millions of years before humans arrived. In other words, get humans out of the equation and it will work much better. That is what has been done, and we see how well that has worked—not.
In the biblical view, humans were created to care for and rule over the earth, and everything in it. Genesis 1:28: God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
This is a fundamental worldview conflict. It is difficult to see the environmentalists and secularists backing away from their position. That is just the way they think, how they look at the world. Rather, they will look for a way forward that is consistent with their worldview, which may be more radical and lead to more problems.5
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10
Clearly, the idea that humans are a virus plaguing the earth is a false one. We have been put here by God and told to manage and care for His creation.
It was never meant to be this way
We’re all seeing the devastating footage of kangaroos fleeing infernos, the blackened remains of wildlife scattered by roadsides and huge blazes consuming homes. The media is there to film that grief-stricken moment when people return to find their homes are a pile of rubble and ash … It is heart-breaking.
While many animals have been lost, there are a surprising number that have survived. Wombats have wandered out through charred bush land after huddling in their burrows. Terrified koalas have stumbled out of burned areas6 seeking water from passers-by. Our wildlife has an incredible sense to know when fire and danger are approaching.7 These animals can often smell smoke or detect the sound of fire at distance. What amazing designs God has created within each of these creatures.
However, all this destruction winds up with people asking the same question. “Why?” Or even “Why has this happened to me? Why have I lost my home?” and “What did all those animals do to deserve this?”
Seeing the singed fur on kangaroos brings a pang of sadness. All this hurts. Something is wrong. And that’s exactly what we should recognise at this point. Something is wrong. Death and suffering are wrong. As Christians, we should be reminded that death is an intrusion into this world. It is a result of sin—a fallen world, in bondage to decay (Romans 8). Sin entered this world and corrupted God’s perfect creation. And every time we see the frightened face of an otherwise adorable koala, we should be reminded that it is not the way God originally created it.
Why do we care?
Undoubtedly, one of the most heart-warming things to come out of this season is the knowledge that people all over the globe care about Aussies and Australia. Significant sums of money have been donated to help our fire brigades, to provide urgent relief for the people who have been evacuated and/or lost their homes, and to assist wildlife.
Why do people feel the need to help? Why is there such an urge to give when we see images like those of the poor little koalas with burned feet? Our furry friends are doing it tough, so why not help them out? People’s homes have been burned to the ground; why not give them a hand to get back on their feet? It really seems to punch people right in the ‘feels’.
It truly has been amazing to see the outpouring of love. There is an innate sense that so much destruction isn’t right. As Christians, we can recognise that this sense of right and wrong is the God-given conscience at work. Where the blame for the fires is laid, though, will certainly differ depending on our worldview.
What should we do?
CMI supporters have been affected by these bushfires. As Christians, we are called to help those in need (Hebrews 6 and 13). We recognise that many of you support us along with other organisations (and we thank you for your generosity!)
We would encourage you though, to be reminded of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). If we are in a position to help, then let’s do that. Be the compassionate people that Christ commanded us to be and glorify God this way (Matthew 5). Whether that is giving of our time, efforts, finances or helping people to understand why bad things happen—it’s all part of our job. Here are some of our resources that might help you and others to understand about why we experience bad things:
- Why does a good God allow bad things?
- Why would a loving God allow death and suffering?
- Beyond the shadows: Making sense of personal tragedy.
Lastly, please pray. Pray for rain and for a turning back to Christ in this country.
Related Articles
Further Reading
References and notes
- Ross, D. and Reid, I., Bushfire: Firebugs fuelling crisis as arson arrest toll hits 183. theaustralian.com.au/nation/bushfires-firebugs-fuelling-crisis-asarson-arresttollhits183/news-story/52536dc9ca9bb87b7c76d36ed1acf53f. 8th January 2020. Return to text.
- Australian Institute of Criminology. Proportion of deliberate bushfires in Australia. aic.gov.au/publications/bfab/bfab051, March 2008. Return to text.
- Bryant, C., Understanding bushfire: trends in deliberate vegetation fires in Australia. https://aic.gov.au/publications/tbp/tbp027. January 2008. Return to text.
- Nights with John Stanley, 2GB Scientist David Packham on what’s really causing the bushfires, 2gb.com/podcast/scientist-david-packham-on-whats-really-causing-the-bushfires/?fbclid=IwAR2eaWp6mMIgVmfOa7pn2zvyrw_nPEsfzlTI57v5cKsfYKn57U9RpqLcYrU. 19 December 2019. Return to text.
- Walker, T., Facebook post. 7 January 2020. Return to text
- Hannam, P. and Geraghty, K., Rescued koala brings ‘ray of sunshine after nightmare’ on fire ground. smh.com.au/national/nsw/rescued-koala-brings-ray-of-sunshine-after-nightmare-on-fire-ground-20200105-p53p1i.html. 5 January 2020. Return to text.
- Nimmo, D., Animals have an astounding response to bushfire. These are the tricks they use to survive. theconversation.com/animal-response-to-a-bushfire-is-astounding-these-are-the-tricks-they-use-to-survive-129327. 8 January 2020. Return to text.
Readers’ comments
Guilty as charged. For it took me until New Years Day, and then at the prompt of another person to suggest it, before I started to pray for rain. I guess it took some time for faith, in the face of a drought and the start of the dry season, to mature into action. Fortunately I continued praying and name the weekend as the time I wanted to see rain. Such rejoicing on the Monday morning when I saw the headlines that rain had fallen, some of it torrential. Sadly not enough!!
However my faith is now stirred to believe God for more rain, as much as is needed for this January to be declared the wettest in the fire affected areas, hopefully that will be enough to put the fires out, BUT God is still sovereign.
I would love to see a National (Australian) churchman call for a day of prayer for rain and nominate a day for rain to fall and put out the fires. Is it enough to expect the Pope, Archbishop of Canterbury and Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church (et al) get to gather and call a world wide day of prayer for rain in Australia.
Let us (those reading this), who believe in the God of the Bible, Abraham, Issac and Jacob, who whilst on earth quelled the storm, ask Him for rain, enough to put out the fires completely, to the amazement of Meteorologists worldwide.
Also, many Christian groups in Australia have called for prayer. Notably, The Canberra Declaration ran a campaign for '31 days of Prayer and Fasting' (back in October before the fires were 'big news') and the Australian Christian Lobby have called for prayer too.
My thoughts are that the 'new normal' should be that the care of our island is the responsibility of the Federal Government, just as Adam was put in charge of the Garden of Eden and proper land care measures should be put in place [control burning as did our Indigenous brothers!]. Expensive? Yes, but so is the replacement of everything that has been lost both financially and emotionally..
The Bureau of Meteorology seems to present a sober report on the immediate future of the weather by stating that the Dipole off Western Australia coast is breaking down and will result in good rains [it is happening] which to me suggests that it is 'nature' at work, not contamination by man.
Imagine taking a trend of the daily average temperatures, for a 100 days, starting from the end of winter, draw a straight line to extrapolate, and then say the oceans are going to boil in 500 days.
I did a little test on Excel, adding 2 sinusoidal curves, one representing a 12-year cycle and one 150-year cycle, take a snippet of 30-year average, and graph the deviations and came up with a graph that closely resembles the graph in the Australian BOM website. It was only a simulation, cos we don't have enough temperature data going back a few centuries. Anything beyond one's lifetime is too long for most to comprehend. With a lot of climate activist being of the younger generation, they see this 'winter-to-summer'-like trend and think the world is burning up. It might be a decade until the trend starts to change direction, but it will eventually happen, like in the last few millennium.
On another note, the narrative that humans are the problem and we have a problem with over-population is that people are starting to care less about human lives. If you believe there are too many humans in the world; abortion, euthanasia, forced population control becomes acceptable. The death of an animal, especially from an endangered species breaks more heart than an aborted fetus.
There has been a small gradual increase in 'global' temperature over the past 150 or so years. Coming out of the 'Little Ice Age' this is unremarkable. However to measure an average is difficult (Essex et al, 2006 'Is there a global temperature' in J. Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics). That said, it would be very difficult to separate out the marginal contribution of slightly higher temperatures and their ramifications from the normal high variability of Australia's climate. Droughts, extreme temperatures and unusual low relative humidity are 'normal' in Australia. We must also not confuse 'average' and 'normal'. Average is a 'location' in a dataset, and changes from period to period; a running average is possibly more useful. But 'normal' is a 'shape', reflected by the Normal Distribution curve. For practical purposes, the long range normal might be taken as being within one or two standard deviations of the average for the long run data. But very hard to make headlines out of that.
As can be found in most responsible media (unfortunately a small minority) and the historic files, both Ash Wednesday and Black Saturday killed many more people than these fires have killed so far.
And the 1974 fire season saw an area over 20 times as large burnt out across south-east Australia. Compared to many of our historical fire seasons this on has not set any records at all.
What is 'unprecedented' is the hysterical reporting, driven by the climate change fanatics, that has caused so much unwarranted fear and angst among the people of this country and, indeed, the world.
Australia is burning the headlines scream. No it isn't, only a small part of the south east is burning and it is our own fault that it is. Settle everybody, the solution is simple and on hand.
In 1851 the Black Thursday fires burnt out a similar area of land as the current fires (5 million hectares), killing 12 people.
In 1983 the horrific Ash Wednesday bushfires killed 75 people.
I suspect that the vagaries of the wind had much to do with the rapid spreading of fires this year, as well as the dry conditions and heavy fuel load. One thing that was unprecedented about these fires was the amount of public attention sought by the main public figures and the media's reaction to the events, all of which was melodramatic and reactionary in the extreme, rather than being sensible and calm. The prime minister was thus lambasted for taking on a mature and sensible leadership role.
It is likely that over the next year or two the Hunter River will flood in one of the nation's most populous districts. A major flood is overdue, and they tend to come after a long dry spell. No doubt this too will be regarded as unprecedented and unexpected, and the fault of 'climate change'. Post Christian society is losing its grip on reality, seeming to believe that the natural environment is a fomenting source of chaos which must be placated and appeased, rather than being God's structured creation.
The same issues were raised back in the 2009 Victorian bush fires that claimed the lives of 170 people. Fire chiefs were complaining then about the lack of cold burning. Residents were complaining about laws and draconian fines that prevented clearing around dwellings. Those laws and fines persisted in some of the worst affected councils after the fires.
Then again, if evolution is true, natural catastrophes, extinction of species, death, cruelty and suffering are all grist for the mill. Why bother about biodiversity or the bush and cute, cuddly, koalas and kangaroos being incinerated. In such a world, if virtue exists, it must be a callous indifference toward others needs, cruelty, selfishness, greed, exploitation of the weak and vulnerable, and short term expediency that serves my ends. Sounding familiar?
Clearly these two world views collide. The fact that so many people claim to be Greenies and also insist that we are the product of evolution shows how deluded they've become. Scripture teaches God created our universe as a home for humanity. Man was intended to rule over God's creation and to care for it. God clearly sanctions people killing and eating animals. Of course many Greenies find those ideas repulsive. As with evolution, Christians should challenge and expose Greenie dogma that seeks to supplant God's truth.
That all said, these fires bring to mind the creation mandate: to subdue/rule 'nature' to make habitation for mankind; that which is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:28).
Many detractors regard this imperative as license to despoil and exploit, but neglect that being made in God's image, and before the fall, would entail being motivated above all by love and care for God's creation, and wise consideration for actions taken.
How do we measure all of this though; how do we measure destruction? What categorizes an event for it to be called 'the worst ever'? Is it the loss of human life, loss of wildlife, the loss of property or the amount of land scorched? You raise a great point here.
The solution is not to call ‘humanity’ a pest, but the Fall - Sin - in its callous and heartless and cruel nature - a pest, and welcome the Remedy: universal repentance from sin.
The wages of sin is Death.
Death.
And we see it in the news... every day.
It destroys the creation of God; human life, animal life, the stability of nature.
Sin is the door to living under curse.
Sin invites curse.
Some things can only be spiritually discerned.
But even pain and seeing suffering as it is, - horrible in its grim reality - may scream in the ears of the spiritually stubborn and deaf... something is wrong, oh so wrong.
And - perhaps - , just perhaps - some may wake up.
In time.
Coupled with legislation that made it illegal to cut fire lanes (cause trees are people too).
Coupled with legislation that made it illegal to remove deadfall (cause the critters that live in them are people too).
Coupled with a hot dry year (not the hottest or driest this century).
Entailed a lot of those people like trees and critters died.
It’s like the well meaning people who chased the seagulls away when the first baby turtles hatched and made the journey to the Ocean.
They meant to save turtle.
However when the majority of the turtles walked to the ocean the seagulls ate them.
This is because the first turtles (a few in comparison) make the journey the seagulls get some. Then nothing happens and the seagulls leave. Then the turtles have a window to make it. The well meaning people wrecked this process.
As we do with not allowing to remove deadfall, cut fire lines, and limit controlled burning.
People build towns and cities this is good.
Because of this we need to do things to prevent them from burning down this is good.
This means we can’t let lightning strikes burn the forest / Bush down near a town - rather we have to intelligently exercise our dominion and cut fire lanes, reduce fuel base by removing it and / or controlled burns.
The left is nuts calling for the resignation of the PM.
This was years in the making.
It might even have a benefit- since God is sovereign (like extreme cold here in Canada).
I'd like to hear you address the issue of the popular notion that the fires are a result of Government inaction on "Climate Change". We have marches in the streets of our capital cities screaming "Sack Scomo!!" as if the PM is responsible for the fires due to the lack of response to this problem.
Thanks,
Mark R.
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