Fires Next Time: Understanding Australia's Black Summer

by Peter Christoff

Australia’s Black Summer Fires.Following a three-year drought and during the hottest and driest year on record, a flume of scorching air set the Australian continent aflame. The Black Summer fires were unprecedented. Over six months in 2019–20 they burned more than 24 million hectares of Australia’s southern and eastern forests — one of the largest areas burnt anywhere on Earth in a single event. The fires killed 33 people and 430 more died as an indirect consequence and they caused unfathomable harm to native species. Their economic ramifications were extensive and enduring.State and federal governments and communities were under-prepared for that inferno and its many impacts. Yet global warming is increasing the likelihood of such events. The Fires Next Time offers a comprehensive assessment of the Black Summer fires. Its contributors analyse the event from many vantage points and disciplines — historical, climate scientific, ecological, economic, and political. They assess its impacts on human health and wellbeing, on native plants and animals, and on fire management and emergency response. They consider whether reactions could have been different, and what is needed to improve our handling of future bushfires.Contributors include Sophie Aitken, Danielle Celermajer, Andrew Dowdy, Robyn Eckersley, Michael-Shawn Fletcher, Tom Griffiths, Michael Grose, Pham Van Ha, David Karoly, Rod Keenan, Andrew King, Tom Kompas, Christine Li, Greg Mullins, Stephen Pyne, Libby Rumpff, David Schlosberg, Kevin Tolhurst, Sotiris Vardoulakis, Iain Walker and Brendan Wintle.

Genres: Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

Published November 28, 2023

Reviews

[Norrie Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fires of Australia’s black summer of 2019/20 were amongst the largest ever recorded in human history, eclipsing any of the infamous Australian bushfires of the last 100 years.
Written by multiple authors are 10 chapters, covering “What happened”; “Impacts and responses”; and “Looking forward”. The emphasis is on evidence rather than conjecture or hearsay. In doing so, many of the myths spread by politicians – such as arsonists being responsible, or the fires being nothing unusual -are debunked.
Sobering, bleak and promising worse in the future, unless we act quickly and decisively to deal with a rapidly heating planet. Read the full review at https://www.queenslandreviewerscollec...

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Fires Next Time edited by Peter Christoff is a 2 star read regarding the 2019/2020 bushfires that affected southern Australia.

This book details the fire and their destruction, how it affected the Australian population and wildlife.

The fires in scale and destruction were unlike anything we, as Australians, or the World have ever seen.

The destruction was total and the lose of animal lives, human and nature was unbelievable.

Not only the destruction from the fires, but the smoke as well.
You couldn’t breath and some days see due to the thickness that blanketed us.

A frightening time, but will there be more to come?