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Australia’s wildfires killed 90 per cent of small ground-based animals

23 June 2020

One of the first wildlife surveys conducted after Australia’s recent extreme wildfires found almost no small ground-dwelling animals left in fire-ravaged areas

'Zombie' fires are burning the Arctic after smouldering under snow

15 May 2020

Unprecedented Arctic fires from last summer appear to have smouldered in the underground peat of the tundra through winter and reignited this month as snow melted

Rare herb devastated by Australian bush fires saved by seed bank

8 April 2020

One of the largely unnoticed victims of the Australian bush fires earlier this year was clover glycine (Glycine latrobeana), a rare pea endemic to South Australia that has now been restored thanks to seeds kept at Kew Gardens

Australia bush fires burned a globally unprecedented area of forest

24 February 2020

Australia’s recent extreme wildfires burned 5.8 million hectares of forest, destroying about one fifth of the forest biome in eastern Australia over four months

Australian government report predicted severe wildfires 11 years ago

8 January 2020

A 2008 report commissioned by the Australian government predicted that climate change would cause the fire season to start earlier and be more intense after about 2020

Death toll rises as thousands seek shelter from Australian bush fires

31 December 2019

Twelve people have died and thousands more have been displaced by three months of bush fires in Australia, as temperatures have soared to 45°C

Residents defend a property from a bushfire at Hillsville near Taree, 350km north of Sydney on November 12, 2019. - A state of emergency was declared on November 11 and residents in the Sydney area were warned of

Worsening bushfires cause Australia to declare state of emergency

12 November 2019

Australia is preparing for catastrophic bushfires as one state minister warns that this could be the worst week of wildfires in the country’s history

Helicopter dropping water on a house fire

Huge fire blankets can protect houses from destructive wildfires

15 October 2019

Wrapping a wooden house in a fire-resistant blanket can protect it from a wildfire for around 10 minutes - enough to let it survive fast-moving blazes

Sticky fluid can be sprayed on grassy verges to prevent wildfires

30 September 2019

A weather-resistant fluid containing fire retardants can be sprayed onto vegetation to stop wildfires from starting at high-risk areas such as roadsides