The bushfire disaster in Australia comes from numbers

Australia is facing the worst wildfire crisis in its history. The scale and magnitude of unprecedented influence of the disaster shocked Australians and the rest of the world.

The weekend was the most intense day to date of the wildfire that began in Australia last September. On Sunday night, Australia began to rain, causing the fires to subside, but officials warned that this was not the end of the disaster.

According to Bloomberg, Australia's summer season has just begun and rising temperatures and dry weather mean that fires could flare up again.

Here are a few figures about the damage this wildfire crisis has caused to Australia so far, as highlighted by Bloomberg:

Human damage

Australian forest fire map.The worst affected are the states of New South Wales and Victoria - (Source: Bloomberg).

Starting with the winter in the southern hemisphere, the current wildfire in Australia has now killed at least 24 people, including many volunteer firefighters. The wildfire that caused the biggest death in Australia so far occurred in 2009, with 180 deaths.

Forest area was destroyed

A large area of ​​forest land, estimated at more than 10 million hectares, of Australia was destroyed in the fire, an amount larger than the US state of Indiana. In New South Wales alone, about 5 million hectares of forest and scrub were destroyed. In Victoria, the figure is over 1.1 million hectares.

Burning forest trees at the Old Bar, 350 km north of Sydney - (Image: Getty / CNBC).

The wildfire in Australia was so great that it created its own weather pattern, with lightning bolts that could ignite new fires. A fire in Sydney's northwest has destroyed about 512 hectares of forest land, about 7 times the size of Singapore.

The number of houses destroyed

Houses destroyed by bushfire in Cobargo, New South Wales - (Image: Getty / CNBC).

About 1,400 homes in the state of New South Wales were burned down during the wildfire crisis, and the number is increasing day by day. Dozens of rural towns were devastated, including the town of Balmoral, about 150 km south-west of Sydney, burned down just before Christmas.

Economic influence

The Australian authorities are still conducting an assessment of the economic damage of a forest fire disaster.

However, the Australian Insurance Council said insurance companies in Australia had received 6,000 claims totaling nearly 431 million Australian dollars ($ 229 million). According to some estimates, Sydney's economy costs up to $ 50 million a day because the city is covered with bushfire. A report estimated last Saturday's fire caused $ 4.4 billion in damage.

People march to fight against climate change in Sydney in December 2019 - (Photo: Getty / CNBC).

On a broader perspective, the Australian economy is facing growing pressure from rising temperatures and climate change storms. The situation threatens many industries, from agriculture to real estate and tourism.

The Australian Climate Council estimates that the total losses from the decline of agriculture and labor productivity in Australia by 2030 could reach 19 billion Australian dollars, by 2050 AUD 211 billion. , and by 2100 will be 4 trillion Australian dollars.

Damage to wild life

The University of Sydney estimates that in New South Wales alone, about 480 million wildlife have been killed in the Australian bushfire disaster since September last year. The wildfire crisis poses a particularly great concern about koalas, an animal only found in Australia and already inherently facing a dramatic decline in numbers.

A koalas injured by wildfire are being cared for in a wildlife hospital in Port Macquarie, Australia - (Image: Getty / CNBC).

Authorities say the number of koalas in New South Wales has dropped by 30% during the fire.

1. Fire in Australia seen from space
2. A terrible forest fire caused the sky in Australia to turn black as ink at noon