Talking Point: Our priority is always people, but think of what we can’t save

MIKE BROWN: Climate change is testing the mental and physical limits of firefighters

BATTLEFRONT: Tasmania Fire Service crews at the Gell River fire in January. Picture: WARREN FREY/TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE

It has been a few weeks since Tasmania’s most recent and challenging bushfires died down; the interstate firefighters who came down to help have returned home, and affected families and businesses are now rebuilding and recovering after the traumatic events of the summer.

But for people and places alike, some losses have been irreplaceable. In addition to property, thousands of hectares of UNESCO World Heritage Area were burnt. Some of it may need centuries to recover, while some species of burnt vegetation may never grow back.

This sense of loss has been made all the greater by the recent discovery that 15 of Australia’s biggest trees were destroyed in the bushfires. Decades and decades of slow, quiet growth, scorched into oblivion in just a few hours.

The extent of the damage wreaked in such a short time highlights a tough truth: The increasing frequency and severity of bushfires due to climate change is forcing fire and emergency services to make difficult decisions about whether or not they can save some of Australia’s most precious treasures.

Without a doubt, our priority always has been and always will be, to save human lives, as well as property and infrastructure. This will never change, and we are incredibly proud we haven’t lost civilian lives due to bushfires in Tasmania for several decades.

But the cost of all that we cannot save — our precious, rare natural heritage; our community’s beloved and familiar landscapes, and our priceless biological diversity — must also be recognised.

DEVASTATION: Gell River fire near Gordon River. Picture: WARREN FREY/TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE

Several factors have put us in this situation.

First, of course, is the fact that climate change, driven by the burning of coal, oil and gas, is increasing bushfire risk in Tasmania and other parts of Australia. Our environment is getting hotter and drier, making the landscape more flammable. Climate change also has a hand in making “dry” lightning storms more frequent. This sparks many remote bushfires, some of which are almost impossible to reach in time or control. We just don’t have the resources to deal with these fires, and we often have no choice but to let them burn themselves out.

Then, of course, is the fact that Australian emergency services are stretched to the very limit, even as extreme weather gets worse. It used to be that Australia’s fire season happened in stages down the coast from Townsville to Tasmania. States could share resources and personnel between themselves, and also lease big-ticket equipment such as large aircraft from our mates in the Northern Hemisphere, who would be enjoying their winters.

But as we have seen in the past few years, this is no longer the case. Multiple Australian states have had major fires to deal with at the same time, and overlapping fire seasons between places like California and Australia mean resource sharing isn’t so easy anymore.

That’s not to mention our most precious resources, the human ones. You may have seen the photo of the three sooty, exhausted firefighters that went viral over the summer; it’s a very small glimpse of the gruelling and dangerous conditions that hundreds of men and women across Australia are being asked to work in, for longer and longer stretches of time.

It’s testing the physical and mental limits of both career and volunteer firefighters, and it’s not sustainable.

We can’t keep Australians safe if nothing is done to address the growing threat, or give fire and emergency services the right kind of support.

As the Tasmania Fire Service’s former chief officer, I know this. So too do many former fire and emergency chiefs across the country; it’s why we’re calling on the Federal Government to quickly and deeply cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, conduct a parliamentary inquiry into the resourcing levels of Australian emergency services, and ensure funding for research so we can continue to make evidence-based decisions that save lives.

We have no time to lose. Our government should be powering ahead on plans to phase out fossil fuels and tackle climate change, boost emergency service resources, and funding research.

But instead, we have no end in sight to the ideological obsession with coal, emissions that have risen for more than three years, and temperature records tumbling like dominoes. This is frightening. And when I think of the devastating consequences of inaction — and there’s worse to come, if emissions keep rising — it’s also heartbreaking.

Australia’s political leaders claim to want to do what’s best for the country. Now that the lives and wellbeing of our families are at stake, along with the irreplaceable landscapes that make our country special, it’s high time they start acting like it.

Mike Brown is former chief officer of the Tasmania Fire Service, and a signatory of the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action joint statement.