One fifth of the trees are burned, in the meantime, studies show. No country in the world has such damage. And it burns more and more.

the red sky over the Namadgi national Park photo: Chu Chen/Reuters

BERLIN taz | The forest fires in Australia have destroyed since September, 2019 for a total of 60,000 square kilometers in area, were described by media and politics, often as "unprecedented". For this assertion there is now also a scientific proof: there has never been destroyed since the beginning of the records somewhere in the world, a large proportion of a forest ecosystem by a fire disaster, a study collection, which is now published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The fire that are still burning, damaged, therefore, forests and animal species on an unprecedented scale. "The forest fires 2019/2020 burned a global never experienced a share of continental Waldbiomen," writes a research team led by Matthias Boer, from the Western Sydney University.

21 per cent of Australian temperate mixed forest has been destroyed. The annual loss in other forest Ecosystems under 5 percent, only in the Asian and African tropical and subtropical forest leads to losses of 8 to 9 percent.

And 21 percent below losses estimated yet, it continues. Because they do not include the burnt forests of Tasmania, and the areas that are now still in flames.

Since September 2019 Australia has experienced after a three - year period of drought and huge forest and Bush fires, a "natural disaster of stunning proportions," as experts call in the special issue: at Least 33 Dead, over 3,000 homes destroyed, hundreds of millions of animals that are killed and 350 million tonnes of CO2 in addition, two-thirds of the annual emissions of climate gases.

at the end of January published by the Australian Ministry for the environment, a list of 115 species of animals and plants, the rooms have lost through the fire your life to be 50 to 80 percent and therefore "high risk" apply. Belongs to the most endangered species in a bag mouse from the coast of Kangaroo Island, one spider and many rare plants, their Ecosystems are burned.

The researchers in their studies a clear link between the Fires and climate change: "There is no doubt that the record temperatures of last year would not have been without human influence possible," write Benjamin Sanderson and Rosie Fisher from the research institutions Cerfacs in Toulouse, and NCAR in Boulder.

and If CO2 emissions continued to increase, "would be such a year, 2040, the average and 2060 exceptionally cool." They warn that previous climate models could be the impact on Australia under-estimate: "rising emissions will lead us in an increasingly unpredictable climate room, where the consequences could be more extreme than predicted."

what is the probability that exactly of the climate change to the heat waves and forest fires in Australia has contributed, is currently still controversial. Next week, a group of European Experts will present and analysis of these "Association studies".

In Australia, the fire is currently still more. The fire season continues. On the Website MyFireWatch of the government of pictures by satellite, the current Hotspots detect. Alone for the most affected States of New South Wales and Victoria in the Southeast of the country approximately 50 current fire appear out of the herd.