2020 Enviromental Recap
A recap on what the earth has been up to during quarantine — Leah Emineth, General Reporter
Throughout 2020 there have been numerous environmental events. Many of these environmental things people do not know about. With the coronavirus being the main topic for many news channels, there is little to no awareness about what has actually been going on.
Australian Bush Fires The Australian bushfires started in June 2019 and lasted until May 2020. According to disasterhilanthropy.org, “more than 46 million acres of land and about 3,500 homes were burned, thousands of other buildings were lost and 34 people died.” These fires caused historic levels of drought and large amounts of ash that polluted the air. There was about about 800,000 animals reported dead due to the fires. The Insurance Council estimated bush fire losses were about $1.3 billion US dollars. Smoke from the fires began to spread around the globe and left many places filled with dark skies and unhealthy breathing conditions. Photo sourced from creative commons
Locust swarms in East Africa Locust swarms have been destroying farmland in East African countries such as Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. Starting in December 2019, Kenya has seen its worst locust swarms in 70 years. The swarms likely started due to extreme weather events. The swarms usually have between 40 to 80 million locusts, and they can cover a square third of a mile to 100 or more square miles. The locusts are causing a threat to food security, because they eat the crops and flatten farm land. According to The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, “desert locusts can pose a threat to the livelihoods of about 10% of the world’s population.”
Photo sourced from creative commons
08
October 2020
News
