AUSTRALIA IS BURNING AND WE NEED ALL THE HELP WE CAN GET!!

Huge wildfires in Australia are growing steadily bigger, causing tens of thousands of people along the country’s southeastern coast to evacuate. The state of New South Wales declared a state of emergency on Thursday, with the authorities warning that the fires heading their way this weekend might be the worst yet in an already catastrophic season.

The devastation is immense. At least 15 people have died, with 8 deaths confirmed in the past week. Fires raged across forest and scrubland along Australia’s Pacific coast, choking cities with thick smoke, charring more than 1,000 houses and killing countless wild animals.

Australia is normally hot and dry in summer, but climate change, which brings more frequent and longer periods of extreme heat, worsens these conditions and makes vegetation drier and more likely to burn. Matthew Abbott took this photo of a kangaroo rushing past a burning house in Lake Conjola, New South Wales.

There has been 14.6 MILLION ACRES (6 MILLION HECTARES) burned since September, 2019. This is over two times more than the 2019 Amazon Rainforest Fires! Our wildlife is in EXTREME danger with HALF A BILLION animals dead because of these fires; the animals who are surviving are severely injured, their paws are burned and they have been separated from their families, they are alone and scared. The death toll is expected to rise with dozens of people missing and many people already dying from these fires.