Australia is burning and this is just one of the latest disasters to happen to our planet due to climate change.

The damage is incalculable and the balance sheet is among the saddest and most tragic in recent times. Since Australia began to burn, an estimated 10.7 million hectares have been destroyed by flames, at least 28 people have died and 6,000 buildings have been lost forever. Still, nearly half a billion animals may have died.

It is in front of these numbers that the world stops, aware of the complete destruction of an ecosystem.

But what are all these fires causing? It is nothing new for a land like Australia, where the climate is arid, thunderstorms often characterized by lightning (among the main reasons for these fires) and so on, to be hit by fires. In short, we are talking about an environment accustomed to these conditions but which, in recent times, has not been able to cope with the catastrophe.

At this moment, then , the air so thick with smoke, characterized by flames, is among the worst on the planet, unbreathable to say the least. The land on the island has continued to burn unabated since last September, and in the summer season the situation usually gets worse.

This is why another concern must be added to this concern: the Australian hot season ends at the end of February, so for now it is only just beginning.

So, if Australia burns, it is because of what has been said so far, but if the human hand is added to all this, we arrive at the catastrophe that can be found on every type of news these days. Between avoidable errors, unheeded bans and fires set on purpose, the flames have multiplied. Many people were accused, careless people who didn't think twice before making such a big mistake.

If the flames spread so quickly it was also due to the anomalous heat of recent times. In fact, a monthly average of 42°C and peaks of 49°C were recorded, a very high temperature which dried out the vegetation, providing even more ideal conditions for this series of fires. Small fires that led to a single, large blaze. The strong wind then raised the flames allowing them to spread faster. But it doesn't end here. Tragedy is just around the corner if you consider that all this hot air generated by the fires, together with smoke and ash, rises upwards, cools and becomes loaded with humidity, forming vertically developing storm clouds that can carry the hot ashes over other very large areas, generate lightning and trigger new fires here. Moral of the story? He seems to be perpetually stuck, in a situation from which it is really difficult to escape completely.

At the moment, rescue and aid are among the most numerous and efficient but the situation does not seem to have a positive outcome. The mistakes made in the past are now being mourned, such as all the policies envisaged by the Paris agreements and never or very little respected. What will become of our future? Of this destroyed ecosystem that does not damage just the affected area but the entire planet.