A fire on the world's largest sand island, off the east coast of Australia, is ragingmore than six weeks.
The problem is aggravated by the fact that the vegetation on Fraser Island is very dry and very easy to ignite. Now about 70% of Queensland, including the unique island, is in drought.
According to a recent report from leading nationalAgencies of Science and Meteorology, climate change is causing more droughts and wildfires in Australia. Experts stress that the situation will only get worse with the global rise in temperature.
Now the firefighters on Fraser Island are not onlystruggling with challenging weather conditions, but also stumped by limited fire access in the far north of the island. The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service said the fire covered 74,000 hectares, or 42% of the island.
Fraser Island before the fire
Fraser Island, famous for its largehas been designated a World Heritage Site by the dingo population, or native wild dogs, for its rainforests, freshwater dune lakes and a complex system of sand dunes that are still developing.
It is also called K'gari, which translates to "paradise" in the language of the local Buchulla tribe. This picturesque place attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year.
Australia still hasn't recovered from the devastatingthe 2019-2020 fires that burned an area roughly the size of the UK, killing 33 people and leaving tens of thousands of their homes. Wildlife damage has affected people all over the world.
Read also
Found the alleged kingdom of the disappeared Hittites. What have archaeologists found?
The Doomsday glacier turned out to be more dangerous than scientists thought. We tell the main thing
Voluntary death. We tell how the euthanasia procedure works around the world