Wildfire

• Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires that tore through 10 million hectares in southeast Australia.
• My research shows the 2023 fires burned more than 84 million hectares of desert and savannah in northern Australia.
• In just a few weeks of September and October, more than 18 million hectares burned across the Barkly, Tanami and Great Sandy Deserts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Why did this happen?

• When it dries out, grass becomes fuel for fires.
• For example, you can see the pattern of more fire following wet years repeating at periodic intervals over the past 20 years of fire in the Northern Territory.
• In this way, La Niña is the major driver of these massive fires in the desert.
• In the NT alone, more than 55 million hectares burned in 2011, compared with 43 million in 2023.

How can fires be managed?

• The sophisticated use of fire in Australia’s highly flammable tropical savannas has been recognised as the world’s best wildfire management system.
• It also hinders the spread of fire because areas subject to more recent fire have insufficient fuel to carry new fires for many years.

• Even though large fires still ripped through these deserts in 2023, by mapping the fuel reduction fires and overlaying the spread of subsequent wildfires, we can see the 2023 fires were limited by previous burns.
• For example, the fire spread animation below shows fires moving through a complex mosaic comprising fuel of different ages.
• Read more:
  Invasive grasses are worsening bushfires across Australia's drylands

  The fires of greatest concern to government agencies were the Barkly fires that threatened the town of Tennant Creek.

• Read more:
  Indigenous rangers are burning the desert the right way – to stop the wrong kind of intense fires from raging

Preparing for the future

• Desert fire management is still under-resourced and poorly understood.
• Read more:
  Our planet is burning in unexpected ways - here’s how we can protect people and nature

Rohan Fisher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• This year, organizers of Earth Day are calling for widespread climate education as a critical step in the fight against climate change.
• A new report, released in time for global attention for Earth Day on April 22, highlights the impact of climate education on promoting behaviour change in the next generation.

How knowledge becomes ingrained

• Teachers have become increasingly concerned about best practices for supporting their charges as young people express anxiety about environmental futures.
• Similarly, Finnish researchers use biking as an analogy to describe the process by which knowledge becomes ingrained in people’s memory.
• The bike model advocates ways of learning that consider knowledge, identity, emotions and world views.
• More than half of the survey respondents were from Ontario (25 per cent) and Québec (29 per cent).

Challenges with climate education

• However, inclusion of climate education in formal school curricula has come with its own set of challenges.
• Educators in Ontario reported a lack of classroom resources as a barrier when integrating climate change education within the curriculum.
• The United Nations has declared climate education “a critical agent in addressing the issue of climate change” as climate education increases across different settings and for various age groups.

Educators finding ways

• More and more educators are taking steps to find ways to teach climate education in schools.
• As an instructor for several undergraduate-level courses, Olsen focuses on equipping budding educators with the skills and knowledge to incorporate climate education in their classrooms.

All aspects of curricula

• Embedding climate education into all aspects of curricula can take a variety of approaches in and outside of the classroom.
• Environmental education has been packaged in different forms, including broadening school curricula with inclusion in science, but also subjects including English, math and art.

Preety Sharma is a public health and development consultant. As a freelance journalist, she covers climate change, public health and nutrition. Ayeshah Haque is a Clinical Content Specialist at the Association for Ontario Midwives.

• This is comprised of an ordinary dividend of EUR 6.00 (EUR 5.00) per share and a special dividend of EUR 1.20 (EUR 1.00) per share.
• We were able to beat our earnings target and significantly increase the dividend.
• At the same time, we further strengthened Hannover Re's resilience," said Jean-Jacques Henchoz, Chief Executive Officer of Hannover Re.
• The ordinary dividend will be supplemented by a special dividend provided the capitalisation exceeds the capital required for future growth and the profit target is achieved.

• “After more than a century in operation and a multi-year focus on financial stabilization, Maui Land and Pineapple Company entered 2024 debt-free, with a new leadership team and a renewed vision guiding the company’s next chapter,” said CEO Race Randle.
• Land sale revenue of $1,626,000 in 2023 includes recognition of a land contribution to our first development joint venture in many years, on 31 acres in Hali‘imaile.
• The Company presents Adjusted EBITDA to provide information that may assist investors in understanding its financial results.
• More information about Maui Land & Pineapple Company’s fiscal year 2023 operating results are available in the Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and posted at mauiland.com.