From recent events, Australia has been going up in flames breaking heatwave records and igniting most of the of the eastern coast. This fire, caused by arson and climate conditions, has led to the extreme immolation of the animals. Some animals, such as the Kangaroo Island dunnart are on the brink of extinction. Even though these events are occurring and we may feel hopeless we, as a country can help the event.

The U.S., although dealing with their own problems, needs to put more pressure on Australia. They have sent 175 firefighters but they won’t be able to stop the extreme conditions in Sydney and Canberra. However, we have much more power and much more trained professionals that have been dealing with these fires for their entire life. Kyle Min, a sophomore student at Los Alamitos believes that we can help the cause by creating organizations that can collect donations and rescue animals, preventing them from becoming extinct. Other students such as Tyler Kim, a junior at Troy High School believes that the best option is to prioritize focus on australia. Although the U.S. is having conflicts elsewhere and can lead to bigger problems, we must realize that we might be losing thousands of animals and many homes and families will not know what to do.

At this current state, America has much more resources and supplies that they can give out to support the fire. If the U.S. refuses to send supplies or support, the least we can do is get people aware of the cause and make other countries aware. This way, the government and the U.S. itself will not have to overextend to help but can allow small organisations and communities to. Although small support itself will, realistically, not do much to the overwhelming catastrophe but if there are enough small groups and communities, we can turn the fire around.

We should also be focusing on the cause of the fire. Although finding the cause of the fire will provide no use to deteriorating the actual fire itself, it can help prevent signs that provide intel on where this event might happen next. For example, many people believe that the fires were caused by excess plant growth and mismanagement of public land. However, in reality, the fires were mostly caused by arsonists and the sudden climate changes. Although we cannot fight climate change, other than adapting to it, we can fight arsonists. The Australian government can put more pressure into looking into arsonists, and preventing the type of work that they accomplish.

I believe that we need to feel more compassion and thought into realizing the big picture. Australia may be half of what it used to be if we don’t do anything. We could sit and watch our world burn and turn into the fire equivalent of the ice age. Instead, we can take a stance and prevent our world from falling apart within our hands.

<Connor Kim/ Troy High School 9th Grade>