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In Australia, forest fires have been raging for several weeks and there is no respite. The country is experiencing a heat wave. Temperature records could still be broken due to the spread of this wave.
Tuesday, December 17 was the hottest day since the readings began, with a national average of maximum temperatures of 40.9 ° C. In the interior of the country, temperatures have exceeded 45 ° C and the worst is yet to come. The heat wave that is suffocating the Australians should intensify in the days to come, especially in New South Wales in the east of the country .
Uncontrolled forest fires have already devastated tens of thousands of hectares of vegetation and reduced to ashes more than 700 houses. Meteorologists warn of a " new threat ": winds with gusts of 100 km / hour that risk stoking fires.
" Public health emergency "
Sydney, the largest city in the country enveloped for weeks in toxic fumes, is facing a " public health emergency ". Air pollution is up to 11 times higher than a level considered dangerous. Hospitals have recorded a 48% increase in the number of people who go to the emergency room for respiratory problems.
Rarely, the Prime Minister has acknowledged that climate change was " one of the factors " behind the fires, but Scott Morrison has not yet announced any measures to better combat this phenomenon.