How you can help

By Linda Capato Jr.

The images and video coming from Australia are devastating. Yet again, the climate crisis is fueling another horrifying event, one that has killed an estimated 500 million animals, dozens of people and decimated lands around the continent. 

But the bush fires didn’t start last week. They’ve been burning since August of last year and have spread across the entire country since. Communities and wildlife need your help more than ever.

Climate chaos is fueling the intensity and breadth of the fires. Rising temperatures and worsening drought are creating the conditions for the fires to spread further and burn hotter than ever before. We’ve seen this around the world. From the Amazon to California to Indonesia, conditions are drier and the world’s forests are becoming a tinderbox.

We’ve pulled together a list of ways you can help during this climate emergency in Australia: 

  1. Donate to the Fire Fighters: Donate to the NSW Rural Fire Service to directly benefit professional and volunteer firefighters protecting homes and communities from the mega-fires.  Donate here
  2. Donate to the Wildlife Rescue organizations finding and treating injured wildlife:
    • Donate to WIRES – the Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) here. 
    • Donate to the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital – Thousands of koalas are feared to have perished in the Australian mega-fires since September. The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital is raising money to distribute automatic drinking stations in the burnt areas to help in koala and wildlife survival. The organisation is also sharing funds with other wildlife organisations in the fire affected regions. Donate here.
  1. Donate to help fire affected communities: Gondwana rainforests are burning across Gippsland, located in the far east of the state of Victoria. East Gippsland is home to a stretch of globally important Eucalypt rainforests where local activists have been campaigning for decades to protect rainforests from logging. These communities need our support now more than ever to recover from the mega-fires. The Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund was established in 1978, and is operated by local volunteers for Gippsland communities affected by natural disaster events. Donate here
  2. Support Indigenous youth fighting against the climate crisis: Seed is Australia’s first Indigenous youth-led climate network. Check them out here 

Take Action: To support RAN’s long term work on climate, pledge to be a part of our Climate Action Challenge.