As wildfires continue to ravage Australia, more footage and images of the destruction have come to light, along with some disturbing information.

The fires, which have been raging since September, appear to have been the product of a combination of climate change, human error, and deliberate arson.

On Monday, the New South Wales police force announced that it had charged 24 people with deliberately starting bushfires in the Australian state.

Futurism reports that further legal action has been taken against 183 people for 205 bushfire-related offences, including failure to comply with a fire ban and discarding lit cigarettes.

The news that arsonists have contributed to the deadly fires raging in Australia is both highly disturbing and disheartening. But perhaps even more troubling is the wielding of this information as “evidence” that climate change isn’t a major contributing factor to the emergency.

The reality is that even if the fires were all man-made (unlikely), the environmental conditions that have lead to the scale and rapid spread of the fires are undeniably a product of climate change.

Timothy Graham, a senior lecturer on social network analysis at the Queensland University of Technology, told ZDNet that he believes someone has orchestrated a disinformation campaign on social media to try to shift the blame for Australia’s bushfires away from climate change and onto the arsonists.

People are also spreading misinformation (perhaps unintentionally), like this artist’s rendering of a month’s worth of data by Anthony Hearsey, circulating on Twitter as if it’s an accurate depiction of the blaze:

Othe pictures accurately depict the scale of the destruction. Kangaroo Island looks like a wasteland.

You’re going to see some dead animals ahead – be warned.

The fires have destroyed much of the habitat for the island’s wildlife, including koalas, kangaroos, and a number of rare birds.

Damian Campbell-Davys, a water tank operator, rescued a koala while helping put out flames near Nerriga, New South Wales. He named him ‘Little Arse’.

An estimated one billion animals have been killed in the fires, alongside at least 24 people, reports Vox.

Can’t they outrun and escape the blaze?

In many cases, particularly for birds, the answer is yes. “Certainly, large animals, like kangaroos or emus — many birds, of course — will be able to move away from the fire as it approaches,” Charles Dickman, a biodiversity expert, told the BBC.

But he added that “it’s the less mobile species and the smaller ones that depend on the forest itself that are really in the firing line.”

Koalas are a good example. An estimated 8,000 of them have died from the fires, ecologists say. That’s almost one-third of all koalas in NSW, which forms their main habitat.

This video is particularly disturbing:

On the plus side, many Australians, and people around the world, have stepped up to help. Like Micah, 19, and Caleb, 18, who did a little koala rescue on Kangaroo Island:

A group of people have gone around Kangaroo Island collecting as many koalas as they can find to help relocate and rehabilitate them. What champions! 🐨 💙 pic.twitter.com/n7YWIjRMrm

— news.com.au (@newscomauHQ) January 7, 2020

Every bit counts.

If you’d like to help out from afar, you could sell naked pictures, like this Instagram influencer, or you could follow this link to donate to Australian bushfire relief causes.

[sources:futurism&vox]