Extinction Rebellion protest at Australian Embassy in Pretoria

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Pretoria - Extinction Rebellion SA has made a call for firefighters to be paid, genuine aid and a rapid transition away from fossil fuels. Gathered outside the Australian Embassy in Arcadia they also demanded implementation and just transition for workers in fossil fuel industries with job guarantees. Speaking to Pretoria News, Extinction Rebellion SA's Otti Neser said they would be letting the Australian government know that its climate inaction and land management policies were unacceptable. The demands follow the out-of-control bushfires sweeping across large parts of Australia,leaving a sense of horror. "After prolonged drought and the country’s hottest ever temperatures, the fire threat level in Australia is now “catastrophic” — the worst possible rating, never invoked before, and at least five times bigger than those in the Amazon in 2019."

She expressed shock at the sixteen million acres that have burned or are currently burning, "that is an area almost the size of Mpumalanga."

These acres include the entire known range of some species endemic to Australia.

An estimated half a billion animals have been killed so far, with that number still set to rise steadily.

The human cost was also enormous, with 26 people dying during the fires and thousands of homes and buildings destroyed.

She said South Africa also had a common problem with Australia in terms of being a climate change hot spot.

"As the planet warms, our region is set to get even hotter and drier than the global average."

She said scenes in Australia were unprecedented and the threat faced by us was unfolding.

"We already have a water crisis in vast areas of the country, we’ve lost many lives to flooding this year alone, we have neighbouring countries facing imminent starvation as food reserves run out, we have out-of-control fires in several major African rain forests – and this is just some of the evidence that climate breakdown is progressing fast at the current level of warming."

Pretoria News