Friday, January 10, 2020
Concerts Cancelled Australia Due To Ongoing Bushfires
www.ticketnews.com: Earlier this week, Cold Chisel’s show in Ruthergle, Victoria at the All Saints Estate on Tuesday had to be cancelled due to air quality on site. The EPA Victoria rated the air quality as “hazardous” due to bushfires in Albury, Wodonga, and surrounding areas. On Monday, they called-off Tuesday’s outside gig. The show’s promoter, Roundhouse Entertainment’s Michael Newton, said that while he was disappointed to cancel the show, he couldn’t ignore the unsafe conditions outside.
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7 comments:
The fires in Australia are terrifying and heartbreaking. Between the casualties of humans and animals alike, the loss of homes, and the environmental damage, I find myself feeling so incredibly helpless. Wildfires are not new to our society, and even when they raged along the coast of California, I still felt far removed from the issue. Now, with all of this happening on another continent, it does not even seem possible that something this destructive could ever happen. Reading this article about the cancellations of concerts speaks volumes to the disruption of everyday life. There are so many things that come with fire, including the things I mentioned at the beginning of this response. However, the reduction of air quality due to smoke is also a factor, and it is one that is not as blatant as the pictures of raging fires that are shared on social media. The fact that this is now AFFECTING social media (I am loosely connecting concert tours to social media here) is eye-opening.
The fires in Australia should not be regarded as a national issue, but rather as a global one. There is one world and we all share it. The online posts with numbers are frightening, but the ones that really resonate with me are the personal stories. When individuals begin to share how they've lost their home, or their school, or their whole neighborhood, the news becomes more humanized. Descriptions of red skies and the suffocation of smoke in urban areas is hard to imagine. These stories are what will move people the most because of our widespread desensitization to the bad news of the world. The fact that concerts are being cancelled reveals the scale of the disruption into the public's lives. Concerts may not appear to be the biggest issue at hand, but being that it is occurring all throughout the country, and not just in one isolated location is quite alarming.
Like Sidney and Ema have said the wildfires in Australia are devastating. We are finally seeing what is happening to our planet because of the choices humans have made. It is interesting to read about how concerts are being canceled because of the brush fires because I think there are a lot more pressing things to be addressed. It's interesting that this is what people are worried about (I get that this article is not saying that concerts being canceled are devastating) maybe if we spend more times addressing how bad it's getting before worrying about our weekend entertainment maybe we would be seeing more change in the world. Yes, this is happening on a completely different continent but this stuff is happening everywhere. Things are only going to get worse if we don't start changing our habits (on a small and large scale). Honestly, I think we need to forget about concerts being canceled and start focusing on fostering a future that allows humans to be alive to enjoy life in the future.
It is very interesting how the world reacts differently to disasters depending on who is being affected by them. For instance, when notre dame was burning, the millionaires of this world stepped up immediately, donating millions of dollars to help support the restoration of the extremely historic building. The Amazon was in flames recently, as well as Siberia. Both collection of fires destroyed massive amounts of land. The amazon fires claimed 2.2 million acres while the siberia fires 6.7 million. Both of these barely reached mainstream western news. Australia and California on the other hand, is and was all over every new outlet. This is good, because it brings awareness to the catastrophic disasters going on, but a lot of humanitarian critics will say it seems as if first world countries only care when it is directly affecting them. When indigenous people’s homes are burning, it is not so frontline news. Although, it does not help Brazil’s government wasn’t as cooperative and supportive of amazon conservation, this still seems to be an unfortunate trend in media coverage.
Whenever there is a documentary about climate change and they warn about horrific storms, flooding, and wildfires, it seems so far off. The past year has shown that the climate crises has arrived and is in full swing. We saw the effects when 85% of Venice flooded and now we are seeing Australia and its wildlife devastated.
One effect of the fires is a monetary loss, as is the case with the concerts in question. Although the loss from the few canceled concerts is nothing compared to the estimated loss of $110 billion dollars over the course of the fires so far (Accuweather).
I wonder if the way to promote action is through money. Often climate change is an issue fought with feelings (for instance when kids fight for climate change they hope to evoke a feeling in adults - “don’t leave your children to die on dying earth”). Currently, this message is having some positive effects, with many companies and individuals taking their own steps toward change, but it is not fast enough. According to a report (carbon majors report), 71% of the emissions from the last 30 years have been from only 100 companies. Its amazing how small 1 person and their reusable straw are in the scheme of things. If large corporations start to see how costly climate change is they may start to change. Honestly, I would like to see more publicity about economic losses like canceled concerts in the future which could publicize the negative economic effect of climate change, hopefully pushing a wider variety of individuals and companies to act.
The ongoing fires in Australia are unbelievably and outrageously devastating. But, like the other commenters before me have said, they are our fault. They may be deemed a “natural disaster” but there is nothing natural about a bushfire that rages for this ong and kills over one billion animals. Bushfires do naturally occur in small areas over short periods of time in order to restore nutrients to the ground and allow for stronger plants to regrow in that area. But human human environmental interference has escalated natural disasters tenfold. So concerts may be cancelled, along with thousands of other things. But this is an international issue that calls for the aid of everyone around the world. The world needs us to change our lifestyles completely. We need reliable renewable energy, we need environmentally conscious local farming. We need more public transportation that relies on renewable sources of energy. We need smaller living spaces and to slow population growth. The world needs to reassess the way of life. Climate change will not be stopped by metal straws. The change in life will need to reflect this change in the earth, and it needs to happen now.
The Australian wild fire are absolutely heart breaking. While we see huge wildfires near where I come from, and absolutely enormous ones not too far away, the United States has never experienced anything close to what Australia is experiencing right now. We have never been in a situation where we had to fear losing the majority of our land to a wildfire, or any natural disaster for that matter. While the loss of human life is still heart breaking, when we talk about loss of life, we must talk about animals that are being lost as well. On top of the of the 25 people that have been killed, over one billions animals have been killed, putting some species in danger of becoming nearly extinct. The United States must continue to support Australia as they continue their fight. Where it's monetary to int eh form of labor, I hope the U.S. is able to help.
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