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Editorial, Opinion

Experience does not pay tuition

by The McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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In exchange for another bullet point on their CVs, many McGill students feel pressured to take on underpaid positions. Participating in an on-campus club or as a non-executive in student government can require hours of labour without compensation. However, unpaid work becomes exploitative when students are expected to do the work of a full-time paid employee, without receiving the paycheck. Despite unpaid internships being illegal in Quebec, the Arts Internship Office (AIO) and some student groups such as the  Pre-Law Students’ Society have still promoted internships that pay students less than half of minimum wage, if anything at all. McGill has a responsibility to promote equal opportunities for all students, and this means supporting paid career experience, not unpaid internships.

A common justification for unpaid internships is that what students give up in income, they make up in experience. However, this notion puts already privileged individuals in an even more advantageous position while dismissing the realities of other students’ financial burdens. While learning skills might be useful in getting a job post-graduation, it will not pay for a student’s groceries, rent, or tuition now. Moreover, some students are also parents, who may have mortgages to pay and families to support. The idea that students should be willing to give up a paycheck for these positions closes off career experiences to people who cannot afford to lose hundreds of dollars per week, thus deepening economic divides on campus.

“While learning skills might be useful in getting a job post-graduation, it will not pay for a student’s groceries, rent, or tuition now.”

Finances aside, unpaid internships can be incredibly demoralizing. Working overtime to balance unpaid labour with a paid position can lead to exhaustion and burnout, and seeing one’s contributions go uncredited and uncompensated can take a toll on students’ sense of self-worth. Moreover, when students are not recognized as paid employees, they can fall outside the safety net of labour law protection. In November 2018, 54,000 students took part in a week-long protest against mandatory unpaid internships across Quebec citing a need for legal protection as a main concern.

In addition to giving up valuable time, students are expected to pay for their internship credits. Students in the School of Social Work are expected to complete 800 hours of unpaid labour in order to graduate. Faculty of Arts students can also use unpaid internships with written requirements for credit. In both scenarios, McGill makes students pay to work by denying them income and then charging them to have their work recognized as credit.

While unpaid internships unfairly exploit student labour, many organizations and professional fields rely on this free labour to keep running. Some grassroots organizations and nonprofits cannot afford to hire interns. Inversely, student positions in fields such as engineering are paid generously, while full-time social work jobs receive no funding. For students to make a livable wage, institutions like the Quebec government and McGill need to reach an agreement that makes it clear that these fields, and student workers, are worth investing in, and thus need to be compensated. 

As an educational institution, McGill has a responsibility to make sure its students receive a proper education. Funding internships in the field of social work and arts would ensure that all students have the opportunity to gain experience without sacrificing much-needed income. Additionally, despite being a leading Canadian university, McGill has yet to develop a co–op education program, an opportunity that other universities across the country have offered for years. Co-op programs coordinate paid employment positions that provide students an opportunity to apply knowledge from their courses in the workplace. Students need work experience in order to succeed post-graduation. However, McGill continues to refrain from making work experience a graduation requirement. In doing so, they avoid the responsibility of finding paid work options for students. 

McGill should prioritize broadening the paid work opportunities for students in all faculties. This means providing more extensive job listings on the Career Planning Services website, offering comprehensive career option documents, and developing co-op programs in all faculties such as those available at dozens of other universities nation-wide. Currently, only students who have exhausted their student loans are eligible for McGill’s Work Study Program. McGill should expand this program to be available to more students regardless of their financial resources. Finally, given the unequal nature of unpaid and under internships, the AIO and McGill student groups should also immediately remove all postings for jobs that pay less than minimum wage. Getting work experience should not mean sacrificing rent or grocery money.

Off the Board, Opinion

The consequences of “locker room talk”

by Ender McDuff on

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Content warning: Mentions of sexual violence

From where he was standing, he could not see me. All he saw was a young woman, possibly alone, sitting inside Juliette et Chocolat, enjoying a dessert. She was not making eye contact or flirting. She was just sitting. That is when he, the man looking at her, decided to repeatedly tap on the window, mimic sexual intercourse, and shove his phone against the pane in some perverted attempt at courtship. This was the first time I had ever witnessed the sexual violence that my girlfriend, and all feminine-presenting people, experience in their lives every day.

When I was in middle school, I generally spent recess alone, avoiding my peers’ conversations. That was partly because I disliked what some of my male classmates talked about: They ranked the girls in our class based on appearance and bullied those they deemed less attractive. I knew this was wrong, but it was easier to avoid it than to intervene, so that’s what I did. I never said anything. 

When I was in high school, I was a member of the varsity basketball team, and I thought it was important to maintain amicable relationships with my teammates to preserve my position within the group. That is why, when one of my teammates began circulating a female classmate’s nude photos without her consent in the team’s group chat, I again said nothing. I was always a passive bystander.

When I was in my senior year, Donald Trump was revealed to have said, among other disgusting things, that he considered women to be objects for his own pleasure and that he could treat women without regard for their humanity because he was a “star.” A month later, my country elected him as President. His opponent, Hillary Clinton, faced immense structural sexism in how the media covered her campaign and the scrutiny that she faced. As a result, Trump was elected despite a litany of sexual violence allegations and the Access Hollywood Tape, which his defenders and supporters termed “locker room talk.”

But for women, these actions are so much more than cheap talk. They are the foundational blocks of a permissive society wherein men can objectify and harass women, while negating their ambitions, accomplishments, and humanity. 81 per cent of women experience some form of sexual violence, a deeply dehumanizing experience, and 75 per cent of those who are harassed and speak out experience some form of retaliation. There are real consequences to locker room talk—the same talk that begins with boys ranking girls and sharing their nudes, which are both examples of sexual violence. 

It is easy for men to miss seeing these consequences, precisely because when men are present, they do not occur. When a woman is without a man, our society has taught men that she is not so much an independent agent as she is “fair game.” In effect, men are to be respected, while the respect afforded to a woman is dependent on her immediate relationship to a man. 

That is why, on that dreadful night at Juliette et Chocolat, the harasser only stopped his movements when I came around the wall to reveal myself, standing by my girlfriend’s side. He and his friends were stunned because they knew that they had been caught. And in knowing that they were caught, each revealed that, deep down, they knew what was happening was wrong. I shouldn’t have had to be there from them to know they were being violent. And yet, like me in middle and high school, no one had said anything. 

Being an active bystander is far from easy, especially when it means telling a friend that they are wrong. But it cannot take getting caught, or watching those we love get harrassed, for us to speak out for what is right. As men, we must all do better to hold one another accountable for the way we talk about and treat women. For, until we do, the society men have created, permissive of everything from casual harassment to a rapist in the White House, will go unchanged. 

 

Commentary, Opinion

McGill’s medical note policy makes students sacrifice health for grades

by Nimra Maniar on

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After sitting in the Montreal General Hospital for the sixth hour in a row, tired, and with a sprained foot, I asked the receptionist how long it would take for the doctor to see me. She replied that there was only one doctor working that weekend, and that I would probably have to wait until the next morning. I decided to leave, as staying overnight for treatment did not seem to be worth it. This experience left me thinking about the difficulty of receiving medical attention, and how professors should acknowledge these institutional barriers by being more lenient towards exam deferral.

Countless university students deal with medical issues, from physical injury to mental illness. Often, these issues translate to students being unable to perform well on exams, not because of their inability to understand the material, but simply because they are not physically or mentally capable of doing their best. To avoid hurting their grade in a given course, students have the option of deferring an exam, given that they provide reasonable medical documentation. is where the problem lies. Often times, students are unable to acquire medical documentation due to the long waiting times and overcrowding present at public hospitals and, more specifically, the McGill Wellness Hub. Students’ dissatisfied reviews illustrate just how frustrated students are with its incompetency. There are simply not enough doctors or resources available to tend to all those in need, and free healthcare sometimes comes with the risk of not being seen by a professional at all.

 The McGill clinic officially operates from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. However, students know that if they do not arrive before 8 am, their chances of being seen by a doctor are slim to none, as drop-in spots fill up quickly. Moreover, the clinic only operates on weekdays, so if one happens to fall sick after 8 am or on a weekend, they have to either treat themselves or go to one of Montreal’s emergency rooms (ERs). At the ER, the situation is even worse, with wait times of several hours, and people being seen according to their priority, rather than first-come-first-served. This means many students have to wait longer than those who arrive after them if their condition is not deemed serious enough.

Some institutions have taken note of this unfair policy of conditional exam deferral, including the University of Calgary, which recently passed a regulation stating that students would no longer need to present a medical note to be excused from exams. Adopting such a policy takes the pressure off students to frantically try and get a medical note before their exam takes place, fearing their deferral request may not be approved. Professors at McGill should develop a more trusting relationship with their students, believing them when they claim they have medical issues, rather than being skeptical.

There may be some students who take advantage of a more lenient policy, and use it to miss exams, not because of a valid medical reason, but simply because they procrastinated studying. Hence, instead of banning medical notes altogether, McGill should give more leeway and accommodations to its students in the time they can take to provide medical notes, rather than demanding them on the day of or a few days before an exam. This way students can feel they are in a safe environment, where their mental and physical health is valued, instead of constantly trying to prove that they have a ‘valid’ reason to be excused from exams.

In the long term, McGill’s administration needs to re-evaluate its business model and address students’ ongoing concern of a lack of availability of timely treatment coupled with poor accommodation for exams. This can create a system where students can thrive and are not forced to sacrifice their health for grades.

 

Commentary, Opinion

Make mentorship at McGill more accessible

by Eve Cable on

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On Jan. 3, a McGill graduate student posted on Reddit to bemoan the lack of opportunities to connect with and mentor undergraduate students. Some commented that more casual connections would be better than none, and others pointed out that while social distance is natural between graduate and undergraduate students, there should be more professional room for mentorship within McGill. However, the problem has less to do with the lack of mentorship opportunities available, and rather with the barriers that prevent so many students from taking advantage of potential resources. Accessibility barriers blight potential mentorship opportunities at McGill, with difficult or non-functional online applications creating problems for students before the process even begins. While other faculty or society-specific mentorship programs are well developed, they present other hurdles, such as requiring extensive experience or significant financial commitment, meaning that the actual pool of mentorship opportunities for current McGill students is extremely limited. 

One such program that is poorly advertised, underused, and functionally inaccessible is the main Career Planning Service (CaPS) Mentorship program, which claims to offer the possibility of real world experience and mentorship. The site states that students can browse potential mentors on the ‘Join Now’ tab, but unsurprisingly, there is not a massive database of potential mentors waiting to be linked with hopeful mentees. Instead, expectant students are greeted with a yellow box familiar to many broken McGill pages, stating that the application is ‘temporarily unavailable due to database maintenance’.

This obstacle means that the only other options for McGill students to access CaPS’s program is to either contact the Mentor Program Coordinator via email or to go to CaPS in person. This restricts students and hugely decreases the accessibility of the program, since students nervous about applying or who suffer from physical or mental barriers that might deter them from attending in person will be less likely to apply to the program. 

The general McGill page for mentoring highlights a number of buddy programs, including the International Buddy Program, and faculty-specific programs such as the NUM Buddy Program. These programs are hugely valuable, and can be mutually beneficial to many students at McGill, but are different to what students and alumni are asking of a mentorship program—a way to connect people that is beyond the experience of solely current students. McGill is relying on its own students to support their peers, rather than helping students through their own resources, fostering a belief that buddy programs can replace a real effort to connect alumni with undergrads. 

Valuable mentorship opportunities exist within organisations that are either exclusive in terms of long and demanding applications or financial obligation. Some of these organisations are phenomenal, and connect inspiring alumni to current students, such as McGill Women in Leadership. Understandably this requires extensive experience given that it is a high demand co-curricular club, rather than a university mandated careers program intended to be accessible to everyone. There are also organisations that are merit-based, like the Golden Key International Honour Association, but come with a catch that requires that students pay a $90 fee to join. These exclusive opportunities shut many students out before they are even able to get their foot in the door. 

The problem at McGill is less of mentorship programs existing, and more that the programs available are plagued with countless bureaucratic hoops that students must jump through before they can even access the ‘Join Now’ page. This issue is yet another area of McGill student life that could be amazing, but instead is complicated by McGill bureaucracy, negatively impacting students and their future careers. Other campus organisations continue to offer better alternatives, but being inspired by alumni and taking advantage of what intelligent graduate students have to offer should not be a rare opportunity afforded to only those who know where to look, or who can afford membership fees. It should be an opportunity that everyone has access to, and a place where McGill alumni can show current students how to make the most of their degree. 

 

Letters to the Editor, Opinion

Letter to the Editor: On asking permission and giving credit

by Yasna Khademian, News Editor - The McGill Daily on

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In The McGill Tribune’s Jan. 21 editorial, a photo that I had taken earlier in the month at a demonstration was used to accompany the article, without my permission and without credit.

It is true that, at student publications, mistakes are often made, and without a journalism school at McGill, they are more likely to occur. I too am guilty of making journalistic errors. But, it is unacceptable to use a photo for an article without first asking for permission.

When a newspaper does not ask a photographer about using their photo and fails to credit them, especially when they display it as the symbol of an article with which the photographer may hold concerns, it feels really disrespectful. In a Facebook post summarizing the editorial, the Tribune purports an understanding that “it is imperative to highlight the experiences of McGill students who are directly affected by jarring political events,” yet the Board used my photo, that of an Iranian-American journalist–someone whose family is affected by the ramifications of the American government’s decisions and whose mental health has suffered this past month–without permission or credit.

Asking the photographer if they are comfortable with their image being displayed as the visual representation of an article is crucial. But, there is also more to it than showing respect and courtesy; without giving credit, it is plagiarism, and it is especially ironic given my lived experience and the Tribune’s claims to be uplifting marginalized voices.

In an industry that heavily underrepresents racialized women, it is imperative that publications, even student ones such as the Tribune, respect our work. It is not enough to claim that one supports marginalized peoples–it must be consistently demonstrated through concrete actions.

Features

Excluded voices

by Johanna Cline on

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It begins on the first day of the semester: The syllabus is monopolized by white men. When universities emphasize privileged voices, they dominate classroom conversations and textbooks, leaving little space for marginalized groups’ experiences. While academic institutions like McGill continue to enact policies against discrimination, these initiatives raise questions of what kinds of discrimination ought to be recognized within the university context.

Research Briefs, Science & Technology

Solving the mysteries of Earth’s Cryogenian ice age

by Ronny Litvack-Katzman on

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Typically, one wouldn’t think to ask a geologist about the most pressing issues in evolutionary biology. Yet, for some biologists, rock formations and fossil records—which have only gained the attention of natural scientists in the last 50 years—provide a plentiful source of untapped information about the history of life on Earth.

A recent study released in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences applies geological theory to questions of how some of Earth’s earliest eukaryotes—tiny, multicellular organisms—survived one of the coldest periods of Earth’s history. 

Using the presence of mineral deposits in rock formations across the globe, Maxwell Lechte, lead author of the study and postdoctoral fellow in McGill’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and his colleagues proved that liquid water containing a relatively high abundance of oxygen was present underneath the ice masses of what scientists now call ‘Snowball Earth.’ A tumultuous period in Earth’s geological history, Snowball Earth occurred over 700 million years ago during the Cryogenian ice age. During this period, ice was almost everywhere. The proliferation of ice masses across the globe caused the separation of the oceans from the atmosphere, blocking out the sun and plunging earth under ice sheets up to two miles thick. 

“Reconstructing ice ages using geology is quite a well-established technique because they are quite apparent in the geological record,” Lechte said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “Ice sheets are extremely powerful erosive forces […] and are quite distinctive in the rock record.” 

The eternal frigid waste of the Cryogenian Period presents a perplexing question for evolutionary biologists: How complex eukaryotic life, which requires oxygen to live, survived though 100 million years of frozen temperatures when the waters of the ocean contained little to no oxygen.  

Luckily for baffled biologists, a geologist was asking the same thing. 

“The question I was interested in is [was] what effect this would have on the biosphere,” Lechte said. “There is no doubt that covering the whole planet in ice would reduce the amount of habitable area.” 

Scientific consensus has approximated that complex eukaryotic life was first evolving around the same time that Earth was becoming covered in ice. 

“If you cover the whole oceans in ice, that separates them from the atmosphere, and so all these more complex life forms should have been killed off,” Lechte said. 

The authors assumed that since eukaryotes survived the ice age, complex life living underneath massive ice shelves must have gotten oxygen from a source other than the atmosphere. 

“Iron is soluble in sea water under anoxic conditions, so when there is no oxygen around, iron can dissolve,” Lechte said. “But as soon as you have any oxygen around, iron rusts out of the water and becomes insoluble and deposits out as solid iron oxides. The fact we had found all these [iron oxides] in glacial deposits suggests that something interesting was going on with oxygen.” 

From these observations, Lechte, along with researchers at the University of Melbourne, proposed that meltwater may be the key to supplementing oxygen to organisms living under the ice’s surface. They suggested that air bubbles from the atmosphere had become trapped in the ice shelves as they were forming. These air bubbles, which contained ample oxygen, then became a vital lifeline for marine eukaryotes that could survive off of meltwater that contained much higher levels of oxygen. 

The implication that oxygen stores could be found on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago is an invaluable link in the evolutionary chain of events. These questions about the long-term evolution of complex life date back as far as Darwin himself.

“A lot of our understanding of the past Earth is based on modern Earth,” Lechte said. “People historically have assumed Earth has just always been this way, but we have come to understand these changes as a recent phenomenon.”

 

Layers of iron-rich glacial deposits exposed in the desert illustrate the history of marine environments during Snowball Earth (Death Valley, California). (Maxwell Lechte / The McGill Tribune)

A small dropstone within marine sediments with red layers of iron oxides tells the tale of marine oxygenation during Snowball Earth (Ikara-Flinders Ranges, South Australia). (Ashleigh Hood / The McGill Tribune)

Sports

Mac campus culture on display at annual Woodsmen Competition

by Shaun Lalani on

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Battling frigid temperatures, the McGill Woodsmen team hosted the 60th Annual Macdonald Woodsmen Competition at Watson Field on McGill’s Macdonald Campus on Jan. 27. The event, which has become a staple of Mac campus culture over the years, was an exciting affair, with close to 160 participants competing in 14 action-packed events ranging from axe throwing to the singles water boil.  

The Macdonald Woodsmen Competition, which remains unknown to many downtown McGill students, is one of the four major tournaments held by the Canadian Intercollegiate Lumberjacking Association (CILA) for young lumberjacks across the country. The road to the competition is grueling, and participants put in strenuous hours of labour in the weeks leading up to the event. 

“It’s hard [because] we have practice every morning at 6 a.m.,” McGill Woodsman Gregoire Herzog said. “Before we go to school, we go and cut some wood. It’s cold, and it’s [the same] from Monday to Thursday. [But] that’s the thing; it’s hard to get people going, but I think what keeps them [coming] really are the bonds that you create.”

With anticipation in the air, the competition finally kicked off at 9 a.m., following the ceremonial first chop. The morning stages of the competition were structured to maintain a sense of perpetual action, with events occurring all around the audience. One could watch a Lumberjill swing her axe down on a log in the standing block chop, then walk across the field and find themselves enthralled by an intense round of pulp throwing, a timed event that entails throwing logs into a target. Events like the snowshoe race—a Mac Campus special—generated much excitement, with athletes running a tiresome 1.5 kilometers in a snow-covered field.

“You really gotta get used to [the snowshoes],” first-year woodswoman Lea Taillandier said. “First of all, it’s [a lot] harder than what [you would] expect. And [you] practice and practice and get a bit better, but still, it’s so, so hard. But it’s also so much fun [at the] same time.” 

Come afternoon, the athletes and the audience retreated to the cozy Ceilidh Bar to prepare for the second session. After a hearty meal of chili and sandwiches along with beer, the second phase of the competition got underway. Athletes were corralled into their respective groups and prepared for the final four events of the day.

The team-cross and swede-cut, two sawing events, came first, followed by the doubles underhand chop, then finally the singles water boil, a frantic race to build a fire capable of bringing a pot to simmer.

The McGill lumberjacks and lumberjills were impressive in their showing, leaving the audience buzzing by the display they had witnessed. To many Macdonald students, the event is a symbol of pride, etched in 60-years of tradition and history—a pride they are all too eager to share with their peers downtown. 

“Maybe [we] should rally up a petition, get the bus to come here [on Saturday],” first-year Woodsman Jacques Gross said. “I would really encourage [students downtown] to come down to our campus. I mean, we’re always having fun.”

Basketball, Sports

Remembering Kobe Bryant

by Ender McDuff on

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The basketball world is mourning the loss of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, 41, following the shocking news of his tragic death on Jan. 26 as a result of a helicopter crash. Eight other people died in the crash, including Kobe’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant.

The outpouring of love following the announcement of Kobe’s death speaks to the many connections he made around the league. Whether it be the fans he inspired or the players he influenced, everyone has their own Kobe story. For me, Kobe was a role model who, without ever knowing it, helped me overcome my performance anxiety and rediscover my love of basketball.

As a young teenager and aspiring athlete, I battled serious performance anxiety and perfectionism. Every missed shot was such a devastating blow that I began to suffer immense stress. The game began to lose its magic, and I was on the verge of giving it all up. But a quote from Kobe inspired me, rekindling my love of basketball and helping me overcome my mental blocks.

“If you miss the shot, you’ll still be here learning,” Bryant said in a 2013 interview. “You’ve been in moments where you missed a shot, but you’re okay [….] What you have to understand is that those pressures are self inflicted [….] You have to be able to control your mind and understand […] that pressure does not exist [….] We create pressure ourselves.”

Kobe introduced an entire generation of young athletes to the idea of sport as a mental game, which he called “Mamba Mentality.” And even beyond the court, combined with Kobe’s tireless work ethic and perseverance, this mindset inspired individuals from all walks of life to overcome their toughest challenges.

And yet, one serious decision marked Kobe’s life, for, in a City of Angels, he was not one. In 2003, Kobe was accused of raping a 19-year-old woman, and he admitted to cheating on his wife, Vanessa.   

But Kobe’s legacy challenges our understanding of whether someone is capable of redemption. Kobe’s growth as a human—famously symbolized by his switch from number eight to 24—was increasingly evident on the basketball court in his later years and in retirement. He was an extremely proud father of four girls, with whom he joyously shared the game of basketball. He also became an avid supporter of the WNBA, in which he hoped to see Gianna play one day, and an Oscar-winning storyteller.

The question that then remains is what legacy will Kobe leave behind? By what narrative will his six-month old daughter and namesake, Capri Kobe Bryant, know her father? The answer, as with the stories, will be informed by a multitude of personal experiences. To me, mixed somewhere alongside all the good and the bad, the answer is this: Kobe loved the game I love, more than anyone else. This love drove his singular pursuit of excellence, it informed the Mamba Mentality, and it is the reason Kobe touched the lives of more people than he could ever know.

As was poetically demonstrated by Kobe’s final public words the night prior to his death, in which he congratulated the Laker’s new star LeBron James on passing him on the all-time scoring list, the game will move forward. And yet, because of his unmatched love of the game, every time a kid shouts his name while shooting a balled up piece of paper into the recycling bin, Kobe’s legacy will forever live on as an integral part of basketball. 

Science & Technology

The Australian wildfire anomaly

by Madison McLauchlan on

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Every year, patches of Australian forests are consumed by fire, an ecologically necessary process that releases soil nutrients and stimulates plant growth. When the fire season is exacerbated by drought and high temperature, however, the devastation is so great that some citizens are forced to flee their homes. In the most extreme circumstances, natural habitats are ruined completely, even to the point of species extirpation. 

This year, these conditions converged in a perfect storm, ravaging large swaths of the Australian continent in dramatic wildfires. The scale of its current bushfire season is unprecedented: Almost 13,000 square kilometres have burned, taking the lives of 29 people and more than 800 million animals. 

Increases in the mean average temperature were a contributing factor to the bushfires’ severity, according to Morgan Crowley, a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill. 

“Bushfires are normal in Australia, but this fire season [is] exceptionally hot and dry […], which is why it is even longer and [more] dangerous,” Crowley said.  

Historically, such extreme weather patterns have arisen along with El Niño conditions, but this year is an exception. The El Niño Southern Oscillation is a climate phenomenon resulting in unusually warm water off the Pacific coast of South America, pushing hotter weather to the East. Although no El Niño has occurred this year, temperatures have continued to rise. Combined with the adverse effects of limited rainfall in Australia, these inconsistencies point to greenhouse gas emissions as a likely source for changing weather patterns. 

The disturbing relationship between climate change and Australia’s wildfires does not end there. Species struggling to deal with higher temperatures have been hit hardest by the flames. For example, efforts to protect the Kangaroo Island dunnart, a small marsupial, have been crushed by the recent blazes. After years of rebuilding their population, only one has been found alive. 

“One of the most devastating impacts of this fire season is […] that it is burning in species-rich areas,” Crowley said. “The fires are threatening many unique species that are not found outside of these areas.” 

Species such as the koala are especially threatened by the loss of habitat area. Since koalas are endemic to Australia, meaning they are native to the island continent and not found anywhere else in the world, populations will have a harder time recovering from the fires. Already, koalas have lost 30 per cent of their previous habitat area, taking the lives of more than 25,000 animals. 

Still, Australia’s rich biodiversity is thought to make its ecosystems more resilient, and able to bounce back from disturbances. Additionally, many species have evolved adaptations to frequent bushfires, like the eucalyptus plant that encases its seeds in woody capsules to protect them from intense heat.

Yet even species, such as birds and rodents, who previously managed to survive the blazes have found little respite from this year’s massive wildfires. Instead of burning in patches, the fires are all-encompassing, burning through animals’ familiar hiding spots. 

The reduction in disaster response funding from the Australian government has stretched resources thin. Both paid and volunteer firefighters all over the country have been putting their lives on the line to protect citizens and wildlife. At the same time, scientists around the world have employed fire visualization technology, such as MyFireWatch, to anticipate the spread of the blaze and its aftermath

“Mapping and analytical tools are already being used by firefighters and scientists to examine the active wildfires,” Crowley said. 

Researchers like Crowley are developing technology to map bushfires in real time and get the information to firefighters as quickly as 30 minutes after the fire is detected. 

“Eventually, when the Canadian ‘WildfireSat’ satellite is launched in 2024, […] it will hopefully be able to help the firefighters not only in Canada, but maybe eventually around the world,” Crowley said. 

Wildfires in California, Western Canada, and Australia in the past year have pushed scientists to become innovators of mapping technology and environmental preservation. The question remains, however, if governments will take appropriate action to reduce emissions, or if they will continue to add fuel to the fire. 

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