A University of Sydney and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)’s report released on the impacts of the Black Summer fires from 2019 to 2020 has found the fires cost the Australian agriculture sector billions of dollars. The Fire on the Farm report (pdf), released, Dec. 13, estimated the bushfires fires— which burnt up to 2.628 million hectares or slightly less than 1 percent of all agricultural land in Australia—cost the agricultural sector up to $5 billion (US$3.5 billion) with the total damages around 6 to 8 percent of Australia’s agricultural GDP. The fires claimed 33 lives, but with the smoke inhalation, they are estimated to have contributed to up to 445 premature deaths. It is also estimated that $279 million in losses was due to fire-related health impacts suffered by farmers and other food workers. The report estimated that the farm property, infrastructure and the land alone suffered …
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