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Writing the 49th UPU Letter in 2020 on Forest Fires
Letter to Australian Firefighters
Witnessing the dedicated image of the koala bear sipping water truly leaves a lasting impression on many, including me, an ordinary middle school student in Vietnam. As someone directly involved in firefighting efforts, surely you've seen firsthand the consequences of the recent bushfires in Australia on the nation's ecosystem.
From what I've gathered, tens of millions of hectares of forests have been ravaged, thousands of homes destroyed, approximately 1 billion wildlife perished, and several rare species pushed to the brink of extinction. Most heart-wrenching is the loss of over 30 lives in the Australian bushfires, including firefighters and pilots involved in the firefighting efforts.
During the inferno, air quality plummeted to hazardous levels, with smoke from the bushfires traveling 11,000 km across the Pacific to reach Chile and Argentina. NASA once estimated over 300 million tons of CO2 emissions from the fires. The damages caused by the wildfires are immeasurable.
It's truly alarming that in recent times, large-scale forest fires have shown an increasing trend, exemplified by the Amazon rainforest wildfires, the world's largest 'green lungs,' in 2019. Brazil bore the initial brunt, followed by neighboring countries, and eventually, the whole world felt the impact.
Vietnam, my homeland, also witnessed a significant forest fire in Ha Tinh province last year, consuming countless human resources and efforts to contain and extinguish.
In such forest fires, the causes often stem from human actions, either unintentional or due to reckless habits like slash-and-burn farming. Such actions should have been prevented to avoid the catastrophic consequences of these dreadful wildfires.
Moreover, prolonged abnormal heatwaves stemming from climate change are also contributing factors to forest fires, and recent natural disasters should serve as a wake-up call for us to pay more attention to protecting the environment and ecosystem as a whole.
In the age of the Internet, where everyone can witness the profound consequences of wildfires, such as the famous image of the koala during the Australian bushfires, environmental awareness is expected to soar like never before.
Wishing our firefighters no longer have to face unequal battles against the raging infernos as they have recently endured.
Amidst the recent Australian bushfire catastrophe, a student wrote a letter to firefighters expressing sympathy for the aftermath of the wildfires and calling for heightened environmental consciousness. Exploring the theme of environmental protection, the 49th UPU Letter-Writing Competition in 2020 on the Environment serves as valuable reference material, alongside the 49th UPU Letter-Writing Competition in 2020 - Message to Adults on Covid-19, a pandemic currently under intense scrutiny.
