Meghan And Harry Urge Fans To Contribute To Australian Bushfire Relief Efforts

by Kasia TruscottJanuary 7, 2020September 14, 2021

“This global environmental crisis has now been described as Ecocide. It’s easy to feel helpless, but there’s always a way to help”

Since September 2019, catastrophic wildfires have ravaged across the eastern and southern coasts of Australia. The infernos have since torn through more than 5 million hectares of land, claiming 25 human lives, over 1,500 homes and over half a billion animal lives, including the deaths of over 8,000 koalas.

Breaking their holiday silence to share their support for everyone affected by the devastating fires, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry urged fans to acknowledge the situation in Australia as “ecocide,” and to contribute to the plethora of fundraising efforts in the wake of Australia’s devastating wildfires.

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Our thoughts and prayers are with those across Australia who are continuing to face the devastating fires that have been raging for months. From areas we are personally connected to such as the communities and people we visited in New South Wales in 2018, to the fires in California and parts of Africa, we are struck by the increasingly overlapping presence of these environmental disasters, including of course the destruction of the Amazon which continues. This global environmental crisis has now been described as Ecocide. It’s easy to feel helpless, but there’s always a way to help. To find out how you can lend your support, please see the links below to help as we have. https://fundraise.redcross.org.au/drr (@redcrossau) https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/about-us/fundraising (@nswrfs) https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/about/supporting-cfa#donate-cfa Photo © @nswrfs / @dale_appleton / Jay Elai

A post shared by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (@sussexroyal) on Jan 4, 2020 at 11:48am PST

“We are struck by the increasingly overlapping presence of these environmental disasters, including of course the destruction of the Amazon which continues,” the Duke and Duchess wrote on Instagram.

“This global environmental crisis has now been described as Ecocide.”

The royal couple then proceeded to share links to the Australian Red Cross, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, and the Country Fire Authority, the latter of which is raising funds for the Victorian Bushfire Relief. “It’s easy to feel helpless, but there’s always a way to help,” the royal couple wrote.

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Australia is on fire. And the summer there has only just begun. 2019 was a year of record heat and record drought. Today the temperature outside Sydney was 48,9°C. 500 million (!!) animals are estimated dead because of the bushfires. Over 20 people have died and thousands of homes have burned to ground. The fires have spewed 2/3 of the nations national annual CO2 emissions, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The smoke has covered glaciers in distant New Zealand (!) making them warm and melt faster because of the albedo effect. And yet. All of this still has not resulted in any political action. Because we still fail to make the connection between the climate crisis and increased extreme weather events and nature disasters like the #AustraliaFires That has to change. And it has to change now. My thoughts are with the people of Australia and those affected by these devastating fires. (Photo: Matthew Abbott for The New York Times)

A post shared by Greta Thunberg (@gretathunberg) on Jan 4, 2020 at 10:12am PST