The Australian Bushfires have captured global attention because of their severity. How can we help all the way from San Antonio? Some of Trinity’s most passionate advocates suggested ways to get involved.

Emily Sammons, president of the Animal Welfare Club

“I would suggest donating to firefighters in Australia. Or if you’re really passionate about animals, donating to the different animal charities. I know there’s one called Wires that’s really popular and rehabilitating a lot of animals. Over the break, I joined a Facebook group, I think the animal rescue rehabilitation craft coalition, and it’s basically a bunch of people from around the world that are making crafts in need, like kangaroo pouches and things like that for endangered animals, or even the koala-knits. So if you’re able to make things, make things and send them because it’s always needed.”

Bella Spangher, president of Eco Allies

“I know there have been a lot of different companies who said they would donate some of their profits to the fires, but personally, I wouldn’t recommend that because those companies are still making revenue off it. It’s just easier for everyone involved. The companies can’t capitalize off the fires if you just donate straight to different organizations. So World Wildlife Fund is an obvious one, the Australian Red Cross. GIVIT which specifically helps individuals in desperate needs of specifics.

In Australia, unlike the U.S. they have no full-time firefighters, all of the people who are fighting those fires are volunteers. So people who have died, the firefighters, those people volunteered to do that and donating them and making sure they have plenty of resources to put out the fire is really important.”

Kelly Lyons, professor of biology

“What we need to be doing is small prescribed burns. We need to be on twenty-year intervals or something like that for some of these forest systems.

What we need to do is either go in and either clear by hand, like in parks where we can’t prescript burn, or we need to start putting fire on the ground. It’s going to be very, very expensive. This is not a minor problem.

Human’s have been through a lot, we did successfully reverse the ozone depletion through international treaties. That’s not completely fixed, but it’s mostly fixed, and places like Australia really benefited from that.”