“How can we sleep while our beds are burning” are the lyrics from a Midnight Oil song, a popular band in the land down under. Now, it feels like those words are a prophecy, with many Australians having lost their homes in the country’s worst-ever bushfire season on record.
Amongst the tragedy has been beauty, with people across Australia and the world banding together to support those fighting and affected by the fires. Among those supporting the cause are Australian brokers Invast Global and Pepperstone.
Invast Global’s contributions
Prime broker Invast Global has announced this week that it will donate 100 percent of the trading commission generated on Friday the 31st of January 2020 to the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS).
Gavin White, the CEO of Invast Global
Commenting on the donation, Gavin White, CEO of Invast Global said in a press release: “We have had an amazing response from our brokerage clients who are spread all over the world. They are all getting behind this and I’m hopeful we can get a great result, to support the incredible volunteers who have fought these fires with such dedication and selflessness – and also to help provide comfort to the unfortunate victims of the disaster.
“It is a humbling experience to see how much the rest of the world is taking notice of the tragedy unfolding Down Under. Some of the most supportive of our clients are based on the other side of the world, with many never having been to Australia – yet they are pledging strong support to Charity Day.”
Pepperstone helps out
Pepperstone, an Australian forex broker, has also donated to the cause. In particular, the broker has donated $50,000 to the Victoria Country Fire Authority Bushfire Disaster Appeal and, according to a LinkedIn post by the broker's CEO, Tamas Szabo, earlier this week, Pepperstone will match every team member’s donation to any bushfire-related charity over the next six weeks.
Destruction and death
Typically, the Australian bushfire season spans from January until March, the hottest months of the year. But Aussies have been plagued by bushfire after bushfire since September of 2019, affecting every single state and territory of Australia (seven states and two territories).
To date, 27 people have been killed by the fires that have burned more than 10 million hectares and destroyed 2,100 homes. Given that we’ve only just started summer, the situation isn't likely to get better any time soon, with little rain forecast.
Not only that, but more than an estimated 400 million animals have been killed, with the fires largely devastating the country’s Koala population. To get an idea of the seriousness of the fires - the area already burnt is more than triple the size of the land destroyed by the 2018 California Fires and six times the size of the 2019 fires in the Amazon Rainforest.
