2020 by the Young Diplomats Society
2020 - what a year. Our regional content writers and special contributors recapped significant moments of 2020 across the world in our annual special edition: 2020 In Review. COVID-19 responses across the world, post-election protests in almost every continent, catastrophic natural disasters and the most exciting emerging world leaders. Unprecedented. The New Normal. A Year for the History Books. 2020 certainly packed a punch! We hope you enjoy reading about this year of surprises with us. Thank you to our regional content writers and special contributors!
2020 - what a year. Our regional content writers and special contributors recapped significant moments of 2020 across the world in our annual special edition: 2020 In Review.
COVID-19 responses across the world, post-election protests in almost every continent, catastrophic natural disasters and the most exciting emerging world leaders. Unprecedented. The New Normal. A Year for the History Books. 2020 certainly packed a punch!
We hope you enjoy reading about this year of surprises with us. Thank you to our regional content writers and special contributors!
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B L A C K S U M M E R
Australia began the new year in the intense lingering smoke of the 2019 bushfire season. The
2019-20 bushfire season, now commonly known as ‘Black Summer’, was a devastating period of
unprecedented bushfires that burned through 18,636,079 hectares of land. January 1, 2020
marked one of the worst days of the bushfire season with out-of-control bushfire prompting the
evacuation of residents on New South Wales’ South Coast and Victoria’s East Coast. Images of
bright red skies and trapped residents huddled onto beaches surfaced in the morning of the new
year -- the devastation punctuated by the, now iconic, image of a young girl steering a boat off
the coast of Mallacoota.
The nation’s Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, stumbled into the new year with a damaged
reputation after taking an ill-timed holiday in December of 2019. The Prime Minister angered
many in the country with his New Years’ address reminding Australians that “there’s no better
place to raise kids anywhere on the planet.” Morrison’s approach to the bushfire season and
residents of bushfire affected areas, including one blistering incident where he forcibly shook an
angry Cobargo resident’s hand, saw him swiped with a barrage of criticisms and public outrage.
For Australians, Black Summer brought the issue of climate change and issues of climate
inaction into sharper focus. As the year unfolded, reports of the Federal government’s failure to
heed warnings of the increased bushfire risks ushered a wave of condemnation for Morrison’s
‘business as usual’ approach to climate policy.
Throughout Black Summer, Morrison was resistant to talking about climate change focusing
instead on applauding the ‘Aussie spirit’ of resilience and hard work. On the eve of the new year,
Morrison stated, “we have faced these disasters before and we have prevailed, we have
overcome… that is the spirit of Australians, that is the spirit that is on display, that is a spirit
that we can celebrate as Australians.” Political commentators were quick to denounce such
patriotic rally-crying as a convenient way to bypass more challenging conversations about
Australia’s climate policies and emissions reductions targets.
18,636,079
hectares
3,500
HOMES
3 billion
animals
34 people
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