Australian fires #bbc #statistics #climate crisis
The news is currently full stories about the extensive fires on the Australian continent. Lots of huge numbers are flung around, left and right. One of them is the number of animals that have died due to the fires, which has been reported at an estimated half a billion, a whole billion, and lately one and half billion animals.
I have heard that Australia is huge, but that number is also quite large, especially when combined with pictures of the odd, sorry looking burned koala. My first thought was "are they including some kinds of insects?!"
Luckily the latest episode of the BBC programme "More or Less", which looks at statistics, starts with a story about where the number comes from and some discussion of how accurate it might be.
Take a listen: More or Less: Australian Animal Deaths, Carbon Emissions, Election Mystery.
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