Johanson&Johnson earmarks $ 600,000 for Australia bushfire relief operations

20 / 01 / 2020

By Marwa Nassar - -

Johnson & Johnson has pledged $ 600,000 for relief efforts that are meat to make up for the destruction caused by the Australia bushfire.

Like many across the world, Johnson & Johnson has been deeply moved by the scale of the devastating bushfires that have swept Australia.

In response to the crisis, which began in September of last year, the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies ANZ initially contributed $50,000 to the Australian Red Cross Disaster Fund in November.

Since then, as the enormity of the disaster has dramatically increased, the organization has been in contact with its disaster relief partners to determine how best to further support their work, both now and during the recovery process.

To help do this, Johnson & Johnson is donating a total of $600,000 in financial support to the Australian Red Cross and St Vincent de Paul Society to aid people in the afflicted areas, as well as donating 200,000 units of personal care items in addition to its ongoing product donation program through Foodbank, an organization that helps fight hunger in Australia.

The company is also providing uncapped paid leave for employees who are volunteering with emergency services working to combat the fires and their destruction.

Johnson & Johnson’s thoughts are with those directly affected by these fires, as well as the brave firefighters, community groups involved in disaster relief efforts and all those volunteering in their communities.

“I’m proud to work at a company with a long history of providing assistance during disasters and an ongoing commitment to supporting the communities in which we live and work,” says Sue Martin, Managing Director, Australia & New Zealand, Johnson & Johnson Medical.

“We will continue to do all we can to support the affected communities now and in the coming months.”

Economic Impact of the fire:

The economic impact of the bushfires devastating Australia’s eastern seaboard is likely to exceed the record $4.4bn set by 2009’s Black Saturday blazes, Moody’s Analytics has said.

The Moody’s economist Katrina Ell said the bushfires would further cripple Australia’s already anaemic consumer confidence, increasing the chances of a rate cut next month, as well as causing damage to the economy through increased air pollution and direct harm to industries such as farming and tourism.

She said the risk of damage to the broader economy, outside areas ravaged by fire, was increased because the bushfire season still had months to run.

Impact of the fire on biodiversity:

Professor Christopher Dickman, from the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Science, has said the fire killed more than one billion animals.

Professor Dickman said, “I think there’s nothing quite to compare with the devastation that’s going on over such a large area so quickly. It’s a monstrous event in terms of geography and the number of individual animals affected.”

“We know that Australian biodiversity has been going down over the last several decades, and it’s probably fairly well known that Australia’s got the world’s highest rate of extinction for mammals. It’s events like this that may well hasten the extinction process for a range of other species. So, it’s a very sad time.”

“What we’re seeing are the effects of climate change. Sometimes, it’s said that Australia is the canary in the coal mine with the effects of climate change being seen here most severely and earliest… We’re probably looking at what climate change may look like for other parts of the world in the first stages in Australia at the moment,” said Professor Dickman from the Faculty of Science.