The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, dubbed the’ Black Summer’ began with several serious uncontrolled fires in June 2019, which peaked in December/January, with hundreds of fires across Australia’s six states. The fires burnt an estimated 18.6 million hectares of land ( 186,000 square kilometres), destroying over 2500 homes and killing at least 34 people. An estimated one billion animals have been killed as a result of the fires, driving some endangered species to extinction. Whilst the causes and contributing factors continue to be debated the economic, environmental and social effects will be felt for years to come as communities try to rebuild after the worse bushfires in over 45 years. This series is not only a vision of Australia facing the bushfires but also the environmental state of emergency in which the world is finding itself; global warming, extreme weather fronts and aggressive climate changes.

Since 9 June, Hong Kong has been plunged into a political crisis, with waves of demonstrations and several violent clashes between Police and protestors. What started as a protest against a proposed government extradition bill allowing citizens to be extradited to China has since morphed has since morphed into a wider call for democratic rights in the semi-autonomous city. Since the controversial extradition bill was withdrawn, protests continued with protestors calling for Chief Executive Carrie Lam to meet their remaining demands, which included an independent inquiry into police brutality, the retraction of the word 'riot' to describe protests, amnesty against prosecution for all those arrested, Carrie Lam's resignation and genuine universal suffrage in a call for true democratic rights.