Bungie steps up for Australia with t-shirts and helpful gamers
Amid crisis after crisis, video game company Bungie Studios has stepped up its philanthropy efforts for Australia with t-shirts. Bungie Foundation had been selling t-shirts during the month of January of this year, intending to donate all profits to the NSW Rural Fire Service and WIRES non-profit organizations to help with relief efforts for the devastating bush fires ravaging southern Australia. Bungie Foundation is the non-profit wing of the video game developer Bungie Studios, and they ended this specific campaign on February 18, announcing a total of $1 million (approximately 1.6 million AUD) raised for relief.
The campaign was titled “Guardians for Australia” after Bungie Studio’s popular online game Destiny 2, in which the playable character is known as a Guardian and defender of Earth’s last city. The t-shirts sold featured a scene of what looks like a kangaroo perched amid a grassy field with a Guardian’s starship flying overhead and the shattered Traveler in the background (Destiny players will understand that reference). 75,000 t-shirts were sold and are now being mailed to helpful gamers around the world who will be stepping up with their very own Guardian t-shirt.
Since January of 2020, more than 27.2 million acres of land have been devastated by wildfires in Australia. Today, more than 50 fires are still burning in the states of New South Wales and Victoria. At least 33 people have been killed, including the brave firefighters combating this crisis. New South Wales and Victoria have been the states worst affected by the wildfires with over 2,000 homes destroyed and thousands of people fleeing as refugees within their own country.
According to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, the country’s average temperature has increased by approximately one degree Celsius since 1910, with most of the warming occurring since 1950. Australia also experienced two record-breaking temperature highs last December. Climate scientists fear that heatwaves such as these are only becoming more frequent in the future.
