Climate is a “determining” factor in wildfires in Australia, according to a study

Australian public research scientists have pointed out that climate change is a “determining factor” leading to increasingly severe wildfires, which contradicts the government.

In a co-reviewed study, researchers at the state-run CSIRO looked at 90 years of data and concluded that climate change was a key factor behind megaphires such as the one that devastated Australia in 2019. -2020.

From the size of the dead plants in the ground to the humidity, weather and fire start conditions, experts studied the fire risk factors to determine what could lead to major fire accidents.

Pep Canadell, CSIRO’s head of fire research, said: “Although all eight factors of fire activity play a different role in influencing wildfires, the climate itself is a determining factor in fire operations.” Climate.

The results of the study were published on November 26 in the latest issue of the scientific journal Nature.

The Conservative government of Australia has repeatedly underestimated the role of climate change in the 2019-20 fire, which devastated the southeast coast and covered it with dense smog such as Sydney.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison stressed that wildfires are natural in Australia, pointing to forest management, especially the lack of brush removal.

But the researchers’ sample analysis failed to establish a statistical link between the fuel loads and the burned area.

Atmospheric events such as El Niோo or La Nina can affect changes in the intensity of wildfires annually, but researchers have found that nine of the eleven years of burning more than 500,000 km2 occurred with global warming since 2000. Accelerated.

They linked these events to “more dangerous and fire-friendly weather conditions,” such as fire-generated thunderstorms and dry lightning, “all of which are associated with varying degrees of anthropological climate change.”

The study found that the average burned area has increased by 800% over the past 20 years compared to previous decades.

In recent years, Australia has suffered from severe drought, wildfires and floods due to climate change.

The Australian government, however, refused to set a short-term emissions reduction target and promised to be one of the largest exporters of gas and coal.