Is Climate Change Fanning the Flames?
Wildfires are a fact of life in Australia, owing to the country’s extremely dry climate and highly combustible vegetation (oil-rich eucalyptus forests). Australia’s history is unfortunately dotted with wildfire events such as Black Friday (1939) and Ash Wednesday (1983) that resulted in death and destruction.
But this week, Australia was hit with its most intense and deadly wildfires yet. Sweeping through towns in the state of Victoria, the wildfires left trails of soot, ashes and rubble. At last count, 173 people perished, thousands of families have lost their homes, and Australians around the country are stunned by the ferociousness and intensity of this latest round of wildfires.
While ordinary Australians are counting the toll of these latest fires, experts are turning to climate change to explain the altered nature, ferocity, and duration of the wildfires. Highlighting a once-in-a-century heatwave that sent temperatures soaring to 46 degrees Celsius (115 Fahrenheit), University of Sydney bushfire expert Mark Adams said he had “”¦never seen weather and other conditions as extreme as they were on Saturday, the fire weather was unprecedented.”
Unfortunately these conditions, which we consider unusual, might become commonplace as climate change continues. If that happens, Australia will be at risk of becoming even drier, with more frequent droughts and consistently higher temperatures.
(source)
Image: pagedooley
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2 Comments
February 12th, 2009 at 12:10 am
It is scary to see what is happening to Australia right now. I think that the world needs to join in and get educated on what they can do to make this world more sustainable in hopes to stop the effects of climate change. For instance there is a great book titled, “Agenda for a Sustainable America,” by John Dernbach that contains 28 substantive chapters that covers enough different subjects to make clear the general direction we need to go. And it provides a method for determining what we need to do in these other areas. This book should be used in high school, college, and graduate school classrooms all over the country.
February 16th, 2009 at 4:09 am
Thanks for reference Becky. Will have to see if my local library has a copy.
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