“Australia is experiencing its worst drought for over a hundred years and this, combined with record-breaking temperatures in the last few weeks, makes it hardly surprising that this season's wildfires are worse than anything that has gone before. With climate change models predicting an even drier and hotter Australia in coming decades, the scene could well be set for even worse to come.”That's the opinion of Professor Bill McGuire, Director of the Hazard Research Centre at University College London. What do people think - is Australia facing an increasingly fiery future?
Image: NASA
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6 comments:
Do these fires just start on their own or are they always induced by human activity? If the latter is the case then will global warming make much of a difference?
Unfortunately I think it is inevitable. You can't have temperatures like what Melbourne has seen in the last couple of weeks (reaching 45 -47 degrees Celsius) without an increased risk of bushfires. With such high temperatures, combined with longer lasting droughts, Australia affected by climate change will become a tinder box just waiting for a spark. I also think that this will mean that environmentally unfavourable, precautionary practices, such as back burning and bulldozing firebreaks, will have to become more standard to try and prevent such loss of life in the future.
Then perhaps Australia needs to return to Aboriginal forest management - http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/09/fire-australia-aborigine
There is a lot of merit to that thought. Particularly when you realise that most of Australia's native flora is very well adapted to fires. Many indigenous species have their seeds in hard cases that only open with the heat of a fire. Perhaps it's time to stop fighting fires, and start working with them.
http://www.wetlandcare.com.au/Content/articlefiles/674-Fire.pdf
Most of Australia's fires do start naturally from lightning strikes from summer thunder storms, but sadly many are started by arsons. Some people think as many as half the current fires could have been deliberately started.
Humans can also start fires unintentionally but carelessly. Stray cigarette butts have been known to start bushfires as well as bottles left in the bush, which can magnify the sun and spark a fire.
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