Australia Fires Caused By Global Warming

Australias Hottest Summer on Record Consistent with Global Warming Epic Heat Wildfires Are Scorching Australian Landscape Aussie Heat Wave Nears 122F Severe Fire Threat Declared.

Australia fires caused by global warming. The race to decipher how climate change influenced Australias record fires. Global warming stresses ecosystems through temperature rises water shortages increased fire threats drought weed and pest invasions intense storm damage and salt invasion just to name a few. Human-caused climate change made southeastern Australias devastating wildfires during 20192020 at least 30 percent more likely to occur researchers report in.

Anthropogenic warming has worsened Australias fire risk by extending fire seasons increasing average temperature and drying the landscape. Global warming is an aspect of climate change referring to the long-term rise of the planets temperatures. Fires can be caused by lightning strikes during Australian summers or by man-made factors such as overhead power lines and arson.

At its height from 1963 to around 1985 very little was burned by wildfires but as more and more pressure mounted to suppress this practice more and more of Western Australia was burned over as shown dramatically in this. How Global Warming Helped Ignite One of Australias Worst Fire Seasons A firefighter works as a bushfirebelieved to have been sparked by a lightning strikeburns in Port Macquarie New South Wales Australia November 2 2019. It is caused by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere mainly from human activities such as burning fossil fuels deforestation and farming.

And yet addressing this reality by reducing emissions will offer little practical help to Australians who must gird themselves against the threat of more fires at least not for the foreseeable future. Human-caused climate change is worsening the wildfires scorching Australia experts say. In Australia there was a huge fire in the province of Western Australia in 1962 which led to a decades-long campaign of intense prescribed burning.

Global warming is a key factor - but not the only one. Record warmth and dryness last year led to a severe wildfire outbreak in Australia with an estimated 50 million acres burned including more than 16. Australia is becoming hotter and more prone to extreme heat bushfires droughts floods and longer fire seasons because of climate change.

In fact the research identifying a link between fires and climate change is old hat says Professor. Since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has experienced an increase of nearly 1 C in average annual temperatures with warming occurring at twice the rate over the past 50 years than in the previous 50 years. Since the mid-1990s southeast Australia has experienced a 15 decline in late autumn and early winter rainfall and a 25 decline in average rainfall in April and May.