Climate change has Australian wildfires 'running out of control,' experts say

https://news.yahoo.com/climate-change-australian-wildfires-running-195429696.html

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
,USA TODAY•January 8, 2020

Human-caused climate change is worsening the wildfires scorching Australia, experts say.

"Climate change is increasing bushfire risk in Australia by lengthening the fire season, decreasing precipitation and increasing temperature," according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

The unprecedented fires, which have killed at least 25 people and destroyed 2,000 homes, have been burning since September. In all, about 15 million acres have burned across the country, an area roughly the size of West Virginia.

While climate change might not ignite the fires, it is giving them the chance to turn into catastrophic blazes by creating warmer temperatures, increasing the amount of fuel (dried vegetation) available and reducing water availability because of higher evaporation, according to Climate Signals.

"There are many drivers of wildfires, but its increasingly clear that hotter, drier conditions play a big role in making them worse," said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, a climate research organization, in a tweet.

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"Australia has warmed by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since records began in 1910," tweeted Columbia University climate scientist Kate Marvel. "This makes heat waves and fires more likely. It's not the sun. It's not volcanoes. It's not 'natural cycles.'"

"There is no explanation for this – none – that makes sense besides emissions of heat-trapping gases," Marvel said.

Climate change is also making droughts more likely to occur – and more severe when they do – in Australia. While Australia is no stranger to drought, climate change has exacerbated drought conditions so that when droughts occur, the conditions are in a much hotter climate and, in some cases, with lower precipitation, according to Climate Signals.

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Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe explained in a tweet that "human-induced climate change is a threat multiplier. It takes existing risks and amplifies them beyond imagining, affecting every living thing on this planet, including us."