An almost three-year drought over much of northern New South Wales has left the land tinder-dry leading to bushfires over nearly 230,000 acres causing birds to fall dead out of the sky and many homes to be razed to the ground.
The intensity of the fires has surprised firefighters.
“We’ve never seen this before. Fire weather has never been as severe this early in spring.”
Andrew Sturgess, an inspector in Queensland.
Two large fires located 430 miles north of Sydney have joined together to form a huge blaze.
“This is going to be a horrible bushfire season.”
Gladys Berejiklian, the New South Wales Premier.
The police believe that some of the fires had been started deliberately and satellite images showed smoke sweeping across the sea towards New Zealand.
Comment: the question is whether the intensity of these bushfires and the early arrival compared to previous years is indicative of global warming. That’s the $64,000 question. I am sure that some people think it is but is Australia doing anything to reduce their carbon footprint? And if so how much? Their famous Great Barrier Reef (the world’s largest coral reef system) is severely damaged by a rise in ocean temperature and is dying. That’s due to global warming isn’t it?
Ironically in 2016 the Daily Mail reported that bird of prey were deliberately starting bushfires by dropping burning twigs onto dry undergrowth.
