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Scientists say climate change link to bushfires demands action

Posted October 21, 2013 20:43:00

With claims that current climate policies would lead to more bushfires, Deputy Greens Leader Adam Bandt was accused of politicising the a natural disaster, but scientists say the link between global warming and fires is established and demands action.

Source: 7.30 | Duration: 7min 11sec

Topics: bushfire, nsw


ANNABEL CRABB, PRESENTER: Behind the fire fronts, a secondary battle is underway, a political dispute about the links between climate change, extreme weather and bushfires.

Deputy Greens Leader Adam Bandt started it with a tweet claiming that the Abbott Government's climate policies would lead to more bushfires in future. Accusations flew that he was politicising the natural disaster.

Scientists told 7.30 the science is in, the link between global warming and bushfires has been established and it's time for action.

Tracy Bowden reports.

TRACY BOWDEN, REPORTER: Fire storms in October. Scorchingly hot, dry, windy days and warnings of more to come. Is this climate change in action?

JOHN CONNOR, CEO, THE CLIMATE INSTITUTE: Carbon pollution is a heat-trapping greenhouse gas that is like putting the weather on steroids. It drives the greater extremes. It's not just warmer weather, it's wilder weather.

ADAM BANDT, GREENS DEPUTY LEADER: It's October and we're having a tragic bushfire, and meanwhile, Tony Abbott and his ministers have been out every day this week saying that they're going to take Australia backwards when it comes to combatting global warming.

TRACY BOWDEN: As the inferno raged, Deputy Greens Leader Adam Bandt sparked a political firestorm. He took to social media, pointing to an article in which he said Tony Abbott's plan means more bushfires for Australia.

ADAM BANDT: Given that Parliament's about to resume shortly and global warming is on the agenda for debate, we should be talking about how we as politicians can do everything we can to protect the Australian way of life.

TRACY BOWDEN: Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt has been reluctant to discuss any link between climate change and the current bushfires.

GREG HUNT, ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: There are 2,000-odd firefighters in the field as we speak. There have been over 200 homes lost and of course a terrible tragedy on the Central Coast. No-one, no-one should be politicising these bushfires and I would say that respectfully to the gentleman in question.

DON HENRY, AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATION FOUNDATION: Well I actually don't think it should be political that we have to get on with the job of cutting our pollution that's driving climate extremes.

TRACY BOWDEN: The recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned of exactly the kind of conditions which struck last week: more extreme heat in Australia and more bushfires.

ANDY PITMAN, CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE FOR CLIMATE SYSTEM SCIENCE: We have had fires historically this early before, but I think the difference this time is that we've just gone through a winter that is unprecedentedly warm.

TRACY BOWDEN: Climate scientist Andy Pitman says the science is becoming clearer.

ANDY PITMAN: It's not about the day or the day before the bushfire. It's about the three or four months of winter that were enormously warm in part due to global warming leading to an environment particularly conducive to fire.

TRACY BOWDEN: Does that mean this is a sign of things to come?

ANDY PITMAN: If we continue to emit nine or 9.5 billion tonnes of CO2 as a species into the atmosphere each year, it is inevitable that temperature extremes will continue to rise and mean temperatures will continue to rise.

DON HENRY: We should be asking our Parliament and all parliamentarians to have strong laws in place to cut pollution.

TRACY BOWDEN: Despite the science, there have been cutbacks at national and state levels in resources to research and prepare for the impact of climate change.

DON HENRY: We're worried about cuts to state bureaucracies in New South Wales, but also in Queensland and Victoria, by the way. We are seeing less investment in the science that's helping us understand the potential impacts of climate change and what we've got to do to reduce the risk to people and the environment. So that's the wrong way. We should be investing more.

JOHN CONNOR: I think there's a real problem at state and national levels of both political persuasions. We've been walking backwards into this century of climate change. We're pretending mostly that we're not going to see much in the way of warming.

TRACY BOWDEN: CEO of the Climate Institute John Connor says Australia needs to start planning for the impact of global warming.

JOHN CONNOR: Unfortunately, I think we've been caught up in this toxic political battle and actually haven't stepped back and had a look at the big picture. And I think the climate risks are real, they are growing. we need to face up to them, we need to actually better prepare for them, we need plans at national and state levels to actually look at the real scenarios of two degrees warming, the potential and quite real scenarios of four degrees warming. We need to build that into our planning, approval, resourcing stages across the board.

DAVID PACKHAM, BUSHFIRE MANAGEMENT RESEARCHER: These type of fires, very extensive lines of fire for 100 or so kilometres in the Blue Mountains, they turn up about every 10 or 20 years, right back since, ooh, 1912, I think records started.

TRACY BOWDEN: After studying bushfire management for half a century, David Packham is not convinced about the impact of climate change. He believes the problem is not in the atmosphere, but on the ground and is calling for a much more vigorous approach to fuel reduction.

DAVID PACKHAM: It has got to be increased about 10 times. If 10 times is a bit too much to swallow, we'll improve things from about a five times increase to what we've got now.

TRACY BOWDEN: Not all scientists agree.

ANDY PITMAN: We saw in the last few days fires spotting kilometres, many kilometres ahead of the fire front, and you cannot clear the bush to 10 kilometres from any house in Australia. And in fact the emergency services and bushfire organisations have been extremely pro-active in doing hazard reduction.

TRACY BOWDEN: And climate scientist Andy Pitman points to another problem.

ANDY PITMAN: The period for hazard reduction is getting shorter and shorter. The winter's getting warmer. They've been very dry. It's a limited opportunity for them to actually do that hazard reduction work.

TRACY BOWDEN: While the long-term picture for Australia is one of even more extreme conditions, the immediate concern is this bushfire season, with predictions of many more battles ahead in the coming months.

JOHN CONNOR: We're going to see more of these extreme fire weather danger days in future and the task ahead is to reduce the risk of those through better preparation, but also by participating in the global solution and having a credible plan.

ANNABEL CRABB: Tracy Bowden reporting.