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Setting the Record Straight on Climate Change and Arson in Australia’s Bushfires

Quick Take

Various claims online suggest that climate change hasn’t contributed to the bushfires ravaging the East Coast of Australia, pinning the blame instead on arson. Those claims distort the facts.


Full Story

Several recent reports have found that climate change is contributing to the hot, dry conditions that fuel the kind of fires currently raging up the East Coast of Australia. But claims that climate change played no role in those bushfires have been proliferating online.

This map from Geoscience Australia shows the hot spots across Australia on Jan. 14, 2020.

For example, a from the conservative content generator  has been   on Jan. 7. The text in the video claims: “The popular narrative is that Australia’s fires are caused by climate change. But the facts say otherwise… Since November 8, 2019, nearly 200 arsonists have been arrested for starting brush fires in Australia. The arsonists were responsible for about 50% of the bushfires. Not climate change. Arsonists. Repeat that: Not climate change. Arsonists. But the left

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