As images of smoke-poisoned animals and dead koalas made headlines around the world in 2019, questions over whether the catastrophic fires were down to global warning or simply an unusually warm and dry summer were as much political as scientific. There were issues of fire management at play, fuel loads within forests left to grow wild or ordered in close plantation rows, and environments very different to the tended open forest and plains widespread before 1788, described by early white settlers as “having the appearance of a gentleman’s park”, with 10 to 12 massive trees per acre, canopies not touching, and fire a tool for regulation, not a force to be feared.
Any single event has multiple factors making a contribution. But in general terms the science is in. Global warming is accompanied by more extreme