Recent climate change has not caused Australian bushfires. Besides the fact that many of the fires are set by people, either intentionally or by accident, a major cause of Australia’s fire problem has been the high “fuel loads:” underbrush that, left to accumulate over years, acts as a tinder box for bushfires.
Craig Kelly, Liberal member for Hughes, New South Wales, in the Australian House of Representatives, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain on January 6: “Now, we have record fuel loads on the ground, … and every single royal commission we have had from our past bushfires have said that we have to reduce those fuel loads. And that is the main issue. And yet we have failed to do so.”
