Wildfires will get worse and more common

The recent spate of fires which have ravaged Victoria in Australia, have led to top researchers and scientists from the States carrying out new studies into why fires on this devastating scale are happening.

Australia has long been known for its bush fires, which sweep uncontrollably across the outback, swallowing up all of the vegetation and animal life in its path.

Indeed, these fires are necessary for the conservation of these habitats, as there are many species of plant and tree which rely on this natural ’stock rotation’, to regenerate.

However, naturally occurring though these fires are, there has been a marked increase in both the frequency of occurrence, and the amount of landspace which is affected, just over the past few decades.

The great loss of life and property, such as occurred in Victoria, is certainly not conducive with the fires that have occurred as nature intended, since time began.

Australia is not the only place in the world where these types of fires occur, although it is the most well known.

Other places which have natural conditions such as hot, dry, arid landscapes, and dry woody plants and trees are also prone to fire.

California and Africa are prime examples, while there are others all over the world.

After carrying out this research, it is believed that not only will wild fires increase, but they will also start affecting other areas of the planet.

It is also now believed that climate change has been instrumental in this.

Thriving on the warmer drier conditions caused by global warming, the fires themselves throw immeasurable amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, thereby themselves becoming a contributor to the global degeneration of the atmosphere.

Surprisingly though, despite the obvious effect that the climate has on the fires, and vice versa, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) does not even have a chapter on fire, and neither has fire ever been discussed in International debates on Global warming.

In just a couple of decades the world has warmed up significantly enough to increase the risk and intensity of wildfires.

The heatwave which caused the fire in Victoria this year occurred during a period which was twenty degrees Celsius higher than average.

This, coupled with the long, hot drought, the worst in Australia’s entire history in fact, is what caused and maintained the fire.

This is not however expected to be a one off; the twenty degree increase in temperature is exactly in line with the rapid warming, year after year, associated with climate change.

This consistent warming process is expected to continue, and scientists are expecting to see a significant increase and spreading of wild fires over as short a time as the next three decades.