OF THE
TIMES
"There's no doubt that there's many people who have suffered over this summer. We talk about the Victorian bushfires; (in) my home state of Western Australia we've also got fires there," [Melissa Price] told Sky News this morning. "There's no doubt that climate change is having an impact on us. There's no denying that."Let's look at her home state. After 67 years of fire management in the giant, hot, dry state of WA, the trend is clear — the more prescribed area we burn, the less wildfire does. In the graph below the prescribed burns declined for forty years and wildfires increased for thirty. After the Dwellingup Fire in 1961 the state ramped up the preventative burns, and reduced wildfires.
Comment: 'Uncharted territory': Out-of-control bushfires rage across Australia's eastern regions
Meanwhile Sydney is facing a 'catastrophic' threat as the Australian state declares a wildfire emergency.
NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said 'It's going to be a long, difficult fire season,' adding about a million hectares of land had already been scorched in the biggest firefront ever recorded in Australia.