Sydney: Unprecedented bushfires in eastern Australia have turbocharged demands the country's conservative government do more to tackle climate change and have rekindled an ideological fight over the science behind the blazes.
The huge fires have touched communities up and down the east coast, killing four people and affecting millions of Australians -- threatening homes and blanketing major cities in hazardous smoke. For many, the scale and intensity of the conflagrations, weeks before the Australian summer, have brought the dangers of climate change home.
"The whole east coast is on fire," said Julie Jones, who almost lost her house in the Blue Mountains. "I think its climate change." A group of ex-fire chiefs on Thursday warned climate change is "supercharging" the bushfire problem and they challenged Prime Minister Scott Morrison over his failure to confront the issue.
"I am fundamentally concerned about the impact and the damage coming from climate change," former fire chief Lee Johnson said. "The word 'unprecedented' has been used a lot, but it's correct." For days Morrison has refused to address the link between climate and bushfires, arguing the focus should be on victims -- despite being heckled about climate change while touring fire-ravaged areas. Morrison has made no secret of his support for the country's lucrative mining industry, which accounts for more than 70 per cent of exports and was worth a record Aus dollar 264 billion (dollar 180 billion) in the last financial year.
He once carried a lump of coal onto the floor of the Australian parliament and recently proposed banning environmental boycotts of businesses. His government insists Australia will meet its Paris climate agreement target of reducing emissions by 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.
But the approval of vast coal mines like the controversial Adani project, which will ship most of its product overseas to be burned makes global targets of keeping warming below 1.5 Celsius more difficult.
Until now that has been good politics for the Liberal leader. His party unexpectedly won re-election in May, in part by framing the climate debate as a choice between jobs and higher energy costs in places like coal-rich Queensland. Morrison's allies have also deployed the issue as a potent wedge issue to divide the electorate.
