Satellite data shows wildfires are destroying large areas of timber-producing forests around the world. These fires are becoming more destructive with each passing year.
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Articles on Bushfires
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Normally, many bushfires ease overnight, as temperatures fall and moisture in the air rises. But these are not normal times, as Queensland’s early-season fires are showing
People with a lung condition are among those particularly vulnerable to bushfire smoke. But you can prepare for the season ahead.
Australia’s move towards net zero emissoions by 2020 is in danger of stalling. If it is not to fail, the nation urgently needs a government plan, aligned with industry and with public support.
We sampled 118 rivers and creeks before and after the Black Summer bushfires, searching for platypus DNA. Here’s what we found.
Many people are asking if Australian authorities are ready for the fire season. The real question to ask is – are we ready as individuals?
We’ve had an early start to the bushfire season and there’s more to come. No wonder spring isn’t always a celebration.
If you were pregnant or parenting during Australia’s 2019–20 summer of smoke and fire, chances are you felt acutely anxious – and grappling with impossible responsibility.
The northern summer was marked by intense fires and heat. Now it’s our turn to face the heat.
We used satellite data to create global maps of where and how fires are burning. Fire season lasts two weeks longer than it used to and fires are more intense. But there are regional differences.
Most fire climate regimes in Australia shifted abruptly around the year 2000 – greatly increasing fire risk.
Deserts in Australia burn – and burn big – if fuel is left to build up. But this year, Indigenous rangers across the deserts have burned huge tracts early to make Country healthier.
Public interest in climate change and global warming peaks after bushfires and lasts for months, research reveals. But Australians do not respond to storms and floods in the same way.
Fire frequency is increasing in all ecosystems studied. But in some places, fires were occurring so often it put entire ecosystems at risk of collapse.
As I hear reports of the fire tearing through Maui, I feel utterly depressed. As a fire scientist, I know the unfolding horror is just the beginning in our warmer world.
No one plans a European holiday thinking of fleeing from fire or sheltering from intense heat. But the climate crisis is forcing a reckoning – tourism as we knew it will have to change.
The El Niño is a reminder that bushfires are part of Australian life. But whether or not this fire season is a bad one, Australia must find a better way to manage bushfires.
Parents and emergency responders repeatedly said evacuation centres should have a separate space for families with very young children. Here’s what else we could do.
Before the colonists came, we managed the land with careful use of cool burns. To stop giant bushfires, we have to learn again how to care for country.
When the rainforests burned, the leaf litter did too – and with it, billions of invertebrates vital to healthy ecosystems.
Job Board
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Fisheries Research and Development Corporation Chairperson - Hobart, TAS
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Senior Business Editor
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Lecturer in Dental Research Education
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Senior Lecturer in Clinical Dentistry
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow or Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow funded by the Snow Medical Research Foundation
Top contributors
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Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania
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Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
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Professor, The Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University
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Emeritus professor, University of Wollongong
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Associate Professor in Ecology, Charles Sturt University
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Senior research fellow, Western Sydney University
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Chief Investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes; ARC Future Fellow, UNSW Sydney
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle
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Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle
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Deputy Head of School, School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle
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Professorial Research Fellow, Victoria University
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Head of Operational Climate Services, Australian Bureau of Meteorology
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Research Fellow in Environmental Science, University of Tasmania
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Professor of Bushfire Dynamics, School of Science, UNSW Canberra, UNSW Sydney
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Honorary Associate Professor, Fire Ecology and Management, The University of Melbourne
