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Australian State to Examine Role of Climate Change in Bushfire Disaster

Phil Mercer

   SYDNEY - The impact of climate change on Australia's unprecedented
   bushfire crisis will be examined by an independent inquiry set up by
   the New South Wales state government.

   The six-month inquiry will look at the causes of the bushfires, as well
   as how the state of New South Wales prepared and reacted to them.

   It will examine the role climate change played in the disaster, as well
   as the effects of a long drought and lack of hazard reduction, which is
   the process of setting controlled fires to burn off vegetation during
   the cooler months to deny wildfires fuel when the weather heats up.

   While global warming is not the direct cause of Australia's bushfire
   crisis, scientists have warned that a hotter, drier climate would
   contribute to the blazes becoming more intense and frequent.

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