Reducing CO2 will do nothing to cut bushfire risk

Land managers have been thwarted by green tape, cutbacks to frontline staff and environmental activists in trying to control fuel loads in our national parks and elsewhere. State governments have failed to address the issue for decades and it is little wonder that with hot weather and drought we are facing large fires and smoky cities, as we have done many times before when CO2 levels were lower.

Politicians will grasp at any straw to avoid taking responsibility for their incompetence so it comes as no surprise to hear NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean blaming climate change for the latest bushfire crisis (“Blame the climate bogeyman for fires”, 12/12).

The science behind bushfires is well established. Kean’s proposed “solution” of controlling fires by reducing CO2 will do nothing to reduce the bushfire risk, but it will devastate the economy. Until we properly manage fuel loads we will always have fires.

Marc Hendrickx,
Berowra Heights, NSW

Could we agree on some things? That the climate is changing; that temperatures are rising; that greenhouse gases are increasing; that these gases are contributing to warming; that burning coal and other fossil fuels increases these gases in the atmosphere.

Most of this is not contentious, but even if deniers want to argue, they should produce explanations. Otherwise they are holding up change, and change is needed; change to our production of power, and change to our emission of greenhouse gases.

Is Australia experiencing a normal summer? Is the melt in Greenland normal? Are the oceans the same temperature they used to be?

Paul Roberts, East Hills, NSW

While it is basically correct to say that Milankovitch cycles have been the dominant driver of changes in climate over the long term, it is a mistake to claim that climate is a matter of biochemistry rather than thermodynamics (Letters, 12/12).

The Milankovitch cycles — variations in Earth’s solar orbit — have been controlling variations in Earth’s climate for more than 800,000 years. During most of that time global temperatures varied between minus 2 C and plus 8 C.

In recent times, global temperatures were trending slowly down towards another minor ice age. Then, from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in about 1760, global temperatures and atmospheric CO2 levels began to rise, and rates of rise keep accelerating. CO2 broke through the 415-parts-per-million barrier in May, the highest in many millennia. What caused these increases? Burning fossil fuels, especially coal.

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin, ACT

It was refreshing to see Anthony Albanese’s recent comment about Australia’s coal exports. But what a pity he didn’t go further and lend the Labor Party’s weight to the growing push for all governments to recognise that our future lies in the development of nuclear energy.

Writers to these columns, some far-sighted politicians and scientists have been telling us that we are blessed with abundant resources of uranium and thorium, and have the requisite technology to proceed with the design of safe reactors.

A move in the direction of nuclear energy would also put Australia in the forefront of doing something sensible and balanced about global warming and coincidentally provide a boost to the local economy as new industries are established.

Ken Barnes, Glen Iris, Vic

Assuming climate change is real, when are government and those claiming climate change is happening going to accept that the simple answer is global population growth?

More humans demand more food production, more goods and clothing, and emit more CO2. Temperature increases and decreases, drought and bushfires are on a par with significant population growth since the 1920s.

Tony Brownlee, Sydney, NSW

Following the 2003 Canberra fires that destroyed our house and 500 others, I recalled the descriptions my parents gave of the 1939 Victorian fires that burnt them out and realised that both fires had produced firestorms creating immense energy.

Sixty-three years on, bushfire behaviour had not changed. CO2 levels were 30 per cent higher in 2003 than in 1939, but the 2003 fires were no more destructive or intense. Today’s fires, too, are no worse than past fires.

Doug Hurst, Chapman, ACT