Fire, climate change and prescribed burning: What do the experts have to say?

As flames destroyed lives and homes in recent days, there's been a lot of debate about past fires, finger-pointing over prescribed burning, questioning the influence of climate change, or if indeed it was the right time to be talking about it at all.

But what do scientists have to say? 

Ross Bradstock, a bushfire risk management expert at the University of Wollongong, did not mince words when asked about the current fires.

"We are now in uncharted territory," he said. 

"We've gone over the one-million-hectare mark at least for the forests and the plants in the eastern part of NSW — this is unprecedented." 

Of course fires have happened before, but Dr Bradstock said the 2019-20 fire season in New South Wales had already exceeded the infamous major fire periods of January 1994 and Christmas 2001.

With summer still to come, and given the current forecast and outlook, things aren't looking good. 

Read the ABC News story by Kate Doyle - “Fire, climate change and prescribed burning: What do the experts have to say?”