Police have charged at least 24 people for intentionally starting bushfires in the state of New South Wales, Australia.
Police have taken legal action against 183 people, 40 of whom are juveniles, for fire-related offenses since November 8. 47 of them are accused of discarding a lit cigarette or match on land. The blazes have been burning across Australia for months, scorching homes and destroying entire towns. Nearly half a billion animals have been affected and millions are dead. Three people were charged with breaching the fire ban over the weekend. Two fires were started for cooking purposes. A tragic conclusion is that human actions and not the climate change produced the disaster in Australia. Human (mis)management practices dwarf any effects of climate change on wildfires.
Range managers, as well as the native inhabitants, have long known that unless we burn it on purpose before the vegetation overgrows, it will burn us. Australia has been ready to „explode” for years, as fire fuel levels had climbed to their most dangerous levels in thousands of years. David Packham, the former researcher at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia, warned in a 2015 article that it was the result of “misguided green ideology.”
