Australian bushfire risk could rise 300 percent by 2050: report

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2007

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian bushfires will become more intense due to climate change, while the number of days each year when there is a high fire danger could soar 300 percent by 2050, a report released Wednesday said.

The study, prepared by government scientists and the weather bureau for the independent Climate Institute, noted that bushfires are an inevitable feature of the Australian landscape.

But it warned they had already become more fierce in recent years, with fire weather intensity rising 10 to 40 percent since the 1980s and 90s.

The report predicts that the intensity of bushfires in Australia will jump by up to 30 percent by 2050 under the worst global warming scenarios.

And it adds that the number of days each year when there is an extreme...