Al Gore Challenges Australian PM In Debate Over Wildfires And Climate Change
By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, October 23, 2013 23:07 EDT
Environmental activist Al Gore has likened Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s insistence that wildfires are not linked to climate change to the tobacco industry claiming smoking does not cause lung cancer.
The former US vice president and Nobel laureate was commenting after Abbott this week dismissed UN climate chief Christiana Figueres’ assertion that there was “absolutely” a connection between wildfires and rising temperatures.
Australia has been battling massive bushfires west of Sydney for more than a week in unseasonably hot and dry weather that has inflamed debate about whether there is a link to changing climate conditions.
Abbott argued that fires were simply part of Australian life and accused Figueres of “talking through her hat”, but Gore said climate change clearly brought about more extreme weather.
“Bushfires can occur naturally, and do, but the science shows clearly that when the temperature goes up, and when the vegetation and soils dry out, then wildfires become more pervasive and more dangerous,” he told ABC television late Wednesday.
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