Could a roof sprinkler save your home in a bushfire?
By Bec Pridham

Preparing for an ember attack could extend your home's bushfire survivability rate to above 90 per cent or even closer to 100 per cent, a fire scientist says.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-23/how-to-make-homes-bushfire-resilient-tasmania/106566908

#Bushfires #Fires #ClimateChange #Wildfires #BecPridham

Could a roof sprinkler save your home in a bushfire?

Preparing for an ember attack could extend your home's bushfire survivability rate to above 90 per cent or even closer to 100 per cent, a fire scientist says.

The parts of Victoria adding the biggest share to disaster damage bills
By Alex Lim and Sacha Payne

At least $57 billion worth of infrastructure in Victoria is vulnerable to more frequent and severe bushfires, floods and extreme heat. This figure is expected to grow.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-19/victoria-infrastructure-risk-from-climate-change/106678950

#Infrastructure #ClimateChange #ExtremeWeatherEvents #Bushfires #Floods #AlexLim #SachaPayne

See where climate change is hitting Victoria's infrastructure hardest

At least $57 billion worth of infrastructure in Victoria is vulnerable to more frequent and severe bushfires, floods and extreme heat. This figure is expected to grow. 

As a child Rob was burnt. As an adult, he’s fighting fire with fire

Every time farmer and volunteer firefighter Rob Armstrong gets a call to battle a bushfire, something inside says not to do it. But he goes anyway. He knows what it’s like to be trapped in the flames and rescued by volunteers.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-17/-accidental-leader-of-cfa-levy-protest-rob-armstrong/106630850

#Bushfires #HumanInterest #SheepFarming

As a child Rob was burnt. As an adult, he’s fighting fire with fire

Every time farmer and volunteer firefighter Rob Armstrong gets a call to battle a bushfire, something inside says not to do it. But he goes anyway. He knows what it’s like to be trapped in the flames and rescued by volunteers. 

2/
This firsthand account of the 2009 Aus-
tralian bushfires is a vivid reminder that perception of events is acquired not
through one sensory modality but rather from the synthesized experience
of simultaneous perceptions associated with an event. In the case of a brush
fire, these are smoke (olfactory), heat (tactile), crackling flames (auditory),
and the motion and color of flames (visual).

#bushfires
#Australia
#senses

“As the firefront approached, the sky blackened. Spotfires broke out as blaz-
ing embers fell from the heavens. The heat intensified and a blistering wind,
whipped up by the change of air pressure caused by the fire sucking in oxy-
gen, sounded like a freight train.”

#quotes
#bushfires
#Australia

Introduced weed is allowed to spread unchecked.

"Right now, the federal government is weighing up whether to declare buffel grass one of the worst weeds in the country – a “Weed of National Significance”."

"Native to Africa, the Middle East and Asia, buffel grass first arrived in Australia via imported camel saddles in the 1870s. It was later planted for dryland pasture as its deep roots allow it to thrive in dry climates.Buffel grass was first planted in the 1920s and became well established by the 1960s. It enabled significant returns to the pastoral industry, including economic returns in dry years...Valued by many graziers, buffel grass is now spreading so rapidly and widely its severe negative impacts can no longer be ignored...Buffel grass has spread much further and is smothering Aboriginal land, conservation reserves, public places and regional and remote towns." >>
https://theconversation.com/should-this-plant-be-declared-one-of-the-worst-weeds-in-australia-279109
#weeds #InvasiveSpecies #BuffelGrass #PastoralIndustry #bushfires #conservation

Should this plant be declared one of the worst weeds in Australia?

Without a national policy, the spread of smothering buffel grass will continue unchecked.

The Conversation

Koalas in NSW were predicted to be extinct in the wild by 2050 after the Black Summer fires. Now they’re officially endangered.
Meanwhile, it’s not governments leading the charge — it’s small local groups planting trees and rebuilding habitat, one patch at a time.
This is what real action looks like.

#australia #koalas #climate #environment #bushfires

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irC_iXOqDX0

The Extraordinary Tree Planting Effort to Save Koalas | Landline | ABC News

YouTube

Some reading on our climate:

The Journal of Environmental Research Letters - Editor's Choice Awards
https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1748-9326/page/Best_article_awards

Some random choices:

Estimating the sea level rise responsibility of industrial carbon producers
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/adb59f

Potential impacts of marine carbon dioxide removal on ocean oxygen
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ade0d4

Interplay between climate and carbon cycle feedbacks could substantially enhance future warming
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/adb6be

Weather disasters and their underreported transboundary impacts on Amazonian communities
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ae20a7

Key drivers and pressures of global water scarcity hotspots
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad3c54

Dams and tribal land loss in the United States
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/acd268

Achieving net-zero emissions in agriculture: a review
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/acd5e8

Extreme heatwave over Eastern China in summer 2022: the role of three oceans and local soil moisture feedback
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/acc5fb

Existing fossil fuel extraction would warm the world beyond 1.5°C
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac6228

Unmasking the impunity of illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: a call for enforcement and accountability
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac5193

Global warming and population change both heighten future risk of human displacement due to river floods
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/abd26c

Climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme autumn wildfire conditions across California
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab83a7

Feedback between drought and deforestation in the Amazon
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab738e

The effects of climate extremes on global agricultural yields
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab154b

#ClimateCrisis #FossilFuels #freshwater #ecosystems #ocean #deoxygenation #IndigenousePeoples #dispossession #GHG #deforestation #heatwaves #bushfires #agriculture #extractivism

Editor's Choice Awards - Environmental Research Letters - IOPscience

Study finds Tasmanian native forest logging increases potential for more severe bushfires

"Logging worsens bushfires because regrowth eucalyptus trees are highly flammable in comparison to mature trees, which act as "green fire breaks...A fire expert says mature forests can "act as a buffer" to slow bushfires, whereas regrowth eucalypts are more flammable."

"The study has found around a fifth of Tasmanian tall wet forest is regrowth under 40 years old, largely a result of intensive logging and recent fires."

"Professor Bowman said this raised concerns around community safety and the sustainability of the state's timber industry."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-10/bushfire-risk-worsened-by-regrowth-after-logging-study-finds/106546528

Landscape-scale experimental proof that tall wet Eucalyptus regrowth burns more severely than mature forest >>
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ae4d62
#bushfires #LoggingImpacts #NSWLogging #LoggingIndustry #BellingenLogging #FCNSW #risks #harm #forests #biodiversity #CommunitySafety #Bellingenshire #RegrowthHazard

Study finds decades of 'intensive' logging worsens bushfire risk

Scientists have studied satellite images of a Tasmanian bushfire and found regrowth from extensive logging and recent bushfires has "absolutely" increased the risk of more severe bushfires.