Jennifer Marohasy’s common sense Down Under on global warming and fires

Michelle,

Excellent points about the lack of correlation in Australia between global warming and forest fires.

And, for an in-depth look at what’s really causing the fires there, I would suggest this blog by one of CEI’s great Aussie friends, Jennifer Marohasy. Jennifer is a senior fellow at the Melbourne-based think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs, which is fighting the good fight for the free market and sound science in Australia, and has had some impressive results in shaping the debate.

Jennifer’s blog and her site have some excellent refutations of environmental myths about how global warming is supposedly affecting Australia. She has some particularly good stuff on coral reefs. And on brush fires, she writes that one of the big factors is — surprise — the high fuel load in forests due to the dense vegetation, and environmentalists’ vehement opposition to thinning of this vegetation. Much the same as opposition to logging in America to thin the dense forests here.

I am also grateful to Jennifer for her helpful correspondence when I was writing Eco-Freaks, which she has promoted on her site.