This lie has been circulating ever since sensible people began seeing the links between the black saturday catastrophe and AGW.
There have been many thorough refutations and I'm choosing one from the tabletop tabloid AKA the Australian. I choose the tabletop tabloid because is is so loved by denialists. The tabletop tabloid is a denialist's dream because it is so unashamedly anti AGW.
Whether by accident or design, the Australian published a record of interview on April 22 2009 with Professor David Karoly.
Here are a few pertinent points from this piece.
1. 12 years of drought in the ravaged area had reduced to fuel load. Fuel reduction burning wouldn't have made a difference.
2.The fires were so intense they burnt the humus out of ploughed ground. Even bare ground burnt.
3. Record heat wave two weeks earlier.
4. Record high temperatures.
5. Record low rainfall.
6. Record low humidity.
7. Unprecedented series of days without rain.
8. Record Macaurthur fire index up to 180. By way of comparison the denialist oft quoted fire of black friday 1939 had an index of 100.
AGW models predict that we can expect more of the extreme weather events that helped precipitate this catastrophe.
