Union of Concerned Scientists Profile picture
Jan 17, 2020 9 tweets 3 min read Read on X
The scientific evidence connecting climate change to this year’s fires is straightforward. #AustralianBushfiresDisaster reuters.com/article/us-cli…
#Bushfires are a natural part of the Australian landscape, but according to @BOM_au “there has been a long-term increase in extreme fire weather, and in the length of the fire season, across large parts of Australia”.
The “fire weather” – hot, dry, windy conditions that bolster fires – the country is experiencing this season is especially intense.
2019 was the country’s hottest & driest year on record & extreme heat has dominated the fire season, drying vegetation and ratcheting up fire risk.
Australia’s situation is part of a larger global trend of accelerated warming: 2019 was the second hottest year on record, capping off the planet’s hottest decade. The six hottest years on record are the last six.
Is arson to blame for the catastrophic fires this season? No. While arsonists have started fires, particularly in past years, and police have charged 24 people with arson so far in New South Wales, officials blame lightning for igniting this season’s destructive blazes.
The ability of these #AustraliaFires to grow to such size and persist for so long is due to hotter and drier conditions driven by climate change.
Then why is this argument popping up? Evidence points to an orchestrated campaign to dilute Australians’ growing concern about #ClimateChange. Exaggerating the role of arson distracts, confuses, and pushes the narrative away from climate action. nbcnews.com/science/enviro…
While Australia is not currently facing an arson crisis, this year and for the foreseeable future, it is undoubtedly facing a climate crisis. It's past time we #ActOnClimate!

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More from @UCSUSA

Jun 12
Federal scientists must be protected from political attack. Federal agencies are working to safeguard research but more must be done. Learn what’s at stake and what you can do to help. wapo.st/4cAd203
When science is sidelined, people get hurt. We’ve documented more than 300 attacks on science that show why protecting science and scientists is so important. act.ucsusa.org/37qIVGd
Take action today to help ensure that scientists are protected from political attack, regardless of who’s in power. act.ucsusa.org/3M2TeaF
Read 4 tweets
May 30, 2023
Congress must act quickly to reach a #DebtCeiling agreement and avoid a catastrophic default, which would harm the economy and disproportionately hurt low-income households. No #DefaultOnAmerica
The #DebtCeiling deal announced over the weekend shows some progress BUT contains some very damaging provisions that would harm public health and well-being and the environment, especially in frontline communities and communities of color.

➡️docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/…
Congress should reject the egregious provision to move forward the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project that would expand climate-damaging methane gas, pollute the local environment, and eliminate important legal protections for communities' health. #StopMVP
Read 6 tweets
Mar 31, 2023
We're wrapping up National Farmworkers Awareness Week with a thread! Farmworkers make our food system run. But they shoulder a lot of risk. Daily life is full of dangers for the estimated 2.4 million farmworkers in the US, most of whom are Hispanic and Indigenous. #NFAW2023
Working outdoors is hard, dangerous work: Farmworkers die of heat-related causes at a rate 20 times greater than other professions. In hot agricultural centers like California's Central Valley, that number is even higher. act.ucsusa.org/3wju1lg
Rising temperatures increases the risk of another ever-present danger: pesticides that threaten farmworker health. act.ucsusa.org/3FobLeL
Read 9 tweets
Mar 3, 2023
Sixty-nine years ago this week, the US conducted "Castle Bravo," its largest-ever nuclear weapons test, on the colonized land in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Picture of Marshallese advocate and the message Nuclear Reme
Following WWII, the Marshallese people were again denied of their sovereignty when Japan surrendered control of the Marshalls to the US under a post-war trusteeship. They gained independence in 1979. Picture of the US and Marshalls Islands flag
From 1946-1958, the US used regions of the 1,200 islands and islets to conduct nuclear weapons research, including conducting 67 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, about the equivalent of exploding 1.6 Hiroshima-sized bombs in the Marshall Islands every day for 12 years. Picture of one of the islands and islets that make up the Ma
Read 8 tweets
Jun 24, 2022
The public health implications of overturning #RoeVsWade are clear: it means pregnant people will needlessly suffer. act.ucsusa.org/3ndb6mk
The policy decisions following this ruling that restrict reproductive health will ignore what the best available science tells us about how to best protect people.
Everyone should have access to healthcare. Everyone should be able to access approved medical procedures, drugs, and other services. Denying or restricting people of these services only endangers people’s lives.
Read 7 tweets
Jan 7, 2022
Yesterday we talked about the threat the events of Jan. 6 posed to our democracy. But #Jan6 also highlighted a threat to our entire planet. Why? Outdated and dangerous policies give @POTUS sole authority to launch a nuclear strike & no one can stop it once issued. (🧵) –
Two days after the capitol riot, concerns about then-president Trump led House Speaker Pelosi to ask the head of the US military, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, about "preventing an unstable president from...ordering a nuclear strike. politico.com/news/2021/01/0…
Unknown to Pelosi, Gen. Milley was already trying to step in, taking extraordinary measures to insert himself in the nuclear chain of command, even though he has no role and his actions might have been completely ineffective. washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/…
Read 6 tweets

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