Arson

• Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires that tore through 10 million hectares in southeast Australia.
• My research shows the 2023 fires burned more than 84 million hectares of desert and savannah in northern Australia.
• In just a few weeks of September and October, more than 18 million hectares burned across the Barkly, Tanami and Great Sandy Deserts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Why did this happen?

• When it dries out, grass becomes fuel for fires.
• For example, you can see the pattern of more fire following wet years repeating at periodic intervals over the past 20 years of fire in the Northern Territory.
• In this way, La Niña is the major driver of these massive fires in the desert.
• In the NT alone, more than 55 million hectares burned in 2011, compared with 43 million in 2023.

How can fires be managed?

• The sophisticated use of fire in Australia’s highly flammable tropical savannas has been recognised as the world’s best wildfire management system.
• It also hinders the spread of fire because areas subject to more recent fire have insufficient fuel to carry new fires for many years.

• Even though large fires still ripped through these deserts in 2023, by mapping the fuel reduction fires and overlaying the spread of subsequent wildfires, we can see the 2023 fires were limited by previous burns.
• For example, the fire spread animation below shows fires moving through a complex mosaic comprising fuel of different ages.
• Read more:
  Invasive grasses are worsening bushfires across Australia's drylands

  The fires of greatest concern to government agencies were the Barkly fires that threatened the town of Tennant Creek.

• Read more:
  Indigenous rangers are burning the desert the right way – to stop the wrong kind of intense fires from raging

Preparing for the future

• Desert fire management is still under-resourced and poorly understood.
• Read more:
  Our planet is burning in unexpected ways - here’s how we can protect people and nature

Rohan Fisher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• The link between extreme events and climate change is clearer than ever.
• Misleading or incorrect information on climate still spreads like wildfire, even during the angry northern summer of 2023.
• People producing misinformation have shifted tactics, too, often moving from the old denial (claiming climate change isn’t happening) to the new denial (questioning climate solutions).
• Prebunking often has a better chance of success, according to recent research from co-author Sander van Linden.

How does prebunking work?

• Psychological inoculation via prebunking acts like a vaccine and reduces the probability of infection.
• (We focus on misinformation here, which is shared accidentally, not disinformation, which is where people deliberately spread information they know to be false).
• You can now find prebunking efforts on Meta sites such as Facebook and Instagram intended to protect people against common misinformation techniques, such as cherry-picking isolated data.
• Read more:
  YouTube: how a team of scientists worked to inoculate a million users against misinformation

Prebunking in practice

• As an example, let’s prebunk claims likely to circulate after the next big fire.
• A devastating fire 100 years ago does not disprove the trend towards more fires and larger fires.
• Media can give information on the most common causes of bushfires, from lightning (about 50%) to accidental fires to arson.
• Show how government agencies can and do communicate openly about why climate regulations are necessary and how they are intended to stave off the worst damage.

Misinformation isn’t going away

• It’s no wonder it’s a golden age for misinformation.
• Misinformation actors have found effective ways to cast scepticism on established science and then sell a false alternative.
• As the world gets hotter, prebunking offers a way to anticipate new variants of lies and misinformation and counter them – before they take root.

• Chris Turney receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
• He is a scientific adviser and holds shares in cleantech biographite company, CarbonScape.

• Two Just Stop Oil protesters have smashed the glass on the Rokeby Venus by Diego Velázquez at the National Gallery in London.
• This, you might be surprised to hear, is not the first time this painting has been the target of activists.
• In March 1914, a suffragette named Mary Richardson entered the National Gallery with a butcher’s knife secreted in her sleeve.
• It’s not the first time Just Stop Oil has taken a tactic from the suffragette playbook.

Distancing themselves

• On a march in London, Just Stop Oil protesters questioned “would the suffragettes have marched on the pavement?” when asked to move.
• Extinction Rebellion activists, outside of a court where seven women were held for causing damage to Barclays Headquarters, wore suffragette outfits.
• However, both Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil have made distinctions between their actions and the suffragettes’.
• Nevertheless, Just Stop Oil’s use of confetti and jigsaws pales in comparison to the suffragettes’ use of firelighters and paraffin.

Justification through history

• Pankhurst contrasted the actions of other contemporary figures throughout her speeches and her autobiography.
• Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil has followed in her footsteps, ironically adopting a suffragette tactic while distancing itself from the movement.
• Pankhurst contrasted how previous violent movements conducted by men had been rewarded in comparison to the suffragettes who were arrested.

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Louise Coyne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Krispy Kreme and Shaquille O’Neal today announced Oct. 10 as the grand opening of their all-new 4,000-square-foot shop on the site of the brand’s historic Ponce de Leon location.
• “Everyone has been so supportive during our bounce-back process and we’re thrilled to turn on the Hot Light.
• Guests can purchase doughnuts in-shop, via drive-thru or by ordering doughnuts online or through the Krispy Kreme app for pick-up or delivery.
• Throughout grand opening week, Krispy Kreme will randomly award 10 dozen lucky guests a Celebration Ticket worth a dozen free Original Glazed doughnuts every month for a year.