'Climate change fuelled conditions for wildfires'

CLIMATE change made the hot, dry conditions that fuelled recent devastating wildfires in southern Chile and Argentina up to three times as likely, according to an analysis published yesterday by the World Weather Attribution network of scientists.

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Some two dozen people died in blazes across the South American countries — where it is currently summer - which also destroyed hundreds of homes, forced thousands of people to flee, and threatened some of the world’s oldest trees.

“Parts of Chile and Argentina are seeing significantly drier summers and more frequent fire weather asa result of carbon emissions,” said a WWA press statement with the network's latest report.

“Human-induced climate change made the weather that accompanied recent wildfires in Chile and Argentina about 2.5 to 3 x more likely,” it added.