More than 85 fires burned across Australia’s east coast on Tuesday, 40 of them out of control, as officials warned that catastrophic conditions would worsen through the afternoon and evening, with intensifying winds blowing flames toward larger cities and towns.

Dr Joëlle Gergis, a climate scientist from the Fenner School, said it was clear that “there’s a human fingerprint on the temperature increases since 1950 — all the weather patterns are occurring in a planet that is warming and warming because of human activity.” By dismissing the role of climate change in the fires, she said, the government was choosing immediate disaster response over long-term needs.

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