‘Wicked problem’: five charts that show how the climate crisis is making Australia more dangerous

Most of Australia is now seeing more days each year where bushfire conditions are among the worst 10% on record, with some regions seeing as many as 25 more days of dangerous fire weather. Photograph: Roni Bintang/Getty Images

“It is a wicked problem,” says Dr Karl Braganza at the Bureau of Meteorology, after running through Australia’s latest State of the Climate report.

The effects of rising heat on land and in the oceans, coupled with rising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, are changing Australia’s climate rapidly and “flowing through to how our society, economy and other things operate”.