Leftists around the world are at it again, blaming "anthropogenic" (i.e., man-caused) climate change for the Australian fires. While it's true that the fires are "man-caused," they're not anthropogenic in the way the Left thinks they are.

At the Golden Globes, the glitterati focused on the fires raging in Australia. Russell Crowe, the famous climatologist...er, the actor who left school at 16, confirmed that the fire was all about climate change, so reparative action is urgently needed:

"Make no mistake, the tragedy unfolding in Australia is climate change-based," said Crowe in the statement, which was read by Aniston. "We need to act based on science, move our global workforce to renewable energy and respect our planet for the unique and amazing place it is. That way, we all have a future."

Another famous Australian, Cate Blanchett (who "explored her passion for performing arts" at college), agreed: "When one country faces a climate disaster, we all face a climate disaster."

Meanwhile, ABC made a laughingstock out of itself with a map superimposing Australia across the United States, implying that an area equal to 25% of America was on fire, even as ABC acknowledged that the fire was, in fact, only as big as Maryland.

Unsurprisingly, Hollywood and the media are wrong. Nothing unusual is happening with Australia's climate. The only unusual thing is that environmentalists have prevented remediation and arsonists have had fun.

Australia has long had hot, dry summers. What's exceptional about Australian summer heat lately is that, on average, the trend is down from the highs more than 100 years ago:

Average rainfall is also up over the same time period:

When you have increased rain in a generally dry climate, plant life grows like crazy. Then, during the dry season, that plant life turns to tinder. There's only one way to deal with that tinder, which is to remove it. Rod Keenan, University of Melbourne forestry professor, explains:

Done well, controlled burning limits a bushfire's spread and makes suppression easier, by reducing the amount of flammable material. Clearing or thinning vegetation on roadsides and other areas also helps maintain fuel breaks, allowing firefighters access to forests in an emergency. As former fire chiefs recently pointed out, of all factors driving a fire's severity — temperature, wind speed, topography, fuel moisture and fuel load — fuel load is the only one humans can influence.

The environmentalists' influence in Australia, however, prevents sensible approaches. Their impact ranges from the personally foolish:

Jo Nova has a damning story about locals in East Gippsland in the state of Victoria who successfully stopped a planned controlled burn at Nowa Nowa. Two of them were pictured holding signs saying, "Spring burns kill baby birds alive" and "Stop burning nesting birds".

...to the politically stupid:

"The problems we have got have been created by the Greens," Mr Joyce told The Australian. "We haven't had the capacity to easily access (hazard) reduction burns because of all of the paperwork that is part of green policy. "We don't have access to dams because they have been decommissioned on national parks because of green policy. We have trees that have fallen over vehicles and block roads, so people cannot either get access to fight a fire or to get away from fires. And we can't knock over the trees because of Greens policy.

The Green policies led inexorably to the primary cause behind all the fires: arson. Since November, Australia has arrested 183 people for starting the raging fires. Of those, 127 arrests were for arson, with the rest being the result of carelessness. Moreover, 67 of the arsonists identified have been juveniles.

The news reports don't specify motives, but experience says they range from children intentionally starting fires for fun to psychopaths intent on revenge. Some are also "weird Pete down the road." In this crazy day and age, we wouldn't be surprised to learn that some of the arsonists were environmentalists proving a point, much like the many activists who commit race hoaxes when they run out of real evidence showing societal racism.