As I write, several of my close friends are among thousands of people across NSW facing the real and immediate terror of bushfires threatening their homes.

But there is a no less real and even more terrifying fire threatening the home of every single one of us. Looming over the next ridge and coming our way at high speed is the catastrophic destabilisation of the global climate which has nurtured human civilisation. Like a bushfire lit by despicable arsonists, this is a fire of our own making. And, while it is less easy for us to see, it is a far more terrifying fire because we don't have the option of leaving our home and saving ourselves. Our home is our whole world. We have no alternative but to stay and fight for our lives.

Scientists are increasingly desperately calling for swift and decisive action to avoid ever more severe fires, storms, floods and droughts, to avoid having to relocate whole cities as the oceans rise, to avoid triggering feedback loops that would create an unrecognisable and hostile planet.

In the face of this threat, linking these climate-changed fires to political scorched earth policies that will contribute to even worse fires is vital. Refusing to make the link, and attacking those who make it, is in a very real way condemning far more people to the inferno. And yet it is the latter approach that is tragically typical of our current head-in-the-sand political debate.

What does it mean to accuse someone of "politicising" bushfires, as Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt was, when he on Thursday he tweeted his Guardian piece headlined, By repealing the carbon tax, Tony Abbott is failing to protect his people?

Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) Why Tony Abbott's plan means more bushfires for Australia & more pics like this of Sydney http://t.co/bXFaAT6kLf http://t.co/tJyljLIGp4

"Politics" is about society coming together to debate and decide our common future. In that noble sense, no issue is more desperately in need of politicising than our rapidly degrading climate.

But politics has already been degraded. For the bulk of our politicians and media, politics is now a game. Who wins or loses each round, and the moves each player makes, have become our sole focus at the expense of serious discussion of why we play the game. So crippled is the reputation of Australian politics that claiming an MP is "politicising" an issue is to suggest nothing more than narrow self-interest. So superficial is our debate that an expert articulating the clear scientific evidence that global warming has contributed to these fires can be asked by a straight-faced interviewer, "Sure, but what did you think of Adam Bandt's tweet?"

What's more, in the current Australian political climate, there are political points to be scored by accusing others of trying to score political points.

For right-wing politicians and media alike, it’s a useful diversion. It’s much easier to serve up a straw man or discuss the rights and wrongs of a tweet than it is to confront the terrifying reality of global warming and the all-encompassing social and economic change it will take to address it.

Whenever bushfires strike, the same commentators who proclaim outrage at Christine Milne and Adam Bandt for connecting the dots between climate change and fires do not hesitate to dishonestly accuse the Greens of "preventing backburning". For them, it’s always too soon to speak the truth about global warming but it’s never too soon to lie about the Greens. We heard it in November last year, October this year. Will we hear it in September next year?

This is the terrible irony of the claim that we must not mention the global warming bellows fanning the flames while the fires are burning.

It’s October and New South Wales is on fire. Our country could burn for half a year.

Besides, when a loved one is dying of lung cancer, is it not right to both celebrate their life and rail at tobacco companies? Did we not respect Bernie Banton for fighting both the disease in his lungs and the asbestos companies whose actions put it there?

Nobody is saying we should stop talking about the fires and talk about global warming instead. With the Greens working harder than anyone else to get more resources for emergency services, certainly nobody is saying we should stop battling the bushfires and tackle global warming instead.

Only when we're smart enough to do both at the same time will we truly be fighting fires.