No one in Australia needs or wants to talk about the bushfire season last summer.

But this year conditions seem to have worsened. Eastern Australia has seen little rain in recent months and the Bureau of Meteorology doesn’t like the chances for improvement as we venture into summer.

150 years of tree loss tied to deforestation for livestock grazing has “added significantly” to the drying of east Australia. Research done in 2007 showed that past clearing made our drought up to two degrees centigrade warmer.

Part of the reason for this lies in the old saying “trees bring rain”. Vegetation moisture which evaporates in heat, recycled back as rainfall. It also reflects less shortwave radiation than crops or pastures, keeping the surface temperature cooler and aiding could formation.

Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and Victoria’s hinterland which saw such devastation earlier this year are two areas of particular concern to fire officials.

QFRS inspector for rural operations on the Coast and surrounding areas Gary Seaman noted “If August brings no more rain, then it will continue to dry out, and in the warmer months we could be facing some fast running bush and grass fires in the area,” he said.

Victorian Premier John Brumby announced that “The combination of 13 years of dry weather and a dry June and July has meant that on all of the evidence, on all of the statistics we face potentially a worse fire season than last year, so all of these areas are at risk.”

Although there is the obvious time lag between clearing and danger from fire, Whirled Peas suggests trying less meat, especially red meat, in your diet to prevent dangerous conditions in the future.