Kate Lamb: Australia’s fires have fuelled a heated climate change debate

Seasonal bushfires have burned for longer and with more ferocity this year, thereby intensifying the rift between believers and sceptics, says Kate Lamb.

Returning from a morning feeding his sheep, Jeff McCole, a 70-year-old farmer, paused to view a bittersweet scene: a few droplets of rain falling onto the remains of his fire-ravaged home. “Nothing like the sound of rain on a tin roof,” he said.