ABSTRACT
In the fire season of 2019/2020, now known as Black Summer, megafires of unprecedented intensity and duration raged through millions of hectares of mainland Australia. For many Australians, the causal connection between climate change and the fires was self-evident. This chapter outlines the major impacts of the megafires and identifies the project’s underlying research question: namely, whether, and how, the megafires influenced the development of climate narratives across a range of areas throughout 2020. It makes clear that the pandemic, which arrived in Australia in the immediate aftermath of Black Summer, acted largely as a countervailing force in the development of such narratives, and explains the commonalities and points of tension between the two phenomena. Finally, it sets out the theoretical framework for the discussion that follows and, in particular, highlights the key importance of the concept of scalar framing.
