Facing angry street protests and mounting political pressure, Australia's prime minister on Thursday broke a long silence to acknowledge "troubling" bushfire smoke that has engulfed his native Sydney for more than a month.

"I've lived all my life, pretty much, in Sydney and the haze that has come from those fires, I know has been deeply troubling to Sydneysiders," he said, ending weeks of studied silence.

On Wednesday up to 20,000 people -- many wearing face masks -- marched in Sydney, demanding Prime Minister Scott Morrison address directly the crisis that has caused health problems to spike and forced residents indoors.

Hours later the conservative leader insisted he understood the concerns of greater Sydney's five million residents, who have been coughing and spluttering through thick smoke off-and-on since October.

"I know how unusual it is to see that haze across my city. And I know how distressing that has been, particularly for young people, who wouldn't have seen that before," he said.

He also made a rare admission that climate change is one of the "factors" causing unprecedented bushfires that have destroyed millions of hectares of land, more than 700 homes and caused toxic smoke to bathe Australia's largest city.

"The dryness of the bush is the biggest factor," he said noting a long drought in some areas. "And we all know climate change, along with many other factors, contributes to what is occurring today."

Until now Morrison's public comments have focused almost exclusively on solidarity with sparsely populated rural communities hit by the fires directly.

A recent poll by Essential Research showed Morrison's disapproval rating had risen from 36 percent in September -- when the bushfire crisis began in earnest -- to 43 percent today.

Climate is a vexed political issue for Morrison's Liberal party.

While he once jokingly paraded on the floor of parliament with a lump of coal to show it was not harmful, former leader Malcolm Turnbull broke ranks to demand the party embrace renewable energy and show more leadership.

Any move to significantly reduce Australia's carbon emissions or curb coal exports could damage Morrison in conservative-voting mining communities, split his party and risk tipping a fragile economy into crisis.

Australia's lucrative mining industry accounted for more than 70 percent of exports and was worth a record Aus$264 billion ($180 billion) in the last financial year.

Australians protest as bushfire haze sparks health fears
Sydney (AFP) Dec 11, 2019 - Up to 20,000 protesters rallied in Sydney on Wednesday demanding urgent climate action from Australia's government, as bushfire smoke choking the city caused health problems to spike.

Sydney has endured weeks bathed in toxic smoke as hundreds of blazes have raged across the countryside, with hospitals recording a 25 percent increase in the number of people visiting emergency departments last week.

On Tuesday smoke alarms rang out across Australia's biggest city, with thick haze triggering smoke alarms and forcing buildings to be evacuated, school children to be kept indoors, and ferries to be cancelled.

The devastating fires have focused attention on climate change, with scientists saying the blazes have come earlier and with more intensity than usual due to global warming and a prolonged drought.

Police estimated the crowd size at 15,000, organisers put the figure at 20,000.

Many of the protestors voiced anger at the government's silence in the face of the crisis.

"The country is on fire" said 26-year-old Samuel Wilkie attending his first climate protest. He described politicians' response as "pathetic".

"Our government is not doing anything about it," said 29-year-old landscape gardener Zara Zoe. "No one is listening, no one is doing anything."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison -- a staunch backer of Australia's vast coal industry -- has said little about the smoke since the crisis began, preferring to focus on fire-hit rural communities.

Organiser Chloe Rafferty said that had created anger at the conservative government's inaction.

"I think the wider public can see that we are not expecting the climate crisis in the future but we are facing the climate crisis now," she told AFP.

"People are experiencing it in their day-to-day lives."

As well as a rise in people visiting hospitals with smoke-related health symptoms, the number of emergency calls for ambulances spiked 30 percent last week.

"For most people, smoke causes mild symptoms like sore eyes, nose and throat," top health department official Richard Broome said.

"However, people with conditions like asthma, emphysema and angina are at greater risk because the smoke can trigger their symptoms."

\Smoke from bushfires is one of the biggest contributors to air pollution in Australia, releasing fine particles that can lodge deep within people's lungs and cause "severe" health impacts over time, according to scientist Mick Meyer from government-funded scientific research agency CSIRO.

"The impact of smoke on people remote from the fires may, on occasion, substantially exceed the direct injury to people within the fire zone," he wrote in The Conversation.

"But we currently lack the operational tools to understand the extent of these impacts or to manage them."

Six people have been killed and more than 700 houses destroyed in bushfires this fire season.

Though the human toll has been far lower than the deadliest fire season in 2009 -- when almost 200 people died -- the scale of this year's devastation has been widely described as unprecedented.

Three million hectares (7.4 million acres) of land has been burnt -- the size of some small countries -- and vast swathes of koala habitat scorched.

Official data shows 2019 is on track to be one of the hottest and driest years on record in Australia.

Related Links
Forest and Wild Fires - News, Science and Technology

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Toxic bushfire haze blankets eastern Australia
Sydney (AFP) Dec 10, 2019
Toxic haze blanketed Sydney Tuesday triggering a chorus of smoke alarms to ring across the city and forcing school children inside, as "severe" weather conditions fuelled deadly bush blazes along Australia's east coast. Fire engines raced office-to-office in the city centre with sirens blaring, as inland bushfires poured smoke laden with toxic particles into commercial buildings. Emergency services responded to an "unprecedented" 500 automatic call-outs inside a few hours according to New South ... read more