Not yet over, this terrible bushfire season in Australia is clearly among the most important – perhaps the most important – current climate change stories.

Given how many strong writers, storytellers, we have already seen an impressive number of excellent stories and essays about these fires.

The stories below are a small selection of those focused on some basic physical facts. In Part 2, we look at pieces that attend closely to the emotional weight of the fires for both humans and animals.

On the big picture:

• “These Australia Fires Are Like Nothing We’ve Seen Before,” by Jamie Tarabay in the New York Times. (Also see this open letter from many scientists about the link between climate change and the fires.)
• “Firenadoes, Ember Attacks and Megafires: Australia Is Seeing Sci-Fi Weather,” by Andrew Freedman and Sarah Kaplan in the Washington Post.
• “Australia Fires: A Visual Guide to the Bushfire Crisis,” from BBC News. (Not photos, but clear, informative graphics.)
• “In Australia, the Air Poses a Threat: People Are Rushing to Hospitals in Cities Choked by Smoke,” by Darryl Fears and Brady Dennis in the Washington Post.

On burnt forests:

• “‘It’s heart-wrenching’: 80% of Blue Mountains and 50% of Gondwana Rainforests Burn in Bushfires,” by Lisa Cox and Nick Evershed in The Guardian. (Both are world heritage sites.)
• “Fires Set Stage for Irreversible Forest Losses in Australia,” by Matthew Brown and Christina Larso, from the Associated Press.
• “Reducing Fire, and Cutting Carbon Emissions, the Aboriginal Way,” by Thomas Fuller (with photographs and video by Matthew Abbott), in the New York Times. A thorough, vivid, engaging look at the controlled burns that have maintained Australia’s landscapes for millenia.
• “These Scientists Think We’re in a ‘Bushfire Spiral’. They Have a Plan,” by Liam Mannix, in the Sydney Morning Herald (no paywall for bushfire stories). A more complex account of the prospects for controlled burns in today’s conditions.

This series is curated and written by retired Colorado State University English professor and close climate change watcher SueEllen Campbell of Colorado. To flag works you think warrant attention, send an e-mail to her any time. Let us hear from you.