AUSTRALIA — Pro-forestry politicians and industry groups have seized upon the retraction of a scientific paper on logging in Tasmania to claim there’s no evidence industry practices raise the risk of dangerous fires. …Industry groups and Tasmania’s resources minister, Guy Barnett, used the retraction to assert there was a scientific consensus showing logging did not make forests more flammable. Experts told Guardian Australia that this was wrong, and scientific evidence exists confirming logging could increase the risk of dangerous fires. Three scientists at the University of Tasmania… used publicly available geographic data from the Tasmanian government to differentiate plantations from other forests, and this information was incorrectly categorised. …”I find it devastating to be part of,” said Prof Jamie Kirkpatrick,. …the suggestion the research was fake was “slanderous” and the paper had not been “thrown out” but withdrawn at the request of scientists.