and probably another 2 million before it's done, this will be the largest combined set of bush fires Australia has seen in modern times. Where we are at, the fires are set to reach our mountain ranges in the next three to four days. Me personally (and the fam) aren't necessarily in harms way as we live in the center of town, but the rural area's about to be affected will be in harms way severly. Just our bush fire that started in the Wollemi National Forest, is more than three times that of all the fires in California combined... this does not include any of the other fires currently burning.
This image is of our back yard. The town is about two miles in diameter, and you can only see about 100 yards away, if that.
Originally Posted by Gadzooks:
Why isn't this message being spread to the masses? (cause and current damage).
2 M hectares should at least get people to wake up. In my little bubble all I'm hearing is there's "fires in Australia". No one seems to give a shit.
From my menial understanding of Australia as a country, this is a big ****in' deal.
The post you responded to was baseless AM radio bullshit. There's no environmentalist or "greenie" conspiracy to prevent controlled burning.
The Green political party holds one (of 150) seat in the federal house of reps and 3 (of 93) in New South Wales. Clearly any public policy failure will be entirely their fault, what with their close to supermajority representation in parliament.
It is true that some areas prohibit DIY burning, but if you consider tha half the state is currently on fire, it should be fairly obvious as to why we don't let Joe Sixpack do his own bonfires. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Nickhead:
the irony in your statement: for years every one has lobbied for controlled burns, but the greenies said nooooooo, it will kill a roo. so after 20 years or more, the region just becomes a powder keg (and 10000 roos die, 4000 koalas, and uncountable numbers of other animals). then when the fires erupt like now, they will claim global warming is the cause. it's like if instead of burning that pile of leaves every year, you are now forbidden to burn it, but have to still stack the leaves in the same pile. then twenty years later lightning strikes and you've now burnt your house down along with it :-)
So sorry to hear that the deadly virus known as leftism has spread faster than that fire. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Nickhead:
the irony in your statement: for years every one has lobbied for controlled burns, but the greenies said nooooooo, it will kill a roo. so after 20 years or more, the region just becomes a powder keg (and 10000 roos die, 4000 koalas, and uncountable numbers of other animals). then when the fires erupt like now, they will claim global warming is the cause. it's like if instead of burning that pile of leaves every year, you are now forbidden to burn it, but have to still stack the leaves in the same pile. then twenty years later lightning strikes and you've now burnt your house down along with it :-)
You are repeating the claims of Barnaby Joyce of the Nationals party. But it's not true. Australia has had political issues with climate change for a long time now, even as droughts have been steadily increasing for years. The truth is that brushfire hazard reduction has actually increased over the last few years.
Large parts of New South Wales have been in the grip of catastrophic fire weather this week as firefighters desperately work to save homes, properties and lives.
But as firefighters try and beat back the bushfires, a familiar blame game began with critics pointing fingers at “greenies”, claiming they get in the way of hazard reduction efforts that might have reduced the size and scale of the disaster.
“These are very tired and very old conspiracy theories that get a run after most major fires,” says Prof Ross Bradstock, the director of the centre for environmental risk management of bushfires at the University of Wollongong, who has been researching bushfires for 40 years.
“They’ve been extensively dealt with in many inquiries.”
The chief accuser is Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce who says “greens policy” gets in the way “of many of the practicalities of fighting a fire and managing it”.
Among Joyce’s claims, made in several interviews this week, are that Greens policies have made hazard reduction activities more difficult.
This claim, just to be clear, is about the policies of a party that has never been in government.
Joyce also blamed the Greens for “paperwork” that made it harder to carry out hazard reduction activities.
“It’s not burning because they burnt off, it’s burning because they didn’t burn off,” Joyce told SkyNews.
According to Bradstock, Joyce’s claims are familiar but “without foundation.”
“It’s simply conspiracy stuff. It’s an obvious attempt to deflect the conversation away from climate change.”
A former NSW fire and rescue commissioner, Greg Mullins, has written this week that the hotter and drier conditions, and the higher fire danger ratings, were preventing agencies from carrying out prescribed burning.
He said: “Blaming ‘greenies’ for stopping these important measures is a familiar, populist, but basically untrue claim.”
[...]
A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment has told Guardian Australia that the National Parks and Wildlife Service carried out hazard reduction activities across more than 139,000ha in 2018 and 2019.
The NPWS had a hazard reduction target to treat 680,000ha of parks and reserves in the five years from 2011, which the spokesperson said it had exceeded.
“Hazard reduction work has increased because of increased funding to the RFS and to national parks. There has been more carried out in recent years than in previous decades.”
The Public Service Association has also attacked the NSW government for what it said was a “35% cut to fire-trained positions” in national parks.
Its acting general secretary, Troy Wright, said on Tuesday: “It is the Nationals who hold the purse string. Rather than funding the NPWS properly so that they can undertake strategic reductions they have crippled them with massive budget cuts and devastating restructures.”
The NSW environment minister, Matt Kean, told Guardian Australia that NPWS had 1,665 full time equivalent staff, a rise of 144 since 2017.
I probably should have stated when I say 'greenies', I am talking about the environmentalists out there, not the political party. the pressure they put on all parties is a given though.
now as to how many controlled burns there are over the years, even our local RFS fighters say they aren't allowed to do the burns they know need done. so there is that :-) [Reply]
I learned something today regarding mines and operations. There are huge converyor belts that transfer the coal to the power plants and washeries. In transit, this coal will bounce dust below the conveyors. Over time this dust becomes a literal 'wick'. If luck would have it, and the fire reaches a mine, or the transfer line, it 'could' spark out like lightning strikes to other areas. Not that it will, but you never think of things like this. They have suspended operations at one of the mines and will probably make two by tomorrow. Again, you never think of it, but with such poor air quality to circulate air to the miners, and risk of ember ignition underground. you can't mine.
