Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison attempt to play both sides of the climate game has spectacularly backfired. By claiming to care about climate change but at the same time not doing a lot to reduce CO2 emissions, the Prime Minister has left himself wide open to green accusations he has not done enough to prevent Australia’s bushfires.
Are the bushfires Scott Morrison’s Hurricane Katrina moment that he can’t live down?
By Laura Tingle
Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters in US history. It displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The damage was estimated at $US100 billion, and more than 1,000 people are thought to have died.
When it struck, US President George W Bush was on vacation on his ranch in Texas. The two days it took for him to decide to cut short the vacation and return to Washington was a disaster of a different kind.
It was not just a political disaster for Bush, but a disaster for public confidence in the agencies responding to the storm.
Blame games erupted between Washington and state and local authorities about why the response was so slow.
…
As people yell at the Prime Minister when he visits their devastated communities, or howl for his blood on social media, the story of Bush’s failure to immediately recognise a catastrophe and the urgent need for leadership it represented, tells us what problems are created by Scott Morrison’s perplexing failures of political and policy judgement in recent weeks.
People are frightened, and angry. Some have lived through a fire, or just faced the anxiety of trying to evacuate family through massive traffic jams.
They may have faced shortages of food and fuel, and/or several days without power and communications.
Such people tend to lose their faith in the capacity of governments to comprehend, let alone respond, to a crisis like this that is likely to continue for at least some months.
…
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-04/bushfires-climate-change-scott-morrison-perplexing-failures/11839770
Aussie climate activists have not yet won the public debate. There is widespread awareness that climate activists sabotaged fire safety forest management by occupying forests scheduled for controlled burns in the years leading up to this years’s horrific fire season.
A few days ago I heard local regional radio presenters criticising greens for their disastrous campaigns to prevent controlled burns.
And of course, as Morrison himself pointed out, Australian domestic climate policy has no real impact on global CO2 emissions, so even if CO2 was driving more intense fires, there is nothing the Australian government could do about it.
But none of this is helping Prime Minister Scott Morrison. His weak climate prevarications and his clumsy and insensitive response to the bushfire crisis are making him look uncaring and disengaged.
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Could someone please point me to the Chapter and page of the IPCC’s SR 15 report (?) which says that extreme weather is not related to CC. Many thanks.
Read it yourself.
You act as if the IPCC is the gospel on CC.
There has always been extreme weather. There is no evidence that the weather in recent years has been outside the range of normal.
Well Scott, no. Just as nobody can point to where it says it is.
Some (all?) IPCC reports don’t even say how CO2 causes global warming. Trying to find useful information in an IPCC report is often an unrewarding exercise.
Bushfires are not weather. Extreme bushfires are not extreme weather.
Nobody says that “extreme weather” has zero relationship with (whatever definition you have in mind for) “climate change”.
For non-scientists who wish for simplistic soundbites (< 144 characters long) The Real World (TM) is unfortunately not so accommodating.
From the IPCC's AR5 (2013, WG1) report, in the "FAQ 10.2" box on page 928 :
Its called weather Steve. You need remedial classwork before commenting in this site.
So judging by the comments I guess the answer to your question Steve is no.
Judging by the comments,it is foolish to expect the IPCC to disprove weather or natural disasters.
The IPCC was commissioned to prove anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions cause global warming. Which the IPCC has failed spectacularly to prove.
Just the words “extreme weather” is an indication of false description; especially when history demonstrates that weather events have occurred repeatedly through history. It also identifies the questioner as too lazy to perform simple searches.
Snowball Earth.
It mentions drought, Cyclones ad precipitation. You will find it at –
https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/chapter-3/
Good news in some areas at least, rain and cooler weather will provide some relief.
What’s the Churchill line from “Darkest Hour” ” when will the lesson be learned that you cannot negotiate with a tiger when your head is in its mouth” Pretty much sums up the dilemma of politicians who want to ride the green tiger.… politely. Climate activism brooks no half measures. It’s abandon sanity or suffer the consequences. Deepest condolences from your mates on the losses you are suffering from the bush fires. I hope to hear that we are doing all we can to provide any assistance you require in your hour of need. You are a staunch friend and we suffer to see you suffer.
Ex PM Abbott is free to call them out now and better late than never-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6npWjZ6xcBs
Some honest journos are at least trying to put it into perspective above all the usual media hype and the climate cult making the most of it as usual-
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/photos/australias-most-deadly-and-destructive-bushfires/ss-BBX0NlO
We simply have a lot more people and property in harms way nowadays than in the past just like you do in California and yet you can read between the lines with those historical fires how equally disastrous they were for their times.
Observa the link to the ‘msn’ site tells it all sadly in that Australia has always had bushfires. The likes of Greta needs to see these records of history and also to realise that arsonists and human error cause a high proportion of these fires. Added to that reduced backburning and hazard reduction is always going to end in disaster.
Greens and other leftists think they have all the answers. They are not willing to enter into any kind of discussion with anyone who might suggest that from their own experience a better way to do things. There is no conversation. If you shut out the views of more than half the population simply because they don’t align with your agenda then you are denying knowledge.
Doesn’t that make them, the ‘leftists’ the denialist?
I think there are gasses emitting from the earth that help fuel these fires. I wonder if they’ve ever done any testing for this?
Here in Santa Barbara there is gas bubbling out of the ground (and sea) all the time. There is oil in the water from natural seeps.
It has to help fires, but is insignificant in terms of what going on in the mountains behind us. I was up there today (to 2300 ft) and huge areas are blackened by fire. There is a lot of untouched ravine cool forest as well, such as at the old stage coach stop on top, but that is not a majority of the land, by far.
It is obvious that the land recovers quickly from fire.
Incidentally in South Africa around Cape Town, which has fire-dependent vegetation, a close examination of small animals showed they hide quite effectively from fire and were quick to repopulate burned areas. Maybe it is similar in California
Hi Megs; You make many good observations but I disagree with you on this detail:
“…Greens and other leftists think they have all the answers…”
In my experience, greens and other left-tards never have any answers, they only have demands and those demands are only ever in regard to what they (and the echo chamber in their loca cafe) demand should not be allowed simply because they dogmatically disapprove of it.
So they demand no controlled burn-offs, no clearing of fire breaks, no coal, no oil, no cars, no guns, no nuclear energy, no dams, no wood-chipping, no forestry, no plastic straws, no paper coffee cups, no conservative policies, no public opinions other than their own…etc, ad-nauseum.
When it comes to answers, those are always someone else’s problem and woe-betide he or she who volunteers an answer and gets it wrong in the judgement of the Greens and Left-tards. Never mind having the gall to question the logical rationale behind the demand.
So I agree with your conclusion that the real ‘deniers’ in modern society are indeed the Greens and Left-tards, but merely uttering that will probably trigger cries of ‘I’m offended’, invite genuinely vulgar abuse and solicit comparison of my opinions with some kind of facism. And possibly invite legal action for uttering ‘hate’ speech.
Luckily it would appear that enough sensible people are growing sick and tired of putelent Greens and left-tards but the pussification is so entrenched now that western societies will probably continue weakening before they improve.
it’s not half the population that agrees with you: in fact over 90% of americans believe climate change caused by rising CO2 levels is real. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.
I am quite surprised kit, at your claim that 90% of Americans believe that climate change is caused by rising CO2 levels. What surprises me is that Donald Trump certainly didn’t successfully run for Presidency on a climate change platform. So I’m thinking that your figure of 90% just doesn’t add up.
I’d love you to send me your supporting reference material, I quite enjoy research.
In socialist dictatorship everything is 90-99.9%.
Man fined $100K for clearing land around his house that became only brush fire survivor.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7678955/Black-Saturday-survivor-fined-cutting-trees-supports-hazard-reduction.html
He should be refunded.
Why should he have been fined in the first place?
He didn’t have a permit from the local authority to clear his land. He was fined only AUD$50,000 however, it has cost him AUD$100,000 fighting it.
And compensated for damage to life and reputation. Then the ‘leaders’ should face manslaughter and criminal damages charges.
Fire is part of the Australian bush. The longer you suppress/prevent it the hotter it will burn and it eventually will. But while the rest of the world believes all Australia is burning 99,5 procent of Australia is not.
Less than .5% of the landmass is affected directly by fire. Hyperbole is running at full speed.
Yes, ScoMo as Prime Minister Scott Morrison is called, has let a few Genies out of the Bottle as he tours the fire-ravaged regions. More careful commentary is needed.
All the talk of climate change is a hangover from the government of the previous PM Turnbull, who was decidedly much further left than ScoMo and all of the previous Conservative (=Republican) prime ministers. The climate change position within the ScoMo government has not been re-set since Turnbull’s time, and is out of step with the new power balance, and with voters. Its proving a problem, especially when unguarded comments are made.
I think Scott Morrison did a voting deal with Turnbull, during the spill, with a promise to keep the AGW dream warm. This blocked Peter Dutton from the leadership, whom Turnbull despised.
We really need a leader who isn’t afraid to speak the truth Peter. I believe that Scott Morrison is still too far left, but then when you look at the NSW Premier and many of the state and Federal ministers what hope have we got? There are many heading into Green territory. The next election will be tricky, we may not be voting Greens but that’s what we’re getting. If the party can’t find it’s way back to the center it’s doomed.
Morrison never did really grasp the level of relief that swept across Australia when Turnbull was shown the door, we didn’t want him in the first place. I don’t think that Morrison grasped the fact that the majority of us haven’t fallen for the CC scam and don’t want a bar of wind and solar renewables either.
The Fisher and Shooters Party (for people outside of Australia, yes they are a political party, a country alternative to the National Party) and One Nation are likely to pick up more votes next time around.
It is crazy! People, spurned on by the media, are directly blaming Shouty, since May 2019, for these fires. Really? Got nothing to do with decades of lost land management opportunities? Nahhhhhhhhh!
Often it’s the same people who will insist that it’s perfectly OK to rebuild their home and again surround it with fire-prone eucalypt trees.
maryvale n healsville as good examples
youd think..theyd really clear the areas and plant less flammable non natives as a fire damper/buffer
did they?
no
an email doing the rounds here tonight:
entitled where are the greens now?
Thanks to all the Greens that have expanded our National and State parks
Thanks to all the Greens who have reduced controlled burns
Thanks to the Greenies who chained themselves to trees to get media attention.
Thanks to the media for giving them prime time to achieve their goals.
Thanks to the legislation to stop roadside firewood collection
Thanks to the shires who won’t allow trees to be fell on private property
Thanks to the Government for stopping grazing in the High Country
Thanks to the lack of roadside grass cutting bu shires
Thanks to the Greens for brainwashing the next generation.
And then you all have the audacity to blame climate change!
Hope your movement of what you have created take responsibility for the horrific bushfires that are ripping the heart and soul from so many towns and communities in our country…
I have to ask, how many greenies are at the fire front trying to help these communities? How many are chaining themselves to trees? Are out rescuing the wildlife or that special rare plant species?
(Please pass on]
Original post from James Oswald
and from the adelaide “tizer” comment section a response to the warmists
chris:
Fires.
1962 62 people died.
1944 44 homes lost in the Blue Mountains.
1983 6000 homes and buildings lost and 75 people died.
2009 2030 homes and buildings lost and 173 people died.
NO doubt much more at other years to this and shall do some more research.
Trouble now is that as I believe, the greens instigated the stopping of clearing and burn offs for environmental reasons, but their actions have caused more harm to Australian lives, properties, wild life and the environment with their looney policies.
In my opinion anyhow.
————-
majority of commentary is supportive of scomo the adf the responses and NOT impressed with greens n warmist agendas
as for Laura Bloody Tingle
shes a rather UNpopular journo with a less than impressive reputation trying to get herself upfront using this as her stepping stone. and ABC sweetheart
Arson, mischief and recklessness: 87 per cent of fires are man-made
https://www.smh.com.au/national/arson-mischief-and-recklessness-87-per-cent-of-fires-are-man-made-20191117-p53bcl.html
Australian Police Say Arsonists & Lightning to Blame For Bushfires, Not Climate Change
Authorities in Australia are working on the premise that arsonists and lightning strikes are to blame for bushfires that have devastated numerous areas of the country, not “climate change” as many global warming alarmists have claimed.
However, according to those tasked with investigating the fires, climate change has nothing to do with it.
https://summit.news/2020/01/03/australian-police-say-arsonists-lightning-to-blame-for-bushfires-not-climate-change/
Police close in on suspected fire arsonists
18/12/2019|1min
NSW Police could soon charge more than a dozen suspected arsonists allegedly responsible for deliberately lighting bushfires across the state.
At least 56 people have already been charged or cautioned with 71 bushfire-related offences since August.
There are 16 investigations underway into suspicious fires, amid one of the state’s worst bushfire crises.
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6116577785001
Three teenage girls have been arrested for arson over 13 grassfires police allege were deliberately lit on the New South Wales mid-north coast.
http://thedailychrenk.com/2020/01/03/australias-arson-crisis/
19-year-old volunteer fire fighter in Australia has been charged with arson and accused of lighting seven fires in the Bega Valley area, New South Wales.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/27/australian-firefighter-accused-arson-record-bush-fires-ultimate/
This appeared on my Twitter feed
Bushfire scientist David Packham warns of huge blaze threat, urges increase in fuel reduction burns
Darren Gray
By Darren Gray
Updated March 12, 2015 — 4.05pmfirst published at 1.50pm
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/bushfire-scientist-david-packham-warns-of-huge-blaze-threat-urges-increase-in-fuel-reduction-burns-20150312-14259h.html
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/bushfire-scientist-david-packham-warns-of-huge-blaze-threat-urges-increase-in-fuel-reduction-burns-20150312-14259h.html
The link with a list of bush fire arson reports and arrests is amazing. Not a peep about that in any of the many international media reports about the bush fires.
On a related note a sudden flash fire at the Bagdad International Airport the other night was also linked to catastrophic climate change. No really people, its science.
“At least 200 fires were burning in Australia as of Friday.”
https://time.com/5758186/australia-bushfire-size/
====
Arson, mischief and recklessness: 87 per cent of fires are man-made
https://www.smh.com.au/national/arson-mischief-and-recklessness-87-per-cent-of-fires-are-man-made-20191117-p53bcl.html
“There are, on average, 62,000 fires in Australia every year. Only a very small number strike far from populated areas and satellite studies tell us that lightning is responsible for only 13 per cent. Not so the current fires threatening to engulf Queensland and NSW. There were no lightning strikes on most of the days when the fires first started in September. Although there have been since, these fires – joining up to create a new form of mega-fire – are almost all man-made.”
….are almost all man-made……he’s not talking about global warming
As you dive up the highway you often see burned out spots beside the highway. Clearly cigarettes being thrown out the window. At least they get put out quick when on a highway, but the ones that start on a more “country” road won’t get responded to as quickly.
I was amazed that even National Propaganda Radio (npr.org) had a story with the head of an organization of volunteer firefighters in NSW, who made the point very effectively that the failure to manage the bush with controlled burns was the main culprit.
Don’t go searching for it on their website though. They put up a different story that sticks to the party line with a different volunteer firefighter.
Ronald Reagan’s greatest failure was in not putting a stake in the heart of public broadcasting.
The entirety of the lying CIA Mockingbird media should be shut down and their executives jailed. Then overturn Obama’s policy of legalizing government propaganda. Then rescind the law of news organizations being entertainment. Kill the voice of the globalist deep state.
“Ronald Reagan’s greatest failure was in not putting a stake in the heart of public broadcasting.”
He’s not alone as here’s Aunty with patsy setup questions for another climate cult vulture flying about-
https://www.reddit.com/r/AustraliaLeftPolitics/comments/ej8q2r/abc_interviews_climate_scientist_michael_mann/
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/03/793257365/brush-fires-in-australia-force-emergency-declarations
Steve Inskeep, one of the hosts of the U.S. National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” interviewed Mick Holton, president of the Volunteer Fire Fighters Association in Australia.
Inskeep was desperately hoping, leading, prodding and brow-beating Holton in hopes that Holton would blame the bush fires on CAGW.
Holton would have none of it and essentially told Inskeep that he was full of BS and to bugger off. He politely told Inskeep that he didn’t know fu*kall about Oz.
It gave me a good laugh.
Now that it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the media climate propagandists are forced to scour the Southern Hemisphere for scraps to feed the CAGW narrative that they’ve pushed so hard for the last two decades.
Thanks John. That’s the one I was looking for.
Inskeep and the other NPR reporters do try to “lead the witness” to confessions of global warming angst and attribution whenever possible. However — are you sure this is the right clip?
Today, as I was half-listening to news from another room, some reporter in the middle of her interview commented that, due to global warming people are “losing their sense of identity”.
Trying to find this reference after the fact, I Googled “loss of identity global warming” and got 10 million hits… and a quick glance reveals the appaling number and variety of references to climate refugees, indigenous peoples’ insecurity, psychological displacement, loss of faith in God, loss of culture and community heritage — an avalanche of pseudo-science based on “loss of identity” due to global warming.
I understand the tendancy to ask existential questions if you get hit in the gut with terrible catastrophe, but the exploiter who leads any real victim of natural disaster on to such desperate reflections deserves our contempt.
Victims of tornadoes in my part of world are often caught on video explaining to some reporter that they’ve lost everything. I think this kind of devastation is the same the world over, and one can only hope that they can rebuild smarter than they did before the tornado hit – or on higher ground following the flood. Or, better yet, like the Australian guy mentioned above, have the vision to clear the brush before the catastrophe hits even if he has to go against the grain to do so.
Best wishes to anyone losing property in those fires.
” climate activists sabotaged fire safety forest management by occupying forests scheduled for controlled burns”
The usual myth-making. The linked report says that some Nowa Nowa residents objected to a controlled burn where they lived. There is no evidence that they are climate activists, even if Mary worries about climate change. There is no evidence that there were even any significant numbers. Mary from Nowa Nowa is mentioned, and also two from Mossiface. Conservationists generally have supported controlled burning.
“local regional radio presenters criticising greens for their disastrous campaigns to prevent controlled burns”
Local regional radio presenters are not always reliable sources of unbiased facts. How about some evidence that these “disastrous campaigns” even happened, let alone whether they actually prevented controlled burning?
Nick. You make a great point. The article from ABC does not say Mary from Nowa Nowa is an activity. However, Mary is quoted as saying, “I’m more worried about climate change, and the impacts are having.” Clearly Mary has a concern about climate change, and in her own mind and words she thinks there’s a connection between the burns and climate change. Perhaps Mary made a quick unconscious conclusion: dry ground increases the possibility of bushfires, climate change has dried out the ground somehow, therefore climate change is making it easier for fires to happen. Rightly, even if climate change was not a part of her reasoning, she should be concerned that dry land is easily combustable. Wrongly, though, she took action the disrupt the very thing that had the best and most immediately effect on reducing the damage of bushfires: destroying the fuel.
Nick, that kind of reasoning on the surface appears right and ethical but it leads to a close-mindedness that keeps people like Mary from seeing any other possibility, from gathering any additional information, and (worst) from checking their own conclusions.
Yes, I did find JoNova’s case was very thin when it came up here a day or two ago.
One case of some historic banner waving hardly seemed like a major factor in fire risk. It may be greater, that would not be too surprising with the evangelical “save the trees” mentality, but her single case was pretty unconvincing. You’d think if she was going to publish something she’d at least research a few cases where enviros actually did stop forest clearance happening.
It’s either lazy or disingenuous.
Nick is quick to point out when someone on WUWT has a weak argument, but he seems to have no problem accepting the cornucopia of weak arguments that comprise the entire AGW narrative.
This article is an excellent example. The idea that climate change is the reason for natural disasters is myth-making that Nick appears to be fine with. He does not chastise such myths as ‘weak arguments’, although they are weaker than JoNova’s. The weakest argument of all, that non-left politicians are to blame for disasters, also gets a pass from Nick, apparently.
The article above attempts to build a new myth off of an old myth. The old myth is that Bush is to blame for how bad Hurricane Katrina was. The old myth is the ridiculous idea that Bush could have made Hurricane Katrina better if he ended his vacation earlier, did something or other in the White House and showed more support for reducing CO2 emissions. Now that is a whopper of a myth that has become accepted as true, do to the repetition of it by the left-wing media over and over again for the last 14 years.
Laura Tingle is trying to create a new myth by suggesting that ScoMo is bad, because he is behaving as badly as Bush behaved in Katrina (the old myth). But this whole idea is just one myth piled on top of another. There are few rational arguments supporting these myths, and the whole of reality dispelling them. That seems to be okay with Nick. But whoa to the other side who has the audacity to try to build a story without reems of supporting data and ironclad rationality!
Politics seems to be one myth competing against another. It is disingenuous for Nick Stokes to ridicule the other side for myth building while he is standing on a mountain of them.
As I recall, the weather computer prediction spaghetti models at first indicated landfall well East of New Orleans along Florida, but then the actual hurricane kept shifting West and by the time it hit the city, they had very little warning (of course those models showing “cones of probability” say that the city was still inside though barely). Then there is also the gross mismanagement of state/federal funds that were, over the previous years, supposed to fix some of the problems with levies and other high water issues. This is what happens when non-attentive voters keep voting in trash politicians.
http://nickelblock.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Screen-Shot-2017-09-10-at-1.19.55-AM-1-509×1024.png
Bush had declared New Orleans a disaster area before Katrina even made landfall.
The Leftwing Media distorted everything about Katrina in their efforts to trash Republicans. Standard Operating Procedure for the Leftwing Media. You can’t count on anthing they say to be the truth because they always have a political agenda. Then and now.
Nick Stokes
Now address the issue of arsonists setting these blazes.
Which is what you should be acknowledging, not discussing some wet greens who objected to controlled burning.
The big fires this year seem to be mostly lightning-ignited, eg Gospers Mountain, East Gippsland. There are arsonists, but the periods of hugely destructive fires are not caused by unusual levels of arson activity. They are made possible by hot dry winds and a dry forest. Then there will be a profusion of fires and flying embers.
On our Black Saturday, 7 Feb 2009, there was a particularly destructive fire, often called the Kinglake/Murrindindi fire, to note the two origins. It swept through a great swathe of forest, with great destruction in two towns, Kinglake and Marysville. There were two starting points – E Kilmore, clearly due to failure of a power line in the very strong wind, and one at Murrindindi Mill, of murkier origin. They joined up prior to sweeping through Kinglake.
Arson was suspected at Murrindindi – Wiki says:
“Investigators initially believed that the cause of the fire that originated near the Murrundindi Mill and swept through Narbethong and Marysville was arson, with several suspects investigated.[59] On 1 April 2009, Victoria Police reaffirmed their view that the cause was arson.[60] However, in June 2011, Victoria Police announced that they now believed the cause of the fire was not arson.[61]”
But the main point is that the destruction would have been almost as great if the E Kilmore fire had swept through without joining up with the Murrindindi blaze. It only takes one cause.
Kinglake/Murrindindi fire – Kilmore/M…Despite all the evidence produced on this single thread relative to arsonist’s, limited lighting strikes, and neglected fuel loads you adhere to the, frankly, loony line that somehow these bush fires are the fault of a warming climate?
“They are made possible by hot dry winds and a dry forest.”
How much hotter are the winds this year than in previous years? And what is the precise influence of even a degree or two more on a fire’s ignition? These are all unquantifiable other than in daft, controlled lab experiments and wild computer models.
Face it mate, you are so wildly wrong on this it’s too funny for words.
our usual monsoon season was late due to the IOD going awol on us
its now returning and have a look at thw west coast cyclone just coming ashore in WA and generating good cloud n some rains right across Aus from west to inland and eastcoast
the weird polar vortex earlier did appear to have an effect on pushing winds across the middle of Aus for some weeks deflecting moist currents we may have had…maybe?
that said in 2014 my town temp was 45.5 and not one word of spin was heard re agw doing it media wise
we just had a fairly hot couple of weeks in summer
this yr same day/week the temp was 38.8 and the media was going ape about co2 dunnit.
friday was the 38c day by 10pm it dropped to 16 or so and sat n sunday both under 20c and chilly, it might get to 38 one day next week they reckon, the temps are al l over the place like a witch in a fit;-))
Nick, a person preventing a controlled burn claimed to be worried about climate change. What do you need, a signed statement?
Eric, at least half the population is worried about climate change. That does not make them climate activists.
In fact, they did make a written statement (their signs). They were mainly worried about the fate of animals in the prospective burn. There are plenty of reasons why some local residents might grumble about prescribed burning.
Gee I wonder if any animals have been harmed by the uncontrolled burns? Nah!
Whaddaya think, Nick?
I wasn’t holding the sign.
Saw a story that animals were sheltering under power lines, where the power Co. had been fined for the clearance.
This is the article you were referring to Chaswarnertoo. Worth reading.
https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/bushfires-the-solution-is-clear-20030508-gdgq4v.html
Ah, so you agree that anyone opposing prescribed burns was completely misguided, whether their concern was animal welfare or CO2 emissions, right?
“so you agree that anyone opposing prescribed burns was completely misguided”
I think that prescribed burning is, on balance, a sensible policy, though it has its dangers. It should be done. But I wouldn’t want to be living in the area while it was happening, as these people are. I think I’d take a holiday in Hawaii.
Backburning fires aren’t intense like these current uncontrolled fires Nick. There isn’t nearly as much smoke and they generally don’t last more than a day or two. Notices are posted to alert communities so asthma sufferers and such can plan accordingly.
Only ‘cos they’re gretins, being misled by people like you.
The same people that insist on surrounding their houses with fire-prone trees, yet when their houses burn down, then say it’s somebody else’s fault, or it’s the fault of climate change?
small areas with good ground crew support pretty much ensure that NO or very few native anything gets hurt in controlled burns done in late autumn after rains or early winter/spring.
the crews and vehicles alone tend to make the animals decide to absent themselves pronto.
and the Kangaroo island fires killing a supposed 25k koalas that had OVERbred due to the damned bluegum plantations have been culled back to a sustainable population the hard way
if they lost 8k on the mainland? guesstimated as usual
then a few of the KI ones should be moved when regrowth allows it.
they dont have chlamyia so it would be a good thing.
the vic n nsw colonies were pretty seedy anyway
Nick you make a foolish point.
It doesn’t matter of Mary “kill baby birds alive” from Nowa Nowa was an active ‘Climate Activist’ or the head of ‘Big Fossil Fuel’. The point is that Mary actively objected (without being an activist) to the controlled burn and that the ABC decided that two people waving grammatically dodgy hand made signs was worthy of news.
The ABC published this because the ABC believed that raising awareness to environmental issues was important.
Now – and pay attention here as this is the important bit – we have a situation where public opinion is starting to strongly swing towards the theory that ‘Greenies Cause Bushfires’. Since their little social awareness piece about Mary and friend protesting against fuel reduction burns now flies in the face of what the increasingly angry general public currently believe.
So the ABC then attempted to destroy all evidence that they ever encouraged protests against fire management.
That’s the point.
Attempt to hide the past if you wish, but the brutal fact remains – Green Policies Cause Bushfires
Bushfire scientist David Packham warns of huge blaze threat, urges increase in fuel reduction burns
By Darren Gray
Updated March 12, 2015
Forest fuel levels have worsened over the past 30 years because of “misguided green ideology”, vested interests, political failure and mismanagement, creating a massive bushfire threat, a former CSIRO bushfire scientist has warned.
Victoria’s “failed fire management policy” is an increasing threat to human life, water supplies, property and the forest environment, David Packham said in a submission to the state’s Inspector-General for Emergency Management.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/bushfire-scientist-david-packham-warns-of-huge-blaze-threat-urges-increase-in-fuel-reduction-burns-20150312-14259h.html
“Shortly, The Public Will Be Unable To Reason Or Think For Themselves. They’ll Only Be Able To Parrot The Information They’ve Been Given On The Previous Night’s News.” ― Zbigniew Brzezinski
Hurricane Katrina was never Bush’s “Katrina moment”.
The failure after Katrina was 100% the fault of the state and local authorities.
just what I was going to write.Thanks.
Yes. That is just one of the myth building projects on Nick’s side, which is comprised almost entirely of myth-building arguments. Nick apparently likes to throw stones in his glass mansion.
Air quality in the bushfires zone is now like in China all year round but in a much larger area (in China). Greta did not go there or even mention it.
“>>> A few days ago I heard local regional radio presenters criticising greens for their disastrous campaigns to prevent controlled burns. <<<"
They, the Greens, may well be involved in setting the fires too. There have been known cases in the US of environmentalists being caught doing just that [1]. In a 2018 article National Geographic stated that over 95% of California fires were caused by humans [2]. More recently PG&E's antiquated and poorly maintained energy transmission equipment was blamed for causing 1,500 fires in just 6 years [3].
I'd be rather surprised if the situation was any different in Australia.
[1] "Radical environmentalist pleads guilty to arson in Western fires," NBC News, Oct. 10, 2013
[2] "Humans Cause Over 95 Percent of California Wildfires," National Geographic, August 10, 2018
[3] "Over 1,500 California fires in the past 6 years — including the deadliest ever — were caused by one company: PG&E. Here's what it could have done but didn't," Business Insider, Nov. 3, 2019
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/05/lets-burn-stuff-qa-panellists-debate-violence-and-shattering-the-status-quo
It’s not as if ABC didn’t actively encourage people to set fires for leftist causes…
so even if CO2 was driving more intense fires – er, excuse me, but doesn’t carbon dioxide tend to SMOTHER fire??? Or was that just in high school chemistry classes?
Not at 400ppm, come on, you are stretching it a bit too far.
Only at 400.9 will it smother fire…everyone knows that and 4 out 5 dentists agree.
CO2 extinguishes fires by dilution of oxygen. It would take more than two orders of magnitude higher concentration to suppress forest fires.
It seems that the greens who prevented controlled burning in forests, presumably to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, have only succeeded in causing considerably more CO2 release than the contolled burning would have done. Ahhhhh, the Law of Unintended Consequences! It’s operation is the third certainty in life (after death and taxes).
Gus January 4, 2020 at 8:26 am
They, the Greens, may well be involved in setting the fires too.
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I have heard that fires MAY have been lighted by right wing politicians using SUVs dragging flaming branches.
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come on! anyone can say what they like but you do need evidence for this sort of tripe, don’t you?
It is interesting how the fires seem to spread across grass land. Should the government be setting fire to the whole of the continent in controlled burns?
Brushfires in Australia and Hurricane Katrina? In the case of Katrina elect Ray Nagin, a clueless, corrupt (he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for corruption afterwards), cowardly, incompetent Obama-wannabe, and then have a Hurricane hit and make serious bad decisions about how to react, then blame President Bush, who phoned all Governors and asked what the Federal Government could do to help immediatly? Fast-forward to Australia where they repeated the process. The Greens (liberals, socialists, communists, progressives, democrats, whatever) are not logical people given to honoring facts, they value feelings above all else. I feel like this is hopeless and it’s a fact I’m going to have a drink.
Aborigines lived there happily for millennia. If nouveau-Australians can not adapt to the climate of their adopted home perhaps they should consider going back to the areas to which they are genetically more suited. Every time I moan about damp English weather I’m told plain and simple “go back where you came from”. Adapt or perish is a cruel but fundamental law of nature.
Come now, Vuk, surely you understand that there has never been a warmer or drier period in Australia in the past 50,000 years?
Absolute rubbish Rich. There have been many warmer and drier periods on Australia in the last 150 years – there are lots of newspaper reports that confirm this.
That was sarcasm, #4. Of course there have been.
a few thousand aboriginals who lived in rock caves near rivers coastlines or inland who also used fire to burnoff forested areas to gain grassland where it was easier to see and hunt roos etc
and who also would have had fires get away and go out of control prob harming a few of them and native species.
most rural people are pretty well adapted and have survival skills for fire flood and the rest we cop here.
the Unadapted city fol who rely on aircon home car workplaces and nannystate care ARE a problem
theyre about the same as every other nations illadapted city folk with no bloody idea of coping in a crisis be it flood fire or famine.
some moron on the radio today(abc of course) was saying the aboriginals survived the iceage in Aus
best laugh Ive had in weeks!!!!!
What left wing nonsense from the ABC you quoted Eric!