Guest essay by Eric Worrall
British TV personalities including Piers Morgan have attacked Aussie politician Craig Kelly on air during an interview, over Kelly’s claim that dry weather and the buildup of fuel load is the reason for Australia’s horrific bushfire season.
‘You are a climate denier’: Craig Kelly in car crash British TV interview over bushfire crisis
By Bevan Shields
Updated January 7, 2020 — 9.03amLondon: Liberal MP Craig Kelly has defended Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s handling of the bushfire crisis during a television interview in Britain that descended into chaos after the hosts savaged the self-proclaimed climate sceptic.
The backbencher was called a “disgrace” and told to “wake up” during the combative encounter that threatens to undermine Morrison’s efforts to reassure Australians that his government accepts the link between climate change and extreme weather events.
…
Nodding in agreement as he was introduced to viewers as a climate sceptic, Kelly argued the fire crisis was caused by high fuel loads and the drought.
He also claimed there was “simply no” long-term trend to back up the widespread conclusions of scientists and other experts that the Australian climate was warming.
“To try to make out as some politicians have to hijack this debate, exploit this tragedy and push their ideological barrow, that somehow or another the Australian government could have done something by reducing its carbon emissions that would have reduced these bushfires is just complete nonsense,” Kelly said.
…
Read more: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/europe/you-are-a-climate-denier-craig-kelly-in-car-crash-british-tv-interview-over-bushfire-crisis-20200107-p53pd9.html
The claim by British TV personalities that anthropogenic climate change is making Australian bushfires worse is pure ignorance, not supported by the evidence.
MP Craig Kelly is spot on about the lack of long term drought trend. Although he later recanted a little, earlier this year Professor Andy Pitman explained in a lecture in Sydney science can’t tell us what impact climate change will have on Australian droughts, because there is no long term trend.
As for Craig Kelly’s claim about fuel load, I can confirm this by personal observation. My local area, much of the region along the road from my hometown to the Queensland state capital Brisbane is a vast tinderbox of dry, scrubby bush and dry grass growing on the ground between the trees, overlaid with flammable eucalyptus deadwood ranging from twigs to fallen tree trunks, all ready to be ignited by the slightest spark (see the image at the top of the page).
Eucalypts, the dominant tree type in the Australian bush, shed tremendous quantities of dead branches and leaves. In the absence of frequent controlled burns the dead plant material rapidly self assembles into near perfect fire starting structures, with lightweight material laced with flammable eucalyptus oil at the bottom, tough spindly branches which ensure lots of airflow, all mixed in with heavier branches which consolidate any fire which starts in the lightweight material.
Hardly anybody in Australia dares to clear the bush and trees away from their houses, an obvious safety precaution in a bushfire area. People who make their homes or properties safe from fire risk financial ruin under laws based by urban green politicians, if the government catches them clearing native vegetation. Nobody, no matter how remote, is safe from the scourge of potentially lethal government bullying; Aussie state governments use satellites and AI to target and prosecute people trying to keep their properties safe from bushfires.
I am not personally at risk from bushfire, but I know people in my area who could lose their homes if it all ignites.
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What?
You did not get the memo?
British TV personalities know everything, just ask them.
My favourite was Max Headroom.
At what point can we hold professional idiots and teleprompter readers accountable for their hubris and ignorance?
here in Canada we were doing great,the TV and news print industries both losing subscribers/viewers, bleeding money, as they cannot will not stop their lying..Then our fearless government bailed them out,with taxpayers dollars of course.
I suspect if government funding was yanked most of these Television personalities would be jobless in months.
Strangely even a boy scout knows more about fire than a Television Personality.
Actually I am hard pressed to think of one skill,other than looking/sounding good, that makes a good TV personality.
This interview really underscores the reason we have our parliaments/congresses elected by the people and from the people and draw our juries from the people and not from the slime pit of so called experts who have all sorts of self interest distorting their utterances.
In Ms Tobin’s case it is quite simple. If she was not a fervent climate change supporter who went for the throat of any dissenting interviewee, she simply would not have a job at the BBC. Her degree in physics and other formal education in meteorology are merely her imperial robes, gossamer thin in the classic style to most of us but oh so tres, tres chic to the ‘cogniscenti’.
It has been reported that almost 200 people have been arrested for deliberately setting bushfires. Synopses.com says “False”
Apparently 200 people haven’t been arrested for deliberately causing bushfires…BUT…183 have been arrested on bushfire related charges
The 1967 fire in Hobart, a capital city, resulted in 62 dead, 700 injured, 13000 homes destroyed, etc,etc, yet there was NO mention of climate change.
After the massive 1939 fires, mostly in Victoria, No mention of climate change.
Is this demonising of CO2 a modern mass hysteria.
John O’Shea.
Tobin is a fully paid up alarmist who has recently taken to displaying the enormously misleading blue to red bar chart as “proof” of the co called climate emergency. However she does not work for the BBC, good morning Britain is an itv programme funded by adverts.
How many more lives will be lost, properties obliterated, how much wildlife destroyed, before the Aussies wake up to the fact that their countryside is extremely flammable, not to be taken lightly and mitigating measures must be in place before they even think about building habitation amongst their trees.
Any town in the bush should have a eucalyptus free area of 2k around it and all deadwood removed for and by those people not prepared to risk their lives and livelihoods any longer.
Any others who remain of the opinion that a couple of degrees (maybe) of warmer night time temperatures in Adelaide or anywhere else is responsible for forest fires should feel free to go build wherever they like.
One guy tells it like it is and they are all over him.
May common sense prevail but I fear it is in short supply on a worldwide basis.
183 people have been identified as being involved in igniting bushfires over 2019 in Australia – many with complete disregard for the consequences of their actions – but alarmingly a large minority started fire with intent.
This is eco-terrorism at its worst.
But speaking of eco-terrorism activist groups have demanded that fuel loads remain untouched to protect the ‘diversity’ of species – when these bushfire hit the fuel load incinerate vast swaths of these diverse species.
Making matter worse is that the Paris Agreement accounts for fuel load burnoffs – but not for rampant bushfires – giving all levels of government a perverse incentive to limit and restrict fuel load reduction.
I had a major bushfire graze past my place in 2013 & the fuel load is as high now as it ever was.
Arguing that 1 degree of climate change has caused these fires – is a lie, it may have contributed 1 whole percent to the risk – meanwhile 99% of the risk come from manageable hazards unrelated to climate change .
p.s. the fire season round my parts starts in late January through to late March – So far all this climate change has not sparked any maelstroms in my state, as yet.
a happy little debunker
183 people arrested for arson in a country as sensitive to Bush fires as Australia is no coincidence.
Many of these people will be tried in open court and conclusion will be drawn by the Australian public.
If the Aussies want to do themselves a favour, they need to have credible, independent observers in the courts trying these cases and publish a detailed record on a common web page.
We may well find this is either a coordinated, or perhaps entirely coincidental, campaign to hammer home the ‘effects of climate change’.
There are an awful lot of angry Aussies out there who will begin to put 2+2 together.
Good comment, HotScot, on a happy little debunker mentioning the 183 people arrested as arsonists during this bushfire catastrophe in Australia. Then you comment “We may well find this is either a coordinated, or perhaps entirely coincidental, campaign…”. Here’s the problem, arson and sabotage have become an important part of Green Radicals playbook for at least 40 years, and appears to be increasing in severity. When Earth First blew up ski resorts it started. Environmental activists attacked a valve at the Veladero gold mine in Argentina and caused a cyanide solution spill, with the security gate left open. No significant spill event actually occurred, but the public acted with (induced) panic. Arsonists participated in the California wild fires, and now 183 arrested in Australia. The idea that arson/sabotage is warranted is being placed into peoples mind by politicians and opportunists, like GT shouting “How dare you!”. CNN International now has dedicated programs talking about how we are near the tipping point and Trump is to blame. There are only a few significant voices against this Anthropogenic Climate Change nonsense, and Watts is one of the best.
Another articulate and reasoned comment from Ron Long.
Thank you Ron,
Cheers
Mike
It’s probably not coordinated, some people are just evil. For example:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-11/peregian-fire-sunshine-coast-teens-charged-deliberately-lit/11503420
Greg, as reported in today’s Telegraph, one of two eighteen year olds involved in NSW fires was walking out of court, filming the attendant journalists on his mobile and laughing. They have been accused of lighting fires at Guilford Park by setting off fireworks in December. Their case yet to be heard. They refused to name a third person, the driver of the car. Their legal representative told the media to “leave him alone, he’s only eighteen”.
No one is held responsible for bad behavior anymore, and that is something that should be instilled in children from a very young age.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/01/muslim-teen-accused-of-starting-aussie-grass-fire-laughs-as-he-leaves-court-on-tuesday/
ATheoK thanks for the link. I forgot to mention in my post that it’s illegal for citizens to set off fireworks in Australia without a permit. The boys set them off in the mid afternoon so it wasn’t simply a case of, lads wanting to enjoy a fireworks display on the sly. They did it to deliberately to start a fire.
Expecting the National Broadcaster or indeed a complaint MSM to report on these enviro-terrorists is forlorn as they are too busy blaming climate change and the current Federal government for the inactions of state authorities and the 3rd tiers of local government.
That Piers Morgan is unable to accept that responsibility for these fires rests in state based emergency services should inform you of how twisted are their attempts to lay the blame on Climate change.
a happy little debunker
You are right about the MSM failing to report on any green involvement here. That’s why I suggested credible observers should attend court and make a record of the circumstances and the outcomes of each one.
Committing that to an independent, dedicated web site may well allow people to discern a pattern, something the courts are unlikely to do unless a coordinated campaign has been deliberately mounted, and evidence available.
On a positive note, there are an awful lot of angry Aussies out there, many of them Cops and Firefighters who understand the fundamentals of fuel load clearance, they will be determined to find evidence of collusion.
I may be going senile as I’m over 35, but were not the fires that rampaged across Greece a few years back determined to have been caused by eco-terrorists (or arsonists/pyromaniacs as I call them), anxious to put meat on the argument that such fires will become more & more commonplace? These eco environ”mentalists” really don’t care a jot about the “environment”, simply the ends, (Globul Socialism) justifies the means! Unlike the Good Lord, the Left moves in not-so mysterious ways!!!!! AtB. Having said that, being “old”, means I have no life experiences or vaild opinions to contribute to society at large! Fact! Sarc off!
The world seems filled to the brim with noble-cause corruption and global group-think. The thought of mankind going mad in a single herd seems possible to me considering the current state of the MSM worldwide. Propaganda is now disseminated instantly and globally, not just within one region as was the case in 1930’s Germany. The press is becoming the real existential threat to free society.
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/dozens-of-firebugs-blamed-for-destructive-queensland-fires-20191220-p53m1i.html
a happy little debunker
“183 people have been identified as being involved in igniting bushfires over 2019 in Australia”
I have recently made the same comment. If you google for “Australian bushfires number arrested” this is what the Australian media will tell you. However the UK media only quotes a story behind a single arrest.
There is a direct attempt by the UK to keep the narrative going that climate change is causing Australian bushfires and dismiss the fact that, in general, it’s people who light fires.
“meanwhile 99% of the risk come from manageable hazards unrelated to climate change .”
All of these fires are almost predictable…everywhere…every year…lightning/man made…does not matter
Even the Russians have super tanker water bomber planes…to fight fires in remote Siberia
…the damage just one of these fires causes…every year…would pay for an entire fleet of those planes
Why Australia, California, Canada, etc etc on and on…..have not invested in equipment to put these fires out fast…..and efficiently
….is the real crime
Australia has been known to hire the Russian super tanker water bombing planes and their huge helicopters to fight fires in the past.
Only last year Western Australia had a bumper harvest.
This is the nature of the climate there.
It is predicted to again this year with the long range forecast.
Forests produce rubbish ,
Households produce rubbish
Households have their bins collected every week
Forests get destroyed in totality when nature says so .
Its a pity one cannot sue Members of Parliament who voted for the legislation against clearing native bush for fire breaks.
🙁
C’mon, Eric!
Name names!
The average British TV personality couldn’t point to Australia on a globe.
Craig Kelly needs to double down! Ask ’em why the “personalities” (or nonebrities, as I call them) know better than the IPCC.
And we all know what a bunch of political con-men the IPCC are…
Good point! I added Piers Morgan’s name to the first paragraph.
Watching that ‘interview’ made me feel sick – since when have journalists started acting like a mob of witch hunters shouting ‘denier’ at people more in the know trying to raise a valid point? I didnt hear him once deny the climate changes either?! So when officially did journalism die?
The answer is do not watch, if nobody watched they would soon get rid, who really needs daytime TV.
“who really needs daytime TV.” Too many lost souls it would seem, sadly.
“… So when officially did journalism die?”
—
About 1984.
I’m a retired BBC engineer and I can assure you that the BBC’s journalism died long before that (early 70s) and rest quickly followed.
Yes, that is THE year.
Winston Smith
British TV journalism has been of an exceptionally low standard for about 15 years now. The worst I have seen anywhere in the world. Nothing is ever about the story, always all about them and they never pass up an opportunity to pose and grandstand. It is these days quite simply utterly pathetic.
Ditto for CBC. The CBC has been an interesting example of how an organisation spirals into oblivion when people of limited ability gain control of upper management and then gradually shift the entire culture of the organisation to non-threatening (parallels not very bright). To me this seems to be one of the most important phenomena of our time, though it certainly existed historically. As the rate of innovation plateaus, organisations reach a stasis wherein a ‘professional’ managerial staff gains control and ‘leadership’ skills are valued over results. Instead of better widgets, the primary products becomes staff meetings and mission statements. I have yet to see an example of recovery from this intellectual rot.
As a follow-up to BCBill, I helped run and build an environmental consultancy in the 1980s-90s. We were led by technical and scientific professionals, and we were known nationally for excellence. Then, as we grew, business management and project administration began to eclipse the scientific and engineering skills that built the company. Mediocrity ensued, as number crunching administrators gained the upper hand. The company soon went down the tubes. I found that, while good business administration is critical to company health and profit, there is a continued tension between the techies and the admins. As long as a healthy balance is maintained, the company can prosper. However, admins have the power of access to financial data, balance sheets, billability, etc. and they readily use it against the techies.
Here is an interview with Craig Kelly where he was allowed to quote the scientific evidence.
From the sign in the middle:
“ . . . we roll like Moses saving our promised land.”
I missed that part of the story.
A normal reading will say that Moses died at Mount Nebo, not being allowed to enter because of not following The Word exactly.
“ . . . we roll like Moses saving our promised land.”
It was as much a fiction then as it is now.
There’s the one up front “You’ll die of old age, we’ll die of climate change”.
No, they’ll die from the inability to adapt to something that has always happened and will always happen. Hopefully they’ll get what they deserve.
I would hope that our police have recorded videos of these demonstrations so that they might link some of the 183 people under investigation, for starting fires. But probably not in the state of Victoria.
Are we watching (British) TV journalists? A weather specialist TODAY, still using the term ‘climate denier when even ordinary readers like me, know that “nobody” really denies climate change, is a disgrace. She also showed her incompetence in the demeaning way she spoke to a guest. Not to mention the attitude of the conductor.
.-
“Who was that at the door James?”
“Two reporters sir and a gentleman from the times.”
Having just watched a small segment of a national tv magazine programme this morning, I get terribly depressed when some young bimbo/twathead starts lecturing everyone about lifestyles, behaviours, anything in general, as if their opinion actually means anything based upon such short lives! But I just love the new title, “Nonebrities”! 😉 After all, what in Heaven’s name is a “celebrity”?
“After all, what in Heaven’s name is a “celebrity”?”
These days it means being famous for being famous, not much else.
Piers Morgan? You mean the guy who faked pictures for the front page of a daily newspaper to discredit British soldiers risking their lives in Afghanistan?
“‘You are a climate denier’:
Rejoinder: “Are you are moron? A simpleton, easily led like a sheep to be sheared of your financial welling and liberties?”
Another Rejoinder: “Are you a Doomsday Cultist?”
“Do you believe in Extinction Rebellion?”
The proper rejoinder: “You are a liar!”
The only way this will ever end is if people start calling them out for the liars they are.
Mr Worrell, you have just run an education course for arsonists. Notice, when temperatures are predicted to be high, and the ABC starts screaming that there is a ‘terrible fire danger’ there are no fires, but but that evening there are lots.
Mr Kelly is a voice of sanity in a world of nonsense. The trouble is journalists now all go through the same process that seems to take away any sense and injects them with zealotry. Whatever happened to Who What Where When Why and How? Now the ask stressed people ‘How do you feel?’ How insulting.
I don’t think arsonists need my help to find flammable patches of Aussie bush.
certainly not hard to find at all
any roadside in Vic where fallen branches often large as wel as the leaflitter and 6ft+phalaris wild oats and prickly acacia are utterly UNtouched /slashed etc
a tiny 2 to 3ft at the road verge does NOTHING to reduce risk
the gentleman who headed the enquiry into the 2009 fires stated the amount of controlled burn needed to be massively increased (didnt happen) they set an acreage goal and then kept reburning the same spots(abc had to report that his afternoon)
ruining those trees for any production of flowers for animals and bees etc forever in most cases
while the harder to get at areas remain untouched.
what Kelly said was correct, and most of Queenslad is in agreement with him, as are many other Aussies elsewhere
piers morgan is a dullard and a sad f*ck , publicity seeking fool has been trying to jump on the warmist wagon to regain cred he never had anyway.
re: “Whatever happened to Who What Where When Why and How? ”
The one who used to be the ‘adult’ in the room, the old-time (managing?) editor, has either been dismissed or replaced with an idiot.
And most of the old-time sub-editors [those who checked facts, and looked for there/their/they’re infelicities have all been pensioned off. Spell check rules.
Sadly – I have a spell-cheque, it came with my pea sea . . .
Auto
Old Woman of the North, give lessons to the different terms
– bush fire arsonist and
– aborigins’ forest management by bush fires
British TV Personalities are normally extremely ignorant gobshites, similar to Australian ones, seems to be a qualification for the job.
You need to apologize to Gobshites. How dare you!
After the Oakland Hills fire in 1991 where my house burned down, I bought another house in the hills and was gratified that the local authorities MANDATED a clearing of combustible material within 90 feet of the house.
This in Northern California too … Libtard Central, but even they know how to mitigate fire risk, at least around here.
whereas in Aus they Mandate hugely expensive “fireproofing” of replacement homes ..that the Insurance of the prior value of the home does NOT cover
rather than clear the bloody scrub around the towns n houses
and replace it with green buffer non native species for shade and cooling
removing all trees from towns in out climate is NOT wise
we need trees to take up soil moisture in winter and to provide cooling and shade in summer
its the TYPE of trees used that makes a difference
a solid wall of willows,poplars etc can actually deflect and halt a fires rush
both can also regenerate after.
theres amazing pictures of homes protected by huge pine trees, yes pines. the fires deflected up and over and the homes stayed intact. most old homesteads had thick pine trees as hedges and wind/firebreaks for that reason
If you go to many, many towns in Victoria and Tasmania in particular that were founded in the early to mid 1800’s you see there are minimal or no eucalypts in the town centres or down the main street. What you do see is oaks, elms and the like. The early settlers knew damn well that permanent settlements and eucalypt forest were fundamentally incompatible.
The arrogance of the 20th century eco movement that only euacalypts bush is natural and that leaving it to grow, untended and accumulating fuel is the eco friendly way to go is insane beyond belief.
Indigenous Australians cool burnt the bush for thousands of years to create and maintain an artificially benign ecology that suited their lifestyle because they were particularly vulnerable to the sorts of wildfires we are experiencing at the moment. The current situation is the product of a drought (not in the least bit uncommon in Oz), the Indian Ocean Dipole being in its positive phase for a couple of years (it is usually only for one year) and the cumulative negligence of the States in maintaining suitable levels of preventive, fuel load reduction burning. The latter issue must be properly attended to every year and not shortchanged because otherwise you just drift into accumulated fuel load debt.
The eco imbeciles do not seem to understand the fundamental difference between a camp fire used to boil some water and cook some steak (and which you can put out by pissing on it) and a bonfire used to burn witches.
A lot of people have been criticising the Australian government and saying they should do more about climate change. Whenever I (manage to get past the censorous moderators in the Australian media and) ask them to detail exactly what changes they are proposing and what tangible difference it would have made this year’s drought affected fire season all I get is abuse, not a single person has actually provided any detail let alone the expectation they would have of the benefit.
It’s amazing how convinced people are that a simple solution exists despite not having a clue what it might be.
Gee, how about say conducting more controlled burns, and severe penalties for people who try to obstruct forestry officers conducting vital fire safety exercises?
I suppose putting a couple of hundred firebugs in prison would be a decent start. A huge number of these fires are deliberate.
What is weird is how cold is has been of late, all the while we are bring told how hot it is.
https://electroverse.net/25-locations-across-australia-just-set-their-coldest-january-days-ever/
[Congratulations, you made it into the spam folder. I’m guessing WP didn’t like your Goleta IP Address. Still, it’s surprising that your comment was actually noticed among today’s crop of internet detritus, which appears to be heavily focused on selling proxy services, online gambling, and (as always) desires of the flesh. -mod]
Eric
“Climate change” was obviously in full swing around 1905 (/s)
Henry Lawson penned a few words around the subject around then
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-bush-fire/
“The Government should do something”
“Do what?” I ask
“Do something about climate change”
“Yes, but what precisely should the government do?”
“Ban fossil fuels for a start”
“Ok, done but on one condition. On the first still cloudy day, you must tell me which major surgical hospital to close first!”
“Why?”
“Because there is no electricity.”
“But the hospitals have back up power generators!!!”
“They do and they are really good ones too but we just banned diesel fuel, remember! No need to worry, we don’t need hospitals today because the ambulances don’t work anyway. The batteries are flat. The surgeons can’t get to work because their Teslas all have flat batteries, the roads are closed as the traffic lights don’t work and the electric trains are u/s also. Better luck tomorrow hey? By the way, when was your father due for his triple bypass?”
“DENIER”
+10 🙂
From an Engineering perspective, there is a lot going on under the radar, with green energy in Australia. At the moment there is approximately 14GW of Solar farms installed and around 5GW of wind farms and plenty of projects in progress. There has been a 20% reduction of coal fired power stations since 2012. The total amount of fossil fuel generators is around 25GW, which will be reduced to around 23GW by 2022. This of course is “name plate” ratings. There is a problem with delivery as solar and wind farms are often sited in remote areas where there the existing transmission line network is quite skinny in conductor rating capacity. On the positive side of things is there will be an oversupply of energy during daylight, forcing the spot prices to drop dramatically. I doubt whether or politicians are up to date with this progress.
Peter I just spent three hours typing a response to your comment, I pressed the wrong button somewhere along the line and accidentally deleted it. I was trying to copy it for my own personal reference, I have made many comments and would never be able to find past ones.
Tears were shed writing it and I don’t think I could write it again. I live in one of those ‘remote’ areas you refer to so the wind and solar renewables going in here are not under the radar for me, they are very real.
Totalitarianism is here, we have no say and I’m bursting with frustration at not being able to talk to politicians or media, it’s impossible to get past the gatekeepers. I have written reams of comments, it’s cathartic if nothing else.
The are planning for our region to be declared a Renewable Energy Zone, the first of three, thousands of hectares of useless wind and solar renewables. They declare proudly that they are injecting billions of dollars into the regions. Again, billions of dollars on future toxic waste dumps. The history, beautiful landscapes and jobs will be be so badly affected that these beautiful town’s will die.
It’s not remote to me, it’s my home. It will be destroyed for no positive gain.
Umm , forestry management, burn offs etc ,costs a lot of money and upsets a lot of people
Perhaps some of our ‘super’ ‘scientists’ might suggest it is better to burn it now rather than later .
But those scientists might rather add up the CO2 and get paid for it .
No only the MSM which voices the left has been saying that.
Neither major party is going to change policy because they know what the majority of voters think.
The Guardian, BBC and ABC can cry until they run out of tissues not enough voters care.
If a royal commission gets up there will be some real flak coming at the left which is why the PM has flagged having a royal commission. They will simply wait to get out of the fire season then say the number of deaths justifies it.
To the list of causes of droughts, add volcanic activity.
The approbrium that agw disciples inflict on anyone who questions their dogma needs to be called out for what it is –
bullying.
And it’s on display every time some individual exercises their right to disagree with a position.
And ~ half the population do not accept the agw conjecture.
you don’t even have to be a non climate alarmist to admit that bush managemnt is important , you can say it is more important than ever, because of climate change, to clean the bush!!!
he is more a wild life cult denier ..NATURE IS NOT ALWAYS GOOD…
only the greens think “nature” is the solution..
“you don’t even have to be a non climate alarmist to admit that bush managemnt is important , you can say it is more important than ever, because of climate change, to clean the bush!!!”
Come on, now. This is a family blog! 🙂
Vertical explosives . . .
By JOHN CARTER – THE LAND
After the latest tragedies in the Eastern Australia fires with deaths and hundreds of homes lost, we need to address our tree planting policy.
Composer, Bob Brown’s “Give me a home among the gum trees” is dangerous thinking.
We have an urban population that seems infatuated by the Australian Aborigines and their lifestyle.
The First Peoples used fire for centuries to hunt.
The practise altered the species of tree on the Australian landscape – Antarctic beech, gingko, pine etc were destroyed as bushfires hurried the spread of eucalyptus trees and the degradation of Australia’s soil.
The First People saw an estimated top population of 750,000 people yet we are being persuaded to recreate their environment.
We now have 25 million people and it is time for some thought on adaption to a more sustainable environment.
My annual property insurance premiums include more than $900 in fire levies to fund the Rural Fire Service.
The NSW government was to have phased this out but it seems to have forgotten.
I can’t understand the stance of the insurance companies.
How they say nothing as Landcare’s compulsory planting of lethal, highly inflammable indigenous species – particularly eucalypt, continues on their watch is beyond me.
Do they really want their annual fire claims to continue to soar?
Since one quarter of Victoria was burnt in the Black Thursday bushfire in 1851, Wikipedia records over 800 lives lost and 16,000 homes destroyed by bushfire.
Why doesn’t the NSW RFS point out the absurdity of the almost religious planting of eucalypts?
Les Murray referred to them as “vertical explosives”, with the huge increase in risk to its firefighters?
The West Australian Fire Commission has done so on its website, pointing out how the water-filled leaves of poplars, oaks etc have shielded and saved houses while oil-filled eucalypts have produced infernos and deaths.
Portugal is the largest wood pulp producer in Europe, one quarter of its forest land is under introduced eucalypts.
However, Portugal’s terrible fires of 2017 has its government considering the future of planting such flammable species.
An Indian state (Karnataka) has legislated against Eucalypt planting.
California also has moves to ban their planting – because of the wildfires and soil degradation that follows.
Yet Australia’s Landcare fencing grants make their use mandatory!
One would have thought that the 173 deaths and 414 injured, 182,108 hectares burnt on Victoria’s Black Friday in 2009 would have changed policy.
But no, the insurance companies Bushfire CRC and the Rural Fire Service remain mute.
Poplars, Plane trees, and oaks, as well as native figs, are fire resistant.
Oaks are great hydraulic lifters. They bring water up from deep below and survive drought far better than shallow rooted eucalypts, which have a short lifespan on the tablelands.
Oaks provide wonderful shade for livestock and in autumn stock feed on their leaves and acorns.
They are long term, sustainable investments.
It is time for insurance companies and the RFS to tell the Landcare fanatics and gardeners to revise their lethal “Indigenous species” religion.
https://www.theland.com.au/story/6485661/stop-the-eucalypts-they-burn-too-easily/
well said!
and everyones fire levy is going to soar once again ;-(
if they stopped wasting tax $ on stupid climate research modelling and jaunts around the place and used it topay wages for workers and NON native seedlings
we’d see a huge benefit all round.
Warren – “Eucalypt planting”. Early California State officials – forestry (may have been 1-2 dozen people) in the 1890’s-about 1920’s began an effort to ‘repair’ the San Francisco East Bay native tree specie decimation/over harvesting. For what reason today this repair concept/Eucalyptus planting in the Bay Area is a Fog/Intelligence/vacuum. State officials handed out Free, Eucalyptus seedlings at fairs and other Community events around the Coastal areas – eventually finding this ‘free’ gifting to interior areas of California – a known seasonal burn-wildland fire zone. This Free Eucalyptus- or nearly free, was actively pursued up to the 1980-2000 era via private nursery stock business promoting wind breaks/visual borders. There was some “Chip/bio-fuel” propagation in the wind break etc.
Koala bears need eucalyptus trees. Go figure.
Regards
Climate Heretic
South Africa PAYS people (sometimes) to chop down non-native growth – and then leaves the cut trees and bush just lying around. Our local stream lost some beautiful weeping willows. I must assume that a similar attitude is present in Australia?
Piers morgan 😐 Now he is a climate specialist! He is the one who laughed at people for buying the gregs bakery vegan sausage roll.
If idiots like piers can be climate specialists, then maybe greta is right?
Here is Andrew Bolt’s interview with ex CSIRO scientist David Packham a month ago. Craig Kelly was right and would know more about their con tricks than anyone.
I thought that he should have really stirred the pot by saying that the UK emits slightly more CO2 than Australia, and that the UK was only slightly more culpible in causing the fires than Australia.
Then when the inevitable response that ‘blab blah blah per capita emissions” then you ask if they are seriously suggesting that CO2 atoms have flags of origin attached and that somehow a molecule from the UK is bewtter than a molecule from Australia.
These people don’t respond to facts, engaging them on that basis is pointless. Instead you just play along with them, point them down the rabbit hole and watch them disappear up their own arses.
Never try to talk science to a twue believer, you’ll only end up frustrated with a throbbing headache. ‘Feels’ beats science everyday with them.
re: “Never try to talk science to a twue believer”
Vewy twue.
I think that is Kripke’s screen name. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA5Zhir8rbc
I thought that he should have really stirred the pot by saying that the UK emits slightly more CO2 than Australia, and that the UK was only slightly more culpible in causing the fires than Australia.
Then when the inevitable response that ‘blab blah blah per capita emissions” then you ask if they are seriously suggesting that CO2 atoms have flags of origin attached and that somehow a molecule from the UK is better than a molecule from Australia.
These people don’t respond to facts, engaging them on that basis is pointless. Instead you just play along with them, point them down the rabbit hole and watch them disappear up their own arses.
Now you’re a terrible person if you can’t see it: its the human emitted CO2 which is responsible for the fires. If you don’t agree, why, I’m going to get very very very cross with you. Very angry indeed. Because of the carbon. Because you deny carbon. If Australia had shut down the coal mines the day Scott Morrison became Prime Minister, none of this would have happened. None of it! Arsonists would have lit the forests but the fires would not have then spread, or even lit, because only carbon can do that. Greta can see the CO2: why can’t you? If you can’t see the CO2 we are going to lock you up for future murder. I’m clueless and angry, a dangerous combination, especially when you throw in self-righteousness and smug. And carbon. Bloody carbon!
HS That about sums them up!
With an average accumulation rate of between 2 to 4 tonnes per hectare per year of litter on a eucalypt forest floor, it is little wonder a catastrophe is imminent if no mitigation controls are conducted after 5 to 10 years.
It is quite plausible that areas within the current inferno have not seen fire for 30 years or more. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out the consequences on a windy day with low humidity.
Ignoramus Pommy TV celebs, who probably have never been to the bush, yet alone witnessed a wild fire, need to get a grip on reality instead of pushing the man made climate change band wagon.
I’ve just been watching ignorant journalists ripping into Craig Kelly on the news. It makes me so angry, the only politician we have who has the guts to speak out and they slap him down.
Do these journalists have any kind of scientific education that would justify anything ‘they’ have to say, or is it the usual parroting of leftist propaganda? I don’t know if Craig is educated in any of the climate areas but I do know that he has been doing extensive research and has asked many questions of people who do know. He is also an Australian who has an understanding of our unique weather challenges and recurring bushfires.
What right do people from other countries have to dictate to someone who is clearly better situated to grasp a disaster in his own country? I am so sick of ‘knowledge’ being gagged! Unless he was up against someone who knew without a shadow of a doubt through lived experience and proven scientific method that he was wrong, then they should have respectfully kept their mouths shut and let him talk!
Self important leftist journalists who in reality do not care about truth or what happens to anyone other than themselves. These people are too lazy to do any kind of research, they simply get off on trying to outdo each other in their virtue signalling!
Following the link under ” satellites and AI to target and prosecute” in the article and a few clicks further leads to a PDF of Queensland regs:
https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/land/management/vegetation/exemptions
Now I’d probably want more than 20m between my home, family and a raging bush fire but the idea that you are not allowed to clear around your home is fake.
It seems the major problem is opposition to controlled burning which falls into the enviros reflex reaction to oppose everything , without an insight into the pros and cons. ” No, no, no !! What was it you wanted again? ”
Full marks to Craig Kelly for pointing out the truth on TV.
The clearance allowed by the law is utterly inadequate. The other link I provided is someone who broke the law, whose house was one of the few surviving structures after a bushfire.
My cousin was taken to court by Logan City for trimming a diseased tree overhanging his fire break. This was after a site meeting in which the city’s and my cousins arborist agreed the tree was diseased and needed trimming!
$250,000 in court costs and many years later he won and the city paid his costs. However when I congratulated him on his win he said if he had known the stress he would be put under he would not have taken the action he did.
These stupid and dangerous laws are real and are pursued by zealots.
The problem is the “The City” paid only his lawyers costs, not HIS PAIN AND SUFFERING. It should have been the “zealots” made to pay, not the taxpayer, i.e. his neighbors.
That’s the state Government law.
Local council laws have been found in the courts to supercede state and federal laws and are much much stricter on what is allowed.
Even clearing of vegetation that is required to clear weeds such as lantana is unlawful, according to local councils such as the Moreton Bay Regional Council in South East Queensland.
British “TV Personalities” lecturing Aussies about how the bushfires work and what causes them? That will go down well in Oz. At the risk of being banned from WUWT British TV personalities translates into [snip] in Oz. Except for Ricky Gervais, who is of course a legend and can have a beer at my place anytime.
[Not a ban, just a snip. Site rules and all… -mod]
It looks like Kelly’s remarks about the “Weather Girl” were very apt. Laura Tobin indoctrinated with the title “meteorologist” at University of Reading in 2002? That’s pretty well ground zero UK of climate bunk.
The federal seat of Hughes is very prone to bushfires. If anyone in parliament should know anything about bushfires it would be Craig Kelly. I lived in Hughes for many years before retiring to the South Coast.
I saw some of the interview and thought that both Piers Morgan and Laura Tobin were extremely rude, overbearing , disruptive and just used the interview to proclaim their views. They also demonstrated that both of them knew a big fat zero about Australia and did not want to learn
And don’t ask any questions:
“Having worked with the lovely [Laura Tobin] for many years i can also confirm that her experience and knowledge in the meteorological field speaks for itself and should never require explanation or justification”:
-marco petagna. Media Advisor & Senior Operational Meteorologist with UK Met Office.
The comments I thought were on the BBC. However the ABC channel 2 this morning lavishly displayed them without asking for comment from the member.
He was yelled at and treated disgracefully, the ABC must allow him a platform.
We can’t allow overseas commentators to determine our response to such huge and dangerous fires to be ‘a solar panel a day will keep our drought away’.
Drought has no relationship to CO2 levels.
In fact the CO2 hypothesis invokes higher water vapor content in the atmosphere which means more warming and presumably more clouds and rain or snow.
That because the theory holds that it is the knock on effect of CO2 warming that causes the oceans to evaporate faster.
We in Australia are only beginning to understand the real drivers of drought, the Indian Ocean oscillation and ENSO.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/iod/
The beleivers will always tie ‘climate change’ into everything, however there is no trend in Australian Droughts , which means global warming, whether CO2 induced or not, is not the cause