Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to the New Daily, it is inconceivable that greens would oppose measures to prevent fires and improve fire safety.
How Rupert Murdoch is influencing Australia’s bushfire debate
Damien Cave
10:05pm, Jan 9, 2020Deep in the burning forests south of Sydney this week, volunteer firefighters were clearing a track through the woods, hoping to hold back a nearby blaze, when one of them shouted over the crunching of bulldozers.
“Don’t take photos of any trees coming down,” he said. “The greenies will get a hold of it, and it’ll all be over.”
The idea that “greenies” or environmentalists would oppose measures to prevent fires from ravaging homes and lives is simply false. But the comment reflects a narrative that’s been promoted for months by conservative Australian media outlets, especially the influential newspapers and television stations owned by Rupert Murdoch.
…
It’s all part of what critics see as a relentless effort led by the powerful media outlet to do what it has also done in the United States and Britain – shift blame to the left, protect conservative leaders and divert attention from climate change.
“It’s really reckless and extremely harmful,” said Joëlle Gergis, an award-winning climate scientist at the Australian National University.“It’s insidious because it grows. Once you plant those seeds of doubt, it stops an important conversation from taking place.”
News Corp denied playing such a role.
“Our coverage has recognised Australia is having a conversation about climate change and how to respond to it,” the company said in an email. “The role of arsonists and policies that may have contributed to the spread of fire are, however, legitimate stories to report in the public interest.”
…
But there are signs that the Murdoch message is making headway – at least in terms of what people make a priority.
Many firefighters working the smoky hills south of Sydney hesitated to state their views on climate change this week (some said senior leaders had told them to avoid the issue). But they were quick to argue for more back-burning.
Similarly, in Bairnsdale, Tina Moon, whose farm was devastated by the fires, said she was mostly furious about the government’s failure to clear the land around her property.
“I don’t think it’s climate change,” she said.
Read more: https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/01/09/rupert-murdoch-bushfire-debate/
In Australia, green efforts to turn the bushfires into a political point scoring opportunity for their climate action agenda are backfiring horribly.
There is widespread awareness in Australia that greens campaigned against hazard reduction burns. Their friends in the media might have tried to delete some of the evidence, but the Australian people are not idiots, and the internet never truly forgets.
Update (EW): Some more examples of greens impeding controlled burns;
Fears that hazard reduction burns near school redevelopment could hurt pygmy possum population
Protestors have halted planned burns in two locations today
Coastal incineration plan
etc.
We had the ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires in Victoria in Feb 2009 and the usual unprecedented shock horror yada-
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/black-saturday-bushfires
So it didn’t take long to cobble together the new Australian Standard for Bushfire Attack Levels AS3959-2009 and subsequent amendments as new wisdom comes to light-
https://hia.com.au/business-information/standards-regulations/building-in-bushfire-prone-areas
So every one of those currently destroyed homes many of them old weatherboard relics from past sawmilling will need a BAL Assessment to be rebuilt-
https://www.sabushfiresolutions.com.au/bushfire-attack-level-bal-assessments/
Well whilst many will decide they don’t want to go through it again rebuilding many will also find the insurance payouts are not sufficient to meet the new building requirements anyway. It’s what we do with a National Construction Code and you can sit on old buildings and their shortcomings as long as you like but the moment you want to renovate or build anew then welcome to current Standards for the health safety welfare and amenity of the occupants. No ifs buts or maybes folks.
Started on military land *AFTER* weapons fire. Duh!
Not exactly.
Many homes are in unsewered areas, and the lots are two small to accommodate the waste water systems. Many residents were allowed to rebuild using old style septics.
A lot of burnt homes were immediately adjacent to government forests with thousands of acres of bush. There was no way they could meet the new guidelines. There was a lot of looking the other way by authorities.
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 by 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?
I agree – if the people who have got the time to protest march in cities about climate change actually did something constructive it would be of more use!!!! Nothing Australia does is going to stop climate change anyway!
“Joëlle Gergis” Can’t be that award winning as I have never heard of her.
I see Nick is up to his old tricks again. Sad.
““Joëlle Gergis” Can’t be that award winning as I have never heard of her”
Read all about it.
http://joellegergis.com/?page_id=7
In 2007 she was one of three national finalists for the 2007 Eureka Prize for Young Leaders in Environmental Issues and Climate Change, and was one of nineteen Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists’ Science Leaders Scholarship recipients selected nationwide. Professor Tim Flannery, the 2007 Australian of the Year, was one of her mentors during the program aimed at training outstanding young scientists to help bridge the communication gap between science and public policy.
In 2012 Joëlle was awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) fellowship, and her team won the 2014 Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research – informally known as the ‘Oscars of Australian Science’.
In 2015 Joëlle was awarded the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research in the Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne. In February 2018, she was selected to serve as a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report – a global, state-of-the art review of climate change science.
Joëlle’s book Sunburnt Country: The future and history of climate change in Australia, was released by Melbourne University Publishing in April 2018.
In August 2018, Joëlle joined the Climate Council – Australia’s leading independent body providing expert advice to the Australian public on climate change and policy.
In November 2019 she received the 2019 AMOS Science Outreach Award, a national prize for science communication awarded by the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (AMOS), Australia’s peak professional body for climate science.
Don’t want to. As I said she can’t be that great if I have never heard of her before.
I assume this is the same Joelle Gergis that Steve McIntyre took down here?
https://climateaudit.org/2016/07/21/joelle-gergis-data-torturer/
Yes. Here’s the first paragraph from that post:
You should read Climate Audit.
Nick. You are obsessing about the photo. No one is claiming that these handful of protesters is somehow responsible for the tragic fires in Australia. It is not these individuals, but it is the widespread culture in which these people thrive. This culture is pervasive across much of Western Civilization, from the indoctrination of small children to the highest levels of governments: Nature is good and beautiful. Humans are unnatural and, therefore, bad.
Some of the first commenters on this thread appear to be Australians reporting on their first hand experience with regulations that made it extremely difficult or impossible to legally protect their own property from bush fires. This topic isn’t about 10 people in Nowa Nowa, but about a whole culture of regulation and intimidation, largely fueled by environmental scare stories that are grossly inaccurate or just completely made up, and championed by the liberal media and liberal judges.
The fires are revealing that the culture of regulation has gone too far, and the ‘Greens’ will have a well deserved set-back in their desire to control everyone. But it will just be a set-back. I doubt they will change their narrative or their efforts. They just won’t be as successful as they have been in the past, at least for a little while.
“No one is claiming that these handful of protesters is somehow responsible for the tragic fires in Australia.”
Well,they can’t seem to find any other actual people; just some deep state myths. The fact is that regulation is controlled by the local and state governments that the people elect. And they are not electing (majority) Greens.
Back in the 1950s they couldn’t find any white racists in the Ku Klux Klan either. And yet black men were getting lynched…
Nick. Denial is not just a river in Africa….
It’s not denial, it’s diversion.
Nick are you messing with people or don’t you really know.
For all non Australians , “The Greens” is a left wing political party. They do however have some environment policies, based on anti – everything
The real drivers against all types of clearing are the individual greens ( may or may not be lefties and may or may not be members of the greens) in all levels of government.
It doesn’t really matter if a commenter refers to greens or the greens
“This culture is pervasive across much of Western Civilization, from the indoctrination of small children to the highest levels of governments: Nature is good and beautiful. Humans are unnatural and, therefore, bad.”
IOW, four legs good, two legs bad.
There is widespread evidence in print and photo in Australia that Greenies have done their best to stop all-hazard reduction burns. The bushfires occurred not in hot temperatures but in areas with fire load that had not been cleared during winter. The Greenies have been supported in the media and by local government who all blocked or spoken against hazard reduction. Fortunately, the Australian people can remember the past and in case they do not, the internet WayBack never forgets.
The Greens pull about 10% of the votes in Australian Federal elections.
However, Their ABC will seek comments from The Greens on almost every issue.
The ABC are Charter bound to provide balance and news/opinion without bias – but you’d never know!
The reality is that the vast majority of Australians have ZERO interest in what The Greens have to say about anything.
It’s actually worse than that they use greenpeace twitter feed as a reference for news storys. I lodged a complaint about one because the greenpeace twitter feed made a mistake which ABC copied. Any source check from any of source and you would know it was wrong.
The speed at which the fire advances is related mostly to wind speed, not fuel load. A grass fire in a howling wind is almost impossibly to extinguis. But the heat and intensity is proportional to the fuel load. Try this experiment. Light a single match and examine the flame. Then hold 3 or 4 matches together and light them and see the difference.
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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.
Scott Morrison’s input to the royal commission review will be worth studying. Will he cravenly admit that he should be supporting action to prevent climate change, in order to garner green votes. Or will he have the spine to stand and say that fires are routine but their effects have been exacerbated by the adoption of green policies? Surely he is in a good position to stand up to green idiocy, given the public awareness of green policies and arsonists but will he cave in? Will the BBC demonize Murdoch? The coming year is going to be turbulent.
About 180 arsonists have been arrested so far in Australia this fire season. Its been deliberately kept quiet in the press. Many of them are mentally challenged, a lot are children not knowing the danger of what they do, some are elderly who didnt realise anymore. But its going to be interesting to see who the rest are, and what affiliations they have.
“Its been deliberately kept quiet in the press.”
No, it was trumpeted by the Murdoch press. And it’s a lie.
Its a lie just because you say so, Nick? Comments on this blog suggest your statements are often not very accurate, but I guess you know best in this case. Better than my contacts in Victoria Police.
Comments on this thread, not just by me, show why it isn’t true. They took a report listing total numbers of charges and warnings resulting from all bushfire-related offences, including things like dropping a cigarette on the pavement, and listed them as the “arson arrest toll”.
Here is a story about the resulting internal ructions at the Australian.
If the magnitude of the arson is as the police are saying, and its being kept from the press, then comments from press sources are perhaps not the best guide.
So as I said at the top of this thread, “Its going to be interesting to see who the rest are……
This graph was posted in a Jo Nova article from March 2019, long before the present fires, showing that as preventative burns in WA decreased, so wildfires increased. The link appears to be abundantly clear, and yet still the Greens refuse to allow logic to overcome emotion.
You cannot run a nation or a civilisation on emotion.
http://joannenova.com.au/2019/03/too-much-fuel-causes-extreme-bush-fires-not-climate-change
My little niece stumped me one day by saying “what is a lefty liberal”. Had to think about that one for a moment, but came up with “someone who makes decisions based upon fantasies and emotions”.
Ralph
“someone who makes decisions based upon fantasies and emotions”
That could apply to just about any ideology.
I’m a farmer and an economist. I live 100km south of Australia’s capital Canberra. We farm beef cattle.
My farm has bush fire on three sides encroaching to as close as 8kms. We have been on alert for two weeks.
The national park on my western boundary is mostly dense eucalyptus forest. It is more than 240,000 acres in size. It has not had hazard reduction burns in at least 20 years.
We work to keep eucalyptus out of our cleared pastures. I have one paddock adjoining the national park forest of around 50 acres where, which after rotating it out of production for two years, had eucalyptus regrowth that quickly took over. We are not allowed to clear this regrowth as the trees are more than 2m tall.
I would like to do a controlled burn in this paddock to reduce fallen tree limbs and grass before the bushfire gets here. This is allowed, but only if I have a 40m cleared boundary between the paddock and the forest, .but I am not allowed to clear the boundary.
So we watch and wait. When the wind blows from the west we evacuate our children.
It is not climate change. It is stupid policy.
When the royal commission is announced lodge a submission stating the case, the more of us that do it the more they can not ignore it.
Good luck mate.
In the previous solar minimum in 2009, significantly more people died.
“The most deadly conflagration, which claimed 121 lives, was sparked by a faulty power pole near the township of Kilmore East, 37 miles (60 km) north of Melbourne.”
“On February 7, Victorians were told to brace for a record heat wave—with temperatures soaring to 115.5 °F (46.4 °C)—combined with gale-force winds of up to 56 miles per hour (90 km/hr). That day more than 47 major fires erupted across the state, 14 of them claiming lives or causing significant damage. With its abundant forests and hot, dry climate, Australia had often suffered from deadly bushfires, most notably the 1939 “Black Friday” blaze in Victoria, in which 71 people were killed, and the 1983 “Ash Wednesday” fires in Victoria and South Australia, where 75 people perished. The scale of the 2009 fires—attributed to extreme weather conditions coupled with a severe and protracted drought that had created tinder-dry vegetation across the state—was unprecedented and left the country in a state of shock.”
https://www.britannica.com/event/Australia-bushfires-of-2009
It is entirely the fault of the Leftists that most of the fuel feeding the fires is there feeding the fires.
Their fault and they need to pay huge fines and reparations.
Announce a large prescribed* burn (after the fire calms down, of course) and invite the media. Bring your own camera people, etc. When the “we don’t really oppose prescribed burns” crowd comes to protest, film and post all over the internet. Repeat as often as possible.
(*term used in California because these burns may or may not remain controlled)
The Volunteer Firefighters Association (VFFA), the body representing the Voice of Volunteer Rural Firefighters in NSW refutes the claim by green alarmists that climate change is the cause of the recent bushfires in New South Wales.
So, where are the firefighters pointing the finger?
The VFFA is angered by comments from the green lobby groups that tackling climate change was more important than prescribed burning of forest fuels to reduce bushfire risk. The real blame rests with the greens and their ideology as they continue to oppose and undermine our efforts to conduct hazard reduction in the cooler months and to prevent private landowners from clearing their lands to reduce bushfire risk.
Hazard reduction is the only proven management tool rural firefighters have to reduce the intensity and spread of bushfires and this has been recognised in numerous bushfire enquires since the Stretton enquiry into the 1939 Victorian Bushfires.
The 2009 Black Saturday commission reinforced the message:
Prescribed burning is one of the main tools for fire management on public land. it cannot prevent bushfire, but it decreases fuel loads and so reduces the spread and intensity of bushfires. By reducing the spread and intensity of bushfires, it also helps protect flora and fauna. Ironically, maintaining pristine forests untouched by fuel reduction can predispose those forests to greater destruction in the event of a bushfire.
The Greens are trying to frantically re-write history by insisting that they support hazard reduction burning. What they don’t say is that they make sure that hazard reduction is choked by green tape.
The amount of ‘green tape’ we have to go through to get a burn approved is beyond frustrating; says Peter Cannon [President of the VFFA]. The VFFA is calling on the NSW State Government to reduce the amount of green tape involved in planning and conducting hazard reductions, so that our Volunteer Firefighters can get on with the job of conducting fire prevention works in the cooler months to prevent the inevitable summer bushfire disasters that are now becoming a more regular feature […]To increase the area treated by prescribed burning on bushfire prone lands from the current level of less than 1% per annum to a minimum of 5% per annum, as recommended by the Victorian Royal Commission and many leading bushfire experts.
volunteerfirefighters.org.au/green-tape-prevents-volunteer-rural-firefighters-reducing-bushfire-risk
Prescribed burning is not the sole answer to Australia’s bushfire problem, but it’s one of the biggies. One way or the other, vegetation needs to be stopped from building up to catastrophic levels.
In the meantime, the green lobby needs to stop trying to falsely blame climate change. Trying to scare everyone with imaginary bogey-men is not just nonsense, it’s deadly nonsense.
The VFFA are entitled to their opinion, but it should be pointed out that they only represent a small fraction of volunteer firefighters. The RFSA represents over 70,000 volunteers. The VFFA won’t say how many members they have. They campaign for and donate to the Shooters and Fishers party.
That’s fine. They’re allowed to.
But calling them “the body representing the Voice of Volunteer Rural Firefighters in NSW” without mentioning those details is a bit weak.
The line from the firefighter regarding not to take photos is just typical Aussie humour. Volunteer firefighters are not inner city greenies and this comment is just a bit of anti-green bantor to generate a laugh between the firies. The reporting of the joke as evidence of a Murdock conspiracy to squash the climate debate is typical of green alarmists who don’t even realise the joke is on them.