Australian fires

A bit of perspective:

BBC News just showed a map of the burn area of their bush fires.  It seems to run from Brisbane to Melbourne.  A website gave the distance as about 1050 miles.  That's about as far as Boston to Atlanta.


Frankly, it's so overwhelming I don't think I can process it. It's unreal. It's like some disaster movie, after the meteor strikes.

It's amazing that so few people have died. Though I heard a report that half a billion animals had died.


Actually, north of Brisbane - Some if you know Noosa, the Glasshouse Mountains, Peregian Beach (the nudist beach around there) and inland where the rainforest is. 

To give an idea of the evacuations, the Nowra/Bomaderry twin-towns have a usual population of 37,800+. Given this is tourist season, there were more. There’s also a naval base around there/Shoalhaven, the Jarvis Bay base. I haven’t heard anything about the base personnel and families but they’d have been evac’d too.


marksierra said:

The other thread on the topic

https://maplewood.worldwebs.com/forums/discussion/hold-our-australian-neighbors-in-the-light

I'm not sure about the half a billion figure.

 Yep, that’s what they’re saying, @marksierra. Many pushed to extinction status. Includes newly discovered micro bats, insects, spiders, livestock, fish etc. 


marksierra said:

The other thread on the topic

https://maplewood.worldwebs.com/forums/discussion/hold-our-australian-neighbors-in-the-light

I'm not sure about the half a billion figure.

 I find the number hard to believe, but it's been widely reported.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=half+billion+animals+australia


joanne said:

marksierra said:

The other thread on the topic

https://maplewood.worldwebs.com/forums/discussion/hold-our-australian-neighbors-in-the-light

I'm not sure about the half a billion figure.

 Yep, that’s what they’re saying, @marksierra. Many pushed to extinction status. Includes newly discovered micro bats, insects, spiders, livestock, fish etc. 

 May I, just because I'm a pedant, refer to the figure as 'close to 500 million'?  It's still a horrible number, but I grew up knowing the British rather than the American numbering system, and I'd hate to get confused - even, and especially, now.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/04/ecologists-warn-silent-death-australia-bushfires-endangered-species-extinction

From the link ...

One estimate of the number of animals affected by the fires has come from the University of Sydney ecologist Prof Chris Dickman.

Using previous research compiled in 2007 on the impact of land clearing in New South Wales, Dickman estimated that about 480 million mammals, birds and reptiles had been affected – but not necessarily all killed. His estimate did not include bats, which are susceptible to fires and are also critical for moving around seeds and pollination.


Perspective update:

The current official estimate of th fire size is approx.  20 million acres.

VT— 6.1

NH- 6.0 

NJ- 5.6

CT- 3.5

Tot 21.2

2 ways of looking at this their fire area is more than 3 times the size of out state;  or almost the size of 4 states.


I’ve just read that in the US and elsewhere a lot of misinformation about how the fires started is being spread. Please note: 99% of them have nothing to do with arson or firebugs!

Few non-Australians understand just how tough our ‘total fire ban’ days are. They really are total. That means nothing that creates a spark or open flame is allowed: you can’t strike a match or use a lighter for a cigarette, you can’t smoke outside, or butt your smoke out outside; you can’t use power tools like angle-grinders or lawnmowers or even post-hole diggers in case they hit stones and spark; no bbqs, no chainsaws etc.

So when police talk about fines and offences in relation to fire bans, someone might have been trying to clear around their property using the blower and chainsaw/power trimmers (thinking they’d be quick and efficient, and who’d know?), but actually breaking the law. 
Or they thought using their electric barbie/grill outside was ok, not thinking about the sizzling fat and smoke could travel far enough in the breeze in this extra-dry summer to create disaster.

Please also note that the hazard reduction burns argument is a non-starter for this season: it’s been refuted many times. The Greens have nothing to do a perceived lack of preparation via hazard reduction; what ‘reduction’ could done was; the preparation time between fire seasons is much shorter; and everything is so dry that vegetation that has never before burnt is now ash and smouldering stumps. 
Please help quash those ‘alternative facts’.


If you’re ever looking for an example of climate change today, look no further. 


joanne said:

Few non-Australians understand just how tough our ‘total fire ban’ days are. They really are total. That means nothing that creates a spark or open flame is allowed: you can’t strike a match or use a lighter for a cigarette, you can’t smoke outside, or butt your smoke out outside; you can’t use power tools like angle-grinders or lawnmowers or even post-hole diggers in case they hit stones and spark; no bbqs, no chainsaws etc.


One of the worst fires in Northern California was caused by a man who was trying to dig a wasp nest out of the ground. He hit a stake with a hammer, it sparked and an area half the size of Rhode Island burned.  Hundreds of people lost their homes and a firefighter lost his life.


The Australian Academy of Science has just released a video on the ecological aspects of Australia's bushfires, and has upped the numbers lost to double what was estimated earlier.


WxNut2.0 said:

If you’re ever looking for an example of climate change today, look no further. 

And if you look for a an example of our deplorable state of education here, look no further.

We have a president calling climate change a hoax. We have federal agencies implementing dirty climate policies. We have over 40% of the public cheering this on.

"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." - Trump Tweet

The dumbing down of our society through the media, the lack of education through poor schools, allows for a dumbed-down electorate, and for him (Trump) to be able to actually get 63 million votes. - Michael Moore

We can cry over or decry Trump & Ilk, but the real fault lies with the public.


Klinker said:

joanne said:

Few non-Australians understand just how tough our ‘total fire ban’ days are. They really are total. That means nothing that creates a spark or open flame is allowed: you can’t strike a match or use a lighter for a cigarette, you can’t smoke outside, or butt your smoke out outside; you can’t use power tools like angle-grinders or lawnmowers or even post-hole diggers in case they hit stones and spark; no bbqs, no chainsaws etc.

One of the worst fires in Northern California was caused by a man who was trying to dig a wasp nest out of the ground. He hit a stake with a hammer, it sparked and an area half the size of Rhode Island burned.  Hundreds of people lost their homes and a firefighter lost his life.

 There’s an out-of-control fire in several suburbs of Perth, around a major fuel distribution yard. It’s now believed that fire was started by burst tires under a boat trailer driving on a road in a semi-industrial area; there were strong easterly winds that caught and carried the sparks. Photos have been published of the road marks, tires and the vehicles. 

They’re serious when they say ‘don’t tow on total fire ban days’.


joanne said:

 There’s an out-of-control fire in several suburbs of Perth, around a major fuel distribution yard. It’s now believed that fire was started by burst tires under a boat trailer driving on a road in a semi-industrial area; there were strong easterly winds that caught and carried the sparks. Photos have been published of the road marks, tires and the vehicles.

 They've since learned it was a trailer which lost a wheel, with the axle dragging along the road and creating the sparks.

See further down this story ...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-10/fears-baldivis-fire-near-perth-kwinana-freeway-could-flare-again/11857328?WT.ac=statenews_wa


Ironic that Rupert Murdoch and his fake news outlets are destroying his birth nation first.


The end of this week and the weekend is forecast to be a bad one for the fires already burning, with a number of blazes burning in Victoria's High Country flaring up to an emergency level already today.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-10/victoria-significant-bushfire-threat-for-friday-and-saturday/11856384

This image is of a CFA volunteer looking at the bushfire smoke cloud near Dinner Plain.


dave said:

Ironic that Rupert Murdoch and his fake news outlets are destroying his birth nation first.

Really? Its not the arsonists and the environmentalists who cause this? That this has nothing at all to do with global warming.  grrr

And the anti-environmentalist media, the Murdoch empire in particular, has gone all-out on disinformation, trying to place the blame on arsonists and “greenies” who won’t let fire services get rid of enough trees.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/opinion/australia-fires.html



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