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How's everyone fairing? My BIL lives near Lithgow and his house has been surrounded by flames but none have come across the paddocks. Fingers crossed they will be OK. Mum in law house is in a bad area, so we'll have to wait and see what happens. ------------------------------ A mate of mine has just told me he's shagging his girlfriend and her twin. I said "How can you tell them apart?" He said "Her brother's got a moustache!" | ||
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Luckily not here in Newcastle but loads of ash and smoke at times. I work near Mudgee and very Smokey. Drive past one large fire going there and home at end of week. Seems like the whole eastern half of the state has huge fires with millions of acres burning or burnt. I am not sure how long the volunteers can last. Seems without end. Many businesses are severely affected on roads that have been closed for up to two months. DRSS | |||
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My Dau in Canberra and grandson were planning a vacation around the areas that are burning. Decided to go somewhere else instead. Iv'e forgotten where. They left yesterday, back around the 6th. George "Gun Control is NOT about Guns' "It's about Control!!" Join the NRA today!" LM: NRA, DAV, George L. Dwight | |||
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Its really gone to hell now, with bad fires in almost all states. They've come down to the NSW South Coast, and Victoria's East Gippsland is a no-go area. Though everyone was told to leave the whole region, hundreds of people are clinging to life near the beach at Mallacoota and the navy has been sent to evacuate the most vulnerable. There's another fire up near Gryphon's, thought in danger of joining with those in East Gippsland. God help Victoria when the usual fire season comes. | |||
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Pictures of burnt up koalas all over facebook. Damn sad. ~Ann   | |||
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12 people dead Ann, hundreds of thousands of acres burnt. Very sad. ------------------------------ A mate of mine has just told me he's shagging his girlfriend and her twin. I said "How can you tell them apart?" He said "Her brother's got a moustache!" | |||
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About 5 million acres burnt. After years of drought, little hazard reduction burning, land locked up in National Parks and poor track maintenance the inevitable has happened. My condolences for those that have lost loved ones. Also thoughts for those that have lost homes, and the wildlife. DRSS | |||
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This is why this shit happens https://www.dailytelegraph.com...taQQjgQjn5iRSiMW0_rg ------------------------------ A mate of mine has just told me he's shagging his girlfriend and her twin. I said "How can you tell them apart?" He said "Her brother's got a moustache!" | |||
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Well Bakes, that's the Murdoch-press outlook on it. I don't suppose the drought and record temperatures have anything to do with it. | |||
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Grass and brush needs to be controlled yearly. OR IT WILL burn YEARLY. Fact of life where the sun shines. George "Gun Control is NOT about Guns' "It's about Control!!" Join the NRA today!" LM: NRA, DAV, George L. Dwight | |||
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Yes I know its not that simple, but the need to control burn is a well established technique. All the more reason to control burn when you are headed into a drought period. ------------------------------ A mate of mine has just told me he's shagging his girlfriend and her twin. I said "How can you tell them apart?" He said "Her brother's got a moustache!" | |||
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I was listening to talk radio and Oz fires came up. The man interviewed, who appeared to be an expert on the situation, said past controlled burns had no positive effect. They still burned up this time around anyway. I reckon your long drought has been the critical factor here. Praying for you all. ~Ann | |||
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Beware of the radio experts Ann.  My late father in law was a local bush fire brigade captain and they would burn off regularly. As soon as they were told they couldn't anymore the intensity of the fire got worse. We've always had bush fire, but reducing the fuel loads in certain areas helped.------------------------------ A mate of mine has just told me he's shagging his girlfriend and her twin. I said "How can you tell them apart?" He said "Her brother's got a moustache!" | |||
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Same situation in California. The so called environmentalists block the clearing of brush under power lines. Result is fires burning through towns. M | |||
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Oh, for sure. Especially here in the US, there are some very slanted programs. Especially our NPR, "National Public Radio". It's very liberal oriented and biased. That also happens to be the station that had the interview. ~Ann | |||
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Controlled burns certainly help and seem to be very useful in the Northern Territory and East Africa. Trouble is here in Victoria there are only a few days some years when it is not either too cold/wet or too hot and dangerous, and when sufficient people and equipment can be found to conduct enough burns safely. Further, these days are being compressed by climate change. Forty years ago it was cold enough in our high country to hunt for eight or nine months a year. Now continuous cold only lasts about two months and the snakes are out in August. | |||
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Sam: WE see that now, but, the earth has been warming up for over 20,000 years. Damned little mankind can do to change that. George "Gun Control is NOT about Guns' "It's about Control!!" Join the NRA today!" LM: NRA, DAV, George L. Dwight | |||
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I don't have the pattern of progression at hand, George, but it is true that temperatures have waxed and waned over the eons. It may be for instance that we had some man-made global warming during the Middle Ages because of the clearing of the great European forests and this may have had something to do with Greenland's temperate climate at the time. However, I follow serious and earnest scientific opinion and the overwhelming consensus there is that we are in deeper doo doo than has been seen for much longer than 20,000 years. As you may remember from the way tobacco companies fended off claims their products were a risk to health for 40 years, science is better at disproving things than it is at proving them. However, the man who coined the word 'scientist', maybe 200 years ago, also asserted the scientific concept of consilience; where though something is difficult to 'prove' with any single research endeavour, confidence about the truth may be established when a multitude of triangulations all point to the same conclusion. On the issue of what is causing the warming since industrialisation, one of the most memorable research projects I recall was James Hansen's work at NASA on why Venus is hundreds of degrees hotter despite its being only a bit closer to the sun than we are - and it turned out the reason is because its atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide. While I don't suppose we're headed for Venus in that Earth might get to 500 degrees, some scientists believe the process here may become exponential. One or two degrees hotter doesn't sound much but from a recent average of 14C even that might mean an increase of 15 per cent on what we remember as children. And once we get to 16 degrees, the permafrost will be melting, releasing lots of methane that is at least 15 times worse as a greenhouse agent than CO2; for the time being the oceans absorb a lot of carbon but there is apparently a point at which they can't help further, leaving us just with acidified seas and more-and-more-rapid temperature rises. Though burnt forest are in theory renewable, initially the fires we're having are putting massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere and, combined with the deliberate burning and clearing of forests in Brazil and Indonesia (forests that may never come back to absorb carbon), may stoke that exponential temperature rise, helping to take us to a point where things can't be turned around. So, whatever we do directly against these fires, they are truly just band-aid solutions. Unless the politicians of the world combine against the recalcitrant ones economically to get serious action on global warming, the fires will just get worse and more frequent as the temperature rises until, as on Venus, there's nothing left to burn. | |||
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Granted the rain forests loss is a major problem. I just read a book: "The Time of the Buffalo" (American buff's) Showed some drawings based on computer input I believe. The land bridge from Alaska to Russia was estimated to be around 300 miles across N to S around 14-15,000 years ago. Most of Canada and the US was covered in ice up to 2 miles thick. Nat'l Geo mag showed some sinks in Florida with man made tools and such I think was claimed to be 100 feet under water or ground. That's been several years ago, I can't recall every detail. Getting old enough I have trouble recalling what I had for breakfast. Cheers Sam B. Dau sent me info: esa.gov.au that shows the fires and such over there. I'm not subscribed to it so can't open the fire areas. Much cooler there today. She's in Conder. George "Gun Control is NOT about Guns' "It's about Control!!" Join the NRA today!" LM: NRA, DAV, George L. Dwight | |||
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Something I found on good old Facebook. OUR BUSHFIRES Here's a bloke who knows what he is talking about Have a read and see if you agree You can't blame climate change when you've restricted access to millions of hectares of densely thickened eucalypt forests and wonder why they go up in smoke. You can't blame climate change when you haven't back burned this millennium. You can't blame climate change when there are no fire breaks or cool buffer zones installed around towns, houses and critical infrastructure. Some people haven't seemed to notice that Australia is the second driest continent on earth, it gets very hot around this time of year, every year and our vegetation has evolved over the last 60,000 years to love bushfires. Big ones. The Bureau of Meteorology have claimed that the "strong winds and high temperatures" are the reason for the catastrophic fires. No doubt wind and heat help flame the fires but they aren't the "reason" or the "cause". The real reason is Governments - local, state and Federal - over the past 3 decades have bowed to conservationists and green groups by locking up more and more of our national estate and sacrificing them to the flame every bushfire season. Even if the climate is changing, does that mean we should just throw our hands in the air and let our national estate and biodiversity go up in smoke every year? I don't profess to have all the answers but here are a few less dramatic things we can do, other than trying to stop the climate changing, to prevent our national estate, our wildlife and our carbon being cooked every fire season: • Recognise that fire has always been a part of the Australian landscape but it's the fuel loads when fires hit that is really important. A fire can't burn if there is nothing or little to burn. • Just by locking up a piece of scrub and calling it a national park does not make it so. By expanding national parks because it "feels nice" dilutes the resources to protect the areas of our environment that truly are special and endangered and creates a massive estate which is difficult to manage and maintain. • One of the best forms of fire fuel reduction is low intensity cattle grazing. It's low risk, low impact and puts people into areas that actually know how to manage the country and know how to fight fires. Anyone who says cattle are bad for the environment and biodiversity should go and ask the millions of animals, birds and insects currently being incinerated in national parks and native forests. Fires in open grass lands with lower fuel loads can be managed and contained. Those in forests are uncontrollable. We need to reintroduce low intensity silvicultural practices across our forest estate to reduce fuel loads, increase forest health, reduce noxious weeds and prevent catastrophic fires. All fire breaks should be assessed on the type, height and fire risk of vegetation not some demarcated figure ie. 10 meters. We also need to look at cool buffers where vegetation is retained but canopy cover and stem density reduced. These should be implemented off fire breaks, roads, access lines, around houses, subdivisions and towns. These buffers should be regularly burnt (every year) which reduces the area of forest to be maintained with more frequent larger hazard reduction burns which are risky and difficult to manage. Native vegetation must also be back burned when the seasonal conditions suit not on prescribed fire rotations set by some university academic or government bureaucrat. For decades government policy has been focused on kicking people out of the environment. From foresters to graziers to beekeepers - there has been increasing restriction on access to our national estate. This takes people out of the environment who are best equipped to manage it and are willing to invest their own time, resources and lives to protect it. Stop blaming climate change. Even if the climate is changing, does that mean we should just throw our hands in the air and let our national estate and biodiversity go up smoke every year? Sitting around blaming the weather for all of our problems is juvenile and futile. If the climate is changing, it's more important than even that we start to look at practical and affordable solutions to how best manage the impacts of fire. My thoughts are with those families and communities currently battling these fires. Let's hope some common sense prevails to avoid these unnecessary disasters into the future. TOM Marland ------------------------------ A mate of mine has just told me he's shagging his girlfriend and her twin. I said "How can you tell them apart?" He said "Her brother's got a moustache!" | |||
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A much more realistic approach than the current "climate change" blame game. | |||
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Bakes that was well said. When this is over, the immediate fire danger component, it will be interesting to see if any political party has the will to put in place proper hazard reduction and mitigation, proper building standards for higher risk areas etc. Or will the vital green vote dampen any enthusiasm for doing what is necessary. Historically we have had some huge destructive fires and what has eventuated - not much your honour! DRSS | |||
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I don't doubt many national parks are badly managed. Anyone who knows of the excessive deer populations we've had here know that restrictions on hound-hunting in many areas has a lot to do with the problem. However, the massive fires in virtually all Australia jurisdictions, governed by both conservative and progressive parties, suggests there's something bigger going on. The temperatures get higher and higher and, as any science student should know, if something gets hot enough it will ignite with the slightest provocation. One of the most worrying sources of that ignition this season has been dry lightning strikes and I fear on a hot day no amount of previous cool burning will stop those fires taking off. On the way to getting our leaders in a mood to tackle the warming temperatures behind these trends, I'd like to see a ban on fossil-fuel companies donating to political parties, just as we do (or should) developers. | |||
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I agree 100%. Nice to know I’m not the only hunter who sees things this way. | |||
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And here we can barely see 200 yards in bushfire smokethat we have had for six weeks.Seven local fires started way before these super fires and while out now we are getting smoke from the other big fires. Posts: 87 | Location: Victoria Australia | Registered: 07 September 2002 | |||
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Saw the aussie 60 minutes episode yesterday on the wastage of water from the Murrey river and the farmers who are not allowed to use it. Its all part of the same problem in my opinion. looking at the facts its hard not to agree that climate change is at least in part made worse by man. The trouble is while so many agree, it always comes down to looking for someone who is not yourself to blame or to cover the costs. Here in NZ we have a massive land grab going on by way of forcing farmers to plant land into trees to cover climate change With little else expected from the rest of our citizens. Who are happy to go along with that rational as it does not affect them. | |||
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That`s about right too. Posts: 87 | Location: Victoria Australia | Registered: 07 September 2002 | |||
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183 arrested for arson related to fires. But media blames climate change. https://www.thepostmillennial....d-by-climate-change/ | |||
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Yes, Craig, when all is considered, the fairest way to combat the problem is with a carbon tax, then use the money gained to subsidise worthy stuff like planting trees and fostering renewables, preferably in areas where people might lose jobs as coal mining shrinks. Emmissions trading is the next best thing but tends to be a beano for the banks and can be fiddled by countries trying to count outdated free kicks they were given 20 years ago. On the matter of the Murray, I do think it is a bit pointless saving water for the Coorong, because it is going to be swamped by rising sea levels, anyway. However, I have got an idea on how we might save the Darling's fish and some of the farmers along the way. As long as I can remember, country people have been saying we should capture some of the supposedly excessive rainfall in north Queensland and bring it south. I had always thought of that as a pipe dream  until it occurred to me such a project could be combined with pumped hydro, to foster renewable energy and provide jobs for employment-starved regions.Instead of pumping water up to the same dam all the time, build a series of high dams along the Great Divide between a number of lower dams that already exist. Any time renewables produced more power than was needed for normal supply, they could pump water up to the next high dam to the south. Then, when 'base load' was needed, this water could be run over turbines on the southerly slopes, to be captured in the next low dam farther south. Rivers like the Burdekin could be used to progress water south between dams and some more low dams might be needed as well. Eventually, (I hope) a dam could be built on some high ground near the Carnarvon Gorge. Water from that one could be released into the Warrego or perhaps the Maranoa, and hopefully some would end up in the Darling. This supposes suitable sites for the high dams, of course, high enough to work. It would cost billions, too, but that is the way of all great projects. Rational economics is not just accountancy, as some of our politicians seem to think it is, and having been quantitatively eased against by most of the OECD, its time our government also spent some serious money it doesn't actually have. | |||
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Or revisit the Bradfield Scheme perhaps? Posts: 87 | Location: Victoria Australia | Registered: 07 September 2002 | |||
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I had been wondering if this disaster was at least partially related to unnatural forest fuel loads, failure to do adequate controlled burns and failure to provide defensible space around homes and neighborhoods. We have these same issues very much at play here in the American West. I believe your eucalyptus forests are even more flammable than our vast juniper infestations. A firefighter once told me that having junipers near one's house was like keeping 55-gallon barrels of gasoline around the yard, with the lids off. And yes, climate change may be a part of this nightmare -- but that only makes it even more critical that we aggressively manage our wildlands, not less so. I hope the Greenies can grasp the truth of this, but I doubt they will, as most seem driven more by zeal than by reason. God save us all from zealots of any stripe. There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t. – John Green, author | |||
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Maybe someone has mentioned this already but were the previous rains heavy enough to produce unusually heavy grass cover(fuel) for the fires? | |||
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Our Eucy forests give off oil in a haze on hot days and its basically almost at flash point. The Blue Mountains west of Sydney got their name from the oily haze that made them look blue from a distance. Any Aussie that has put a leafy eucy branch on a going fire can tell you how volatile they are. Posts: 87 | Location: Victoria Australia | Registered: 07 September 2002 | |||
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Wow! I had no ideal that eucy trees were like that. | |||
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Yes, though my thought was that diverting water into Lake Eyre might be analogous with water for the Coorong - good for ducks and pelicans perhaps but of no great economic benefit. Are you OK up there, mate? I'd been wondering whether the fires may have got you. | |||
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Had 5000 acres burn into our bush cattle lease country but not into any clear here,had smoke for six weeks...bah! Posts: 87 | Location: Victoria Australia | Registered: 07 September 2002 | |||
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Yes mate they go off like a cracker. 60,000 years of burning off by the Aboriginals have left us with a flora that is adapted to fire. There used to be a lot of rain forest here in Australia. Now its fire prone Eucalyptus that dominate. ------------------------------ A mate of mine has just told me he's shagging his girlfriend and her twin. I said "How can you tell them apart?" He said "Her brother's got a moustache!" | |||
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I guess it could have been worse, then. If nothing else, let's hope the country already burnt will act as fire break when the real hot weather comes. | |||
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That is exactly what I thought of yesterday when the wind swung around mate. Its a buffer for sure. Posts: 87 | Location: Victoria Australia | Registered: 07 September 2002 | |||
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Good luck for the rest of the summer. We've already got fires farther south in my old hunting grounds, so deciding where to go this year will require some head scratching. | |||
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