Climate Change

[Ivan Cloherty]

, the combination of Australian and Canadian ingenuity would surely find her a very useful asset.
.

Politicians are strange animals, but you don't have to be an Ozzie or a Canuk to have ingenuity, just being an every day seaman will fit the bill and always has.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

HI John.
I believe your PM offered two of the big water bombers that you have sitting idle, but our PM worried about the bottom line in the up coming budget turned him down. Now after a lot of flack he has accepted them, it could have saved a lot of homes had he not been so stupid.
As to fire fighters; we have bush trained firies from all over the Commonwealth to fight our bush fires, it takes special training that even our city firefighters don't have to fight bush fires, they can only assist around the periphery of the Cities, people find it difficult to see why a fire station is full of trucks when all this is going on, and that is why, it's the same reason that bush firies only fight small town fires.
At the moment down here it is like Vietnam; we have more Black Hawk helicopters flying around than I have ever seen, I assume they are up fire spotting. So far 46 people have been charged with lighting fires, twenty of them for tossing lit cigarettes out of their cars, and two teenagers grinning on TV charged with setting off fireworks in the bush which started a big fire in a Sydney suburb, don't know how sinister they were as they were m%^$#s will have to wait and see, unfortunately any teenagers caught are given a warning only,. There has also been some looting in the towns burnt out, so far only one caught.
\Des

[Keith at Tregenna]

Seems smoke from wildfires in Australia is drifting across the Pacific
to cities in South America, and may have reached the Antarctic.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/cause...cid=spartanntp

.

[happy daze john in oz]

Have been watching on ships TV with some every anxcious moments as it all unfolded.
So far two have been held in custody for staring fires.

In the WA papers whilst waiting for our flight an article about fires going back to the 1932 ones here in Victoria where some 73 lost their lives.
After each major fire there has been either a Royal Commission or some form of enquiry.
But to date very few of the recommendations have been implemented, the responsibility of state govs, not federal.

One poor farmer in Queensland was attacked by a fire fighter for allowing so much undergrowth to build up around his property.
He told the fireman he would have been fined $20,000 by the local 'Green' council if he had done so.

You must understand the nature of the regions where much of the fire are, massive state forests where it is almost impossible for any one to get in and fight the fires.

Sadly most of the homes lost, now over 2,000, were close to the bush, small communities that enjoyed living close to nature and there is nothing wrong with that.
But when fie comes, and most were caused by lightning strikes there is little can be done.

There is now talk by federal gov that new rules and regulations will be drawn up in an effort to reduce the future risk of such events.

Why has this occurred and in such ferocity?

Over the past few years there has been some very high rain fall in many parts of the nation. Here in Victoria in 20017 we had one of the wettest winters on record.
That brings growth of great magnitude, the Australian bush goes from drought to flooding rains over the years.

We then went into a very severe drought across much of the country, all that growth dried out, a situation waiting to happen.

Viewed a very interesting interview on BBC world sea service.
A British weather, not climate, scientist gave a reason for the extreme heat here in Oz, heat that added to the fire damage.

The Indian ocean has warmed, nothing new there it occurs regularly causing the El Nino effect.
But this year for some reason, and according to him there is a pattern on this, the warming was more than usual bring about a much higher drought regime.

He also went on to say that weather patterns, not climate, are the reason for the situation we now have here in Oz.

One not so clever federal MP told the people of the fire ravaged that this would happen every year where they live as a result of 'Climate Change'.
Not so smart as it will take many years before the bush recovers from this, there will be nothing left to burn.

But recover it will.
We live about 40Klm from the Macedon fires of 1983, one of the worst ever here in Victoria.
But after ten years the ground had recovered and now is about four times the amount of bush there was before.

But consider this, the area burned so far is about the size of Wales.
Before the white man came in 1778 there would have been far more bush than now. Settlers cleared so much land, land that would have burned for almost a year when struck by lightning. So while this is the worst across the nation I doubt it is the biggest ever.

[Red Lead Ted]

HI John.
I believe your PM offered two of the big water bombers that you have sitting idle, but our PM worried about the bottom line in the up coming budget turned him down. Now after a lot of flack he has accepted them, it could have saved a lot of homes had he not been so stupid.
As to fire fighters; we have bush trained firies from all over the Commonwealth to fight our bush fires, it takes special training that even our city firefighters don't have to fight bush fires, they can only assist around the periphery of the Cities, people find it difficult to see why a fire station is full of trucks when all this is going on, and that is why, it's the same reason that bush firies only fight small town fires.
At the moment down here it is like Vietnam; we have more Black Hawk helicopters flying around than I have ever seen, I assume they are up fire spotting. So far 46 people have been charged with lighting fires, twenty of them for tossing lit cigarettes out of their cars, and two teenagers grinning on TV charged with setting off fireworks in the bush which started a big fire in a Sydney suburb, don't know how sinister they were as they were m%^$#s will have to wait and see, unfortunately any teenagers caught are given a warning only,. There has also been some looting in the towns burnt out, so far only one caught.
\Des

Des, Never believe a word the guy says and you wont be that far away from the truth, He has been back from his xmas holidays for about 5 days we where expecting him to take a bow in parliament yesterday, As the tension between the far east and the U.S.A Strains which of course is still our strongest allies, Know where to be found mate he sent his under secretary to answer some very dodgy questions, It will be interesting today Prime Ministers questions Wednesday, He cant swerve that one now lets see what B.J. is all about, Actions Speke louder than words or is it the other way around with B,J, We shall soon find out Terry.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Des, Never believe a word the guy says and you wont be that far away from the truth, He has been back from his xmas holidays for about 5 days we where expecting him to take a bow in parliament yesterday, As the tension between the far east and the U.S.A Strains which of course is still our strongest allies, Know where to be found mate he sent his under secretary to answer some very dodgy questions, It will be interesting today Prime Ministers questions Wednesday, He cant swerve that one now lets see what B.J. is all about, Actions Speke louder than words or is it the other way around with B,J, We shall soon find out Terry.

Terry I think you will find that the PM John referred to was the Canadian PM and not the British PM, if you look at the origin/location of the relevant posting; but I do stand to be corrected.

[Red Lead Ted]

Ivan, That doesn't detract a word I said about B,J, He still should have shown his face in public, Do you not agree Terry.

[Keith at Tregenna]

Worth reading:

We are seeing the very worst of our scientific predictions come to pass in these bushfires
Joëlle Gergis.

As a climate scientist I am wondering if the Earth system has now breached a tipping point.

This summer has been a brutal reminder that no matter how much we want to avoid addressing the problem of climate change, it simply can no longer be ignored. As this summer has shown, it is now part of every Australian’s lived experience.
Now is the time for our political leaders to make a choice about which side of history they want to be on. There is much work to be done, and we are fast running out of time.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...76DGFCEpogpcBg

And:

I'm doing what the Australian government won't – telling the truth about the climate crisis
Scott Morrison is dangerously downplaying the climate crisis – forcing people like me to tell the world the truth
Bodie Ashton.

The bushfires ravaging NSW have brought out both the best and the worst in Australians. The superhuman efforts of our volunteer firefighters are a wonder to behold, as is the desire of so many to contribute so much. But popular ignorance about the fires, ignorance perpetuated by the government, has also given rise to disturbing conspiracy theories, blaming everyone from green arsonists to Jewish bankers to Islamist terrorists to railway companies – and yes, Greta Thunberg – for what’s happening.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices...box=1578444078

.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Ivan, That doesn't detract a word I said about B,J, He still should have shown his face in public, Do you not agree Terry.

Terry, I have no opinion, only to say, it's a bit too early to pass judgement, we (well I least I don't) don't have any idea what goes on behind the scenes.

I'll leave it at that, politics and religion can ruin a site. Regards

[Des Taff Jenkins]

A bit out of wack there John, The El Nino effect occurs during the warming of the Pacific Ocean, the warming of the Indian Ocean is a fairly new phenomenon, which is causing a lot of problems.
Des