Fires in Austrailia

[Alan]

Dave, Are these fires affecting your area?

https://www.foxnews.com/world/australian-prime-minister-wildfire-berated-local-visit-town-bushfire-conditions-state-of-emergency

 

Edited January 3, 2020 by Alan
added the link.

[DaveW]

Ok then -  a few bits about this.

The article is referencing the fires on the East coast - I am on the West Coast. That means that those fires are not affecting me.

However, there are extensive fires along the east coast and in fact all over Australia. Every State and Territory is suffering fires at the moment.

But it is summer in Australia, and we ALWAYS have fires in summer.

These are worse than recent years, but really only because the last several years have been relatively mild.

The stuff about our Prime Minister is political fluff from his opponents. The PM is not responsible for the fires and cannot do anything about them. The fire services are State controlled, not federal.

But for context - Western Australia (where I am), currently has 40+ Bush fires raging through the state, including one that has cut the main transport route between the east coast and the west coast.

But the majority of these fires are in unpopulated areas, and so there is almost no news on the WC fires situation. 

On the East coast, the population is far greater, and spread wider in the country, so many smaller country towns are suffering.

The suffering is widespread and real, but not extremely unusual.

The problem is that the progressive political parties have managed to stop all sorts of management of bushland areas (like cool weather burning of bush areas, cattle grazing of bush areas), and now they are blaming our (conservative) PM for the results of their own policies.

We have had two bushfires within 3 miles (5km) of our house, but in WA most houses are built with a construction that makes fires less of a threat. Double brick walls, tin or tiled rooves, and not generally right against bushland.

 

Remember that I put up a photo of our fire danger signs? They start at "low moderate" and the second level is "high" which is every day from spring through autumn that it isn't raining.

We currently have a total fire ban - if you go into the bush you cannot light any campfire, and can only cook with a controlled, contained bbq flame. You cannot drive through bushland off the well defined tracks for fear that your exhaust may light scrub.

No harvesters can be moved through fields. No welding, grinding, or anything else that could throw sparks.

And those are normal summer restrictions.

In short - the bush fires are worse than the last few years, but we always have them.

[DaveW]

To give you an idea, with 40+ bush fires burning in Western Australia currently, my family went for a country drive today. Covered a loop of about 400km and did not even see smoke from any of these fires.

Western Australia is huge, so as with all things numbers and statistics do not tell you the whole story.

But there are definitely people in trouble from these fires.

[John Young]

That seems to be the Method of Operation for the Golobal warming politicians. To forbid safe Harvesting/burning/clearing/grazing and then blame Global warming when the overgrowth dies/dries and catches fire.

[DaveW]

To be fair, the harvest bans are a regular thing. In summer here everything gets so dry that even driving through a field can start a fire.

A few years ago a man was using a grinder during a total fire ban, and he started a fire which caused huge damage and a death. Total accident, but this place really goes to tinder in summer.

The no cool burning, no clearing, and no bush grazing are the things that have added to the current problems, and they are all main platform policies of the Greens party, the Labour party, and the Democrats.

And now they are all attacking our Prime Minister over the fires.......

[Alan]

We appreciate the update on the fires and are thankful that you have not been affected.

We also appreciate your political analysis of the situation. Liberals are the same throughout the world and it seems a lot of politicians use disasters for their own agenda and let the environment, and people, and nature, suffer for their own agenda. Did not King Solomon say, "If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they." Ecclesiastes 5:8

[DaveW]

One of the funniest things about our politics is the main conservative party is called the Liberal Party!!!!!!!

(Currently in power).

[Jim_Alaska]

On 1/3/2020 at 4:21 AM, DaveW said:

One of the funniest things about our politics is the main conservative party is called the Liberal Party!!!!!!!

(Currently in power).

I have often wondered about that designation and also wondered if Aussies thought it strange.

[DaveW]

Just an update.

There are people worldwide who are blaming the recent and current bushfires on "climate change". As I have already mentioned, fires such as these (this scale) are not common, but also not unprecedented. Twice in the last 40 years we have seen fires similar to this.

I don't know if it is being reported, but over the last 2 - 4 weeks there have over 180 arrests of arsonists related to the recent and current bushfires. 

This is unprecedented.

We do have fire bugs of course, but a bad year would be 30 arrests through the nation over the entire summer. 180+ is astoundingly out of proportion. 

I am not really one for conspiracies, but with all the protests about climate change shouting about the fires, and all the accusations against our PM, along with a hugely disproportionate number of deliberately lit fires........ well, it all just seems a little bit...... coincidental.

But is it really possible that people would risk causing death and horrendous damage to property, just for political gain, and to advance the "environmentalist agenda"?

 

[Rebecca]

I have not seen a single article or news report concerning arson arrests. It's either not being reported outside Australia or buried under the alarmist reports. 

48 minutes ago, DaveW said:

But is it really possible that people would risk causing death and horrendous damage to property, just for political gain, and to advance the "environmentalist agenda"?

YES. For other reasons as well. Depends on the person or organization who either started it, or (which is more likely in the Australian fires case), took advantage of a bad situation and made it worse to further their cause.

I have been seeing a quite a number of videos on youtube from animal rights organizations that are not only blaming climate change, but also the large amounts of factory farms, especially the cattle ones (because cattle contribute to climate change when factory farmed).  Some animal rights organizations deliberately cause harm to farms and ranches. Last year I had seen numerous reports of DxE (Direct Action Everywhere), an animal rights organization, in large numbers, invade/trespass and cause damages to farms in Australia in their efforts to "save" animals or "bear witness to their suffering". It would not be a shock to me at all if some of the arsonists arrested had links to either this organization, or ALF (Animal Liberation Front, noted by the FBI as a terrorist organization). These people thrive on showing the world shocking photos of harmed and suffering animals to prove that humans who eat meat are evil, and if a farm in question takes great care of their animals, they will fake abuse, deliberately harming the animals in some way so they can film it and cry abuse to get the farm or ranch shut down (PeTA is well known for doing this).

 The vast majority of news I've seen out of Australia concerning the fires has focused on showing the animals that are burned to death or still suffering from burns. Very few have focused on the displacement and suffering of the human victims.

[Jim_Alaska]

2 hours ago, DaveW said:

Just an update.

But is it really possible that people would risk causing death and horrendous damage to property, just for political gain, and to advance the "environmentalist agenda"?

The answer is yes. They are called eco-terrorists and they are very real and very committed.

[Invicta]

On 1/10/2020 at 2:28 AM, DaveW said:

Just an update.

There are people worldwide who are blaming the recent and current bushfires on "climate change". As I have already mentioned, fires such as these (this scale) are not common, but also not unprecedented. Twice in the last 40 years we have seen fires similar to this.

I don't know if it is being reported, but over the last 2 - 4 weeks there have over 180 arrests of arsonists related to the recent and current bushfires. 

This is unprecedented.

We do have fire bugs of course, but a bad year would be 30 arrests through the nation over the entire summer. 180+ is astoundingly out of proportion. 

I am not really one for conspiracies, but with all the protests about climate change shouting about the fires, and all the accusations against our PM, along with a hugely disproportionate number of deliberately lit fires........ well, it all just seems a little bit...... coincidental.

But is it really possible that people would risk causing death and horrendous damage to property, just for political gain, and to advance the "environmentalist agenda"?

 

A distant cousin of mine in Oz said on Facebook a week or so ago that there were 80 arrests, and on the news a few days ago there was a report that a firefighter had been arrested for starting seven fires.