No doubt that arsonists are a huge problem.
That said , the thread it just another distraction post by a serial offender to derail the discussion about poor political performance.
But, let's look at the article as it is interesting to learn about these arsonists and why they do what they do.
According to the article , 40% of fires are deliberately lit. I assume that's the arsonist bit.
That means that 60% are not. That's a big number. As to the number of fires that are caused from lighting ( 13% ), it doesn't mean that they are not equally if not more significant than the arsonist ones. Those arsonist statistics include local fires that are easily put out, mostly. Still terribly destructive but not necessarily as serious as some others.
Fires from lightning strikes in the high country burn for months. Quite often in rugged areas where they can't be put out. An example is the Mt Margaret in Gippsland which started in March 2019. 17000 hectares and more. Fortunately winter came along and helped put it out.
" The cycles of the seasons are changing beyond that which can be explained by known forces, both ancient and modern. Every lethal wildfire since 1857 has happened at the height of summer. Until now. The size of these fires has never been seen in Australia's history this side of summer, and certainly not starting as early as September. "
The author points out that lightning didn't start fires in September. Not sure about that as lightning started fires happen all year round, particularly in Gippsland. It's all about how dry the country is. Plenty of times we have strikes but they just never get away to because the fuel is too wet.
An observation about the September comment. September is probably one of the ideal months to do a bit of burning. However, no one in their right mind would have done any September in the last couple of years because of the dry weather. This pushes that opportunity back to autumn which of course makes it much harder to get any cool burning done. Hence , one of the many issues with getting it done.
" When the flames abate, we can have a sensible national dialogue about the prevention of wildfires, handling arson,
and maybe even climate change. "
Lol !!! Somehow old mate, a well known climate change denier, has posted an article that acknowledges that mmcc is an issue. Obviously didn't read the article to thoroughly .
