Unprecedented bush fires burning in NSW

Originally posted by nursery ↑

Till now I have been saying that I have seen worse in my lifetime (87 years) with a lot of that time spent in the bush. The current spell has reached a point where I can not honestly claim that. I have not seen worse than it is now. That goes along with a lot of other things that I have never seen worse. Honesty, trust, respect for others, greed to name a few.

Even though that is the case I still stick to the fact that it is not all doom and gloom. I still say that there is an "industry" that is capitalising on the current situation, a carbon industry. I maintain the opinion that the largest problem is outside Australia, mainly China and India, and anything we do will have very little effect. All that will happen is that we will make it harder for us to compete on the world stage and make it easier for China to increase their world domination attempt. I still say that carbon emissions is not the largest problem, rather it is the cover excuse for not tackling the larger problem of increasing population and pollution.

The problem situation now is drought not atmospheric CO2. It is certainly climate change, the climate has always been changing and will continue to do so.The drought will break, maybe our climate will not be exactly as it was in the past but we will adapt to it. Maybe there will be extreme weather events but they will be managed. The predicted sea level rise is scaremongering and my waterfront block will remain a waterfront block and not an underwater block. In 20 years time you will be saying "what was that all about". There will have been a silver lining to the clouds that are around now. People will realise that to live among the gum trees is risky and will be doing things differently. The watermelon influence will no longer be stopping the construction of new dams or insisting on the closing of fire trails and forest access roads. Farming practices will be continually changing to meet new challenges as they have always done. Water will be treated as a necessity and should not treated as a tradeable commodity. It will be allowed to be harvested and stored.

In 20 years time the world will either be smothered in plastic or poisoned by it or it will have been recognised as a far greater problem that carbon emissions and solutions will be in place to rein in that problem.

Politicians will need to have a little courage to make some of the changes and not let protest movements from fringe groups set an agenda. They will need to stop the country's wealth being frittered away and build a wealthier nation with the wealth not being only measured in dollar terms. They will have to put back into the Public service the notion that they are there to serve the public and the public are not there to serve them. On the other hand the general public will have to learn to do their part as well.

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Hi Nusary
It is impossible to accurately compare the 1939 fires with today s fires because there has been so much change
For instance :- vastly increased numbers of people living in the bush
Restrictions on clearing and dealing with undergrowth
Logging which has taken the big trees out which have been replaced by smaller trees
With older trees they are less dense so less likely to burn
In Vic even the breakdown of our brilliant Volunteer CFA fire service has been IMHO sacrificed to the union machine
We therefore have made the likelihood of bad fires worse due to our own actions

I therefore contend that the fires are no worse than could be expected and here in Victoria.

Every inquiry after disastrous fires (Vic) has put forward recommendations which have been ignored

The Black Friday bushfires of 13 January 1939, in Victoria, Australia, were among the worst natural bushfires (wildfires) in the world. Almost 20,000 km² (4,942,000 acres, 2,000,000 ha) of land was burned, 71 people died, several towns were entirely obliterated and the Royal Commission that resulted from it led to major changes in forest management. Over 1,300 homes and 69 sawmills were burned, and 3,700 buildings were destroyed. It was calculated that three-quarters of the State of Victoria was directly or indirectly affected by the disaster. The Royal Commission noted that "it appeared the whole State was alight on Friday, 13 January 1939".^[