Australian heat waves & bushfires

[weltweit]

Wow! Reading this thread I started thinking about 'On the beach' as well!

One point though, I am pretty sure the author is Nevile ..

 

[not-bono-ever]

I am dyslexic bro’ but yes is nevil

Missed a v out when I was on the phone

 

[albionism]

The nearest fires to where I am are several hundred miles
away, but the air was so thick with smoke yesterday that
I couldn't leave the house at all.

 

[8ball]

The nearest fires to where I am are several hundred miles
away, but the air was so thick with smoke yesterday that
I couldn't leave the house at all.

Wow. That gives some sense of the scale of it.

 

[elbows]

And there is the political aspect, which may yet earn a high rank in the list of great mistakes involving leaders and holiday timing, secrecy and unsustainable Hawaii denials from the office.

Australia PM apologises for US holiday amid fires

 

[Idris2002]

Would losing Australia be enough to make the world to wake up?

(Apologies to Oz urbanites, but it's just how it looks from my end of the telescope).

 

[ice-is-forming]

Would losing Australia be enough to make the world to wake up?

(Apologies to Oz urbanites, but it's just how it looks from my end of the telescope).

There's been the equivalent of Wales lost, but it doesn't look like it's slowing down

 

[2hats]

5pm, down near the Hawkesbury River. You can feel it in your eyes and on your chest.

Wind's picking up.

 

[shakespearegirl]

I’m about 2 hours from Melbourne (near Ballarat) and yesterday it was too hot to go outside and windy as fuck. No fires near here so far though.
My sister is in Sydney and meant to be driving down tomorrow, looks very unlikely now.
she suffers from asthma and has hardly been able to lEave the house for weeks due to the smoke.

 

[Yossarian]

From the outside, Australia looks completely insane, as I guess the rest of us will when history is looking back on this era - they're being affected more by climate change than any other of the world's richer nations, but the country is producing some of the world's most adamant climate change deniers and the prime minister, after cracking down on environmental protesters, went on holiday while the country was on fire.

 

[shakespearegirl]

I’ve a friend who is a firefighter in Sydney and he says these fires are by far the most terrifying he’s ever seen.
When I lived here we had to flee from fires and it was fucking scary. Driving along highways with flames either side, a shed we were passing just combusted into a fireball. 10 minutes down the road we pulled into a petrol station and a guy from another car went to flick a lit cigarette away into scrubland, he understandably nearly got punched by bystanders.

 

[weltweit]

I’m about 2 hours from Melbourne (near Ballarat) and yesterday it was too hot to go outside and windy as fuck. No fires near here so far ..

I knew people near Ararat, hope they are ok also.

 

[weltweit]

When I was in Melbourne 30 years ago there had been fires nearby, it was obvious to see by the blackened landscape.

All the farmers had fire trucks of their own and used to communally fight fires together.

 

[teqniq]

From the outside, Australia looks completely insane, as I guess the rest of us will when history is looking back on this era - they're being affected more by climate change than any other of the world's richer nations, but the country is producing some of the world's most adamant climate change deniers and the prime minister, after cracking down on environmental protesters, went on holiday while the country was on fire.

Yes it's the climate change deniers in the government ably backed by the Murdoch press who really piss me off.

fucking state of this

 

[shakespearegirl]

And now where I am is freezing (well not freezing but bloody cold outside)

 

[shakespearegirl]

My brother is a little of the climate change denier and thinks it’s all down to government and dams and companies stealing water/resources

 

[FridgeMagnet]

It'll be hotter next year of course. Then in 2021, hotter than 2020. And in 2022... etc.

 

[weltweit]

If I remember rightly some of the aboriginal groups used to selectively burn the bush going back thousands of years.

Still no consolation for the current circumstances which they must be feeling as badly as anyone.

IIRC eucalyptus trees emit very flammable stuff which helps to spread fire much more rapidly than would be the case in an English forest for example.

 

[albionism]

Nearest fire at the moment to where I am is about 40 miles away
but the air is thick with smoke. This is above my back yard.

 

[ice-is-forming]

If I remember rightly some of the aboriginal groups used to selectively burn the bush going back thousands of years.

Still no consolation for the current circumstances which they must be feeling as badly as anyone.

IIRC eucalyptus trees emit very flammable stuff which helps to spread fire much more rapidly than would be the case in an English forest for example.

There’s a 60,000-Year-Old Way to Help Stop Australia Burning

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

 

[ice-is-forming]

Fuck! I'm so sorry for all those here down south. Stay Safe, It's an awful thing to happen. I've not been affected here yet. Well k'gari has been burning for months but the Butchella have that under control. So just get a bit of smoke and ash and some amazing sunsets/rises.

I've been in Bush fires on deployment before. And driven through some. After a few days of smoke and no sun things can get a bit surreal ime..

Scary shit :/ there's been volunteer fire fighters died in nsw

People are out in the streets ..

Protesters have gathered outside ScoMo’s - again

Get prepared Get Prepared app

 

[pinkmonkey]

It'll be hotter next year of course. Then in 2021, hotter than 2020. And in 2022... etc.

Its a few years since El Jugs cousin lost everything she owned in a bush fire. Is worse now.

 

[ice-is-forming]

 

[albionism]

This gives an idea of just how mental it is here at the moment.
And "fire season" hasn't even started yet !

Fires Near Me

 

[ice-is-forming]

This gives an idea of just how mental it is here at the moment.
And "fire season" hasn't even started yet !

Fires Near Me

Stay safe :/

 

[Baronage-Phase]

Watching this on the news earlier they interviewed a man living in what appeared to be an isolated area...he said he had "built a kiln the other day"..."a coffin shaped kiln"...and "had gone into it as the fires raged over and around him".
Horrifying

 

[shakespearegirl]

They’ve hit near us now. Went out shopping this morning all clear and 3 hours later when we got back there’s smoke drifting everywhere.
My sister just managed to get through from Sydney yesterday but it’s all closed again now. She said it was horrific and for about 100k you just couldn’t see anything beyond the edge of the highway.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Stay safe everyone down there in Australia.

 

[sherriff rosco]

If I remember rightly some of the aboriginal groups used to selectively burn the bush going back thousands of years.

Still no consolation for the current circumstances which they must be feeling as badly as anyone.

IIRC eucalyptus trees emit very flammable stuff which helps to spread fire much more rapidly than would be the case in an English forest for example.

Ah....but our lovely Liberal leaders have been quoted as saying " The greenies won't allow back burning, it's all their fault." Which if you follow the trail of quotes back....errmmm no one ever said ?

As a newbie to Aus back in 2000 I came across a bush fire north of Tennants Creek right by the highway, I'd never seen anything like it before so was hot-footing it out of there but stopped to picked up two local mob who were hitching back to town. I said " Wow..lucky I picked you guys up, what with that fire ??" ..They replied... " Nah Mate ...it'll blow itself out on that ridge there when it meets the wind. We'll be back day after tommo to catch some chooks". I was a bit shocked but they reckoned the burnt ground would pop loads of new seeds which the chooks would come eat ..then it's easy pickings. And yep the fire was all over in about 2 hours and the road was open again, not a fire engine to be seen.
Can't beat local knowledge...

But the years of drought and lots of fuel load in the undergrowth makes for scary times and there is a point with back burning or managing huge areas with fire. They do them over winter here in Victoria and post lots of notices everywhere that " controlled burns" are happening.
I'm down in Melb and even I am am worried what is going to happen over the next few months even here in the burbs. The fires are everywhere ... no sign of rain ... and another blast of heat next weekend.

.p.

 

[spring-peeper]