Australian heat waves & bushfires

[farmerbarleymow]

The patterns are FINALLY changing and indicating wetter times ahead across the Northern half of Australia!"

Probably not much use to southern Australia I'd guess.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Australia bushfires: More than 500 million animals and plants die

 

[8ball]

Australia bushfires: More than 500 million animals and plants die

Counting dead plants must be tricky.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Counting dead plants must be tricky.

Is that some attempt at humour?

 

[Baronage-Phase]

This image of six koalas huddled in a laundry after they were rescued by volunteer firefighter.

Poor little things.
They were some of the lucky ones.

 

[8ball]

View attachment 194731
This image of six koalas huddled in a laundry after they were rescued by volunteer firefighter.

Poor little things.
They were some of the lucky ones.

Definitely. Was looking at the iffily-quoted link and they're saying that they think about a third have been wiped out in one of the affected areas.

 

[Orang Utan]

They're definitely in trouble as a species - the next round of fires are in danger of rendering them functionally extinct

 

[8ball]

They're definitely in trouble as a species - the next round of fires are in danger of rendering them functionally extinct

They were declared functionally extinct last May, so I think they're definitely there now.

 

[Orang Utan]

They were declared functionally extinct last May, so I think they're definitely there now.

not quite: No, koalas aren't 'functionally extinct'—yet

 

[8ball]

not quite: No, koalas aren't 'functionally extinct'—yet

Ah yeah - those claims in May were disputed later (and re-made again in November and disputed again).

 

[2hats]

Smoke from the fires the last 5 days or so (this Himawari-8 image from 31Dec2019):

quite clearly visible in the Sentinel 5P aerosol index data:

Last frame at full resolution:


And if any further illustration were needed...

 

[cupid_stunt]

NSW has ordered the biggest evacuation ever, an area of 150 miles along the coast, trouble is a lot of petrol stations have run dry, or have no electric for the pumps.

 

[Part-timah]

Absolute waste of skin
https://twitter.com/asher_wolf/status/1212683710664888321

 

[eatmorecheese]

Found out two of my uncles and my cousins evacuating from Moruya at the moment. Relieved they aren't staying put to try and protect their homes, but this is the most fucked up they've ever seen it

 

[ice-is-forming]

AUSTRALIA'S BUSHFIRE CRISIS AT A GLANCE
NEW SOUTH WALES:
- 15 lives lost, four in the past 48 hours
- One person remains missing
- More than 110 bushfires burning
- 3.6 million hectares burned, greater than the size of Belgium
- 1,298 homes confirmed destroyed
VICTORIA:
- One person dead, 17 more missing
- About 50 bushfires burning
- More than 766,000 hectares burned
- 68 structures confirmed destroyed but this number is expected to rise significantly
TASMANIA:
- More than 30 bushfires burning, seven of significance
- 8000 hectares burned
- One home confirmed destroyed
SOUTH AUSTRALIA:
- One person dead
- About 20 bushfires burning, three of significance
- More than 60,000 hectares burned
- 88 homes confirmed destroyed
QUEENSLAND:
- About 30 bushfires burning
- 250,000 hectares burned
- 45 homes confirmed destroyed
WESTERN AUSTRALIA:
- More than 30 bushfires burning, two of significance
- 1.2 million hectares burned
- One home confirmed destroyed

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

AUSTRALIA'S BUSHFIRE CRISIS AT A GLANCE
NEW SOUTH WALES:
- 15 lives lost, four in the past 48 hours
- One person remains missing
- More than 110 bushfires burning
- 3.6 million hectares burned, greater than the size of Belgium
- 1,298 homes confirmed destroyed
VICTORIA:
- One person dead, 17 more missing
- About 50 bushfires burning
- More than 766,000 hectares burned
- 68 structures confirmed destroyed but this number is expected to rise significantly
TASMANIA:
- More than 30 bushfires burning, seven of significance
- 8000 hectares burned
- One home confirmed destroyed
SOUTH AUSTRALIA:
- One person dead
- About 20 bushfires burning, three of significance
- More than 60,000 hectares burned
- 88 homes confirmed destroyed
QUEENSLAND:
- About 30 bushfires burning
- 250,000 hectares burned
- 45 homes confirmed destroyed
WESTERN AUSTRALIA:
- More than 30 bushfires burning, two of significance
- 1.2 million hectares burned
- One home confirmed destroyed

That tally looks horrific. Unfortunately, we're going to be seeing more of this.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

'You're not welcome': Australian PM Scott Morrison heckled by bushfire victims - video

 

[ice-is-forming]

'You're not welcome': Australian PM Scott Morrison heckled by bushfire victims - video

I was just going to post that. It'd be funny if it wasn't so serious..

Only in Aus, the prime minister being called a fuckwit by people holding goats on ropes and see him pick that woman's hand up and hold it after she refused to shake ! Tosser.




A State of Disaster has just been declared in Victoria, at 2am. This means you can be arrested if you refuse to leave. Tens of thousands of people need to be evacuated in 24 hours before the weather changes for the worst again. There's no fuel, no food, no power, no communications, cash only....and there's only one road out that's (just about) open atm. It's dark, smokey and dangerous. The navy are arriving in a ship in a few hours but can only take a small % of people (frail and children first)

It's a fucking humanitarian disaster. If this doesn't force change then I don't know what will... I've been involved in disaster deployment since 2013, floods, fires and (ffs) looking after people made homelessness by the Commonwealth games. This is a long way away from me so I won't be deployed, which I'm thankful for.


Bushfires prompt Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to declare state of disaster as blazes bring 'unprecedented risk' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 

[Orang Utan]

I've been involved in disaster deployment since 2013, floods, fires and (ffs) looking after people made homelessness by the Commonwealth games.

Why were people made homeless by the Commonwealth Games?

 

[ice-is-forming]

Why were people made homeless by the Commonwealth Games?

The games were held at the Gold coast. They knocked a lot of cheap housing down to make way for building both the stadiums and the athletes village. Then the price of any cheap housing that was left ( I'm talking temporary motels, back Packers, bnb etc) quadrupled in price. Greedy landlords took advantage of the richer sports tourists and pushed people out and the number of rough sleepers massively increased.. the really vulnerable people .. and of course they didn't want all these people visible, sleeping on the beach or parks. ( There were lots of rough sleepers outside already)

They wanted them all out of sight. Out of sight turned out to be a massive, run down church hall on the Isle of Capri. I think I spent a month down there in a hall with about 100 cot beds in. Me, a co-worker and two security guards doing the 11pm to 9am shifts..

 

[Orang Utan]

so much for the common wealth

 

[ice-is-forming]

I got to see a fair bit of the games though. I don't think I slept for a month

 

[ice-is-forming]

Here we got visited by the labour premiere and her entourage... No one abused her but there were definitely lots of goats on ropes there. These evacuation centres can be crazy! Whole families plus their pets and livestock... plus wild animals getting brought in. Everyone's scared, mad or bad.


The average age of these volunteers is honestly about 75! I get paid to go. We set up and manage evacuation centres, go out door knocking in isolated areas with the first responders, and our priority is psychological first aid.




This was from deployment to the Blackwater fires just over a year ago... I'm on the right I'm with j9 who I always try and get deployed with because she works hard.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

 

[farmerbarleymow]

What is wrong with him - creepily grabbing peoples' hands who obviously think he's a twat? Very odd behaviour that just looks weird.

 

[AnandLeo]

I have only seen the Australia’s bush fires on TV, and feel they are horrific on the human populations. The areas of families and properties affected seem to be sparsely populated. However, tourist town on the beach also have been affected and evacuated.

The point I am making is, I see the situation, a crisis of both environmental and humanitarian. Aussie fire fighters are doing what they can. It seems it is not a crisis for the allies of the Australia to offer help to bring it under control. Aussies have not even asked for international help. I see the international community or the western allies don’t get their priorities right when there is a need for support of an international coalition to disaster mitigation. They act much faster to act in a coalition for bombing raids in some parts of the world. I don’t quite understand this world order.

Another point, I have not seen the Aussie state applying any other possible measures like clearing woods around human habitations before the fire reaches the dwellings. I would have thought that might mitigate the disaster. God save them!

 

[spring-peeper]

I have only seen the Australia’s bush fires on TV, and feel they are horrific on the human populations. The areas of families and properties affected seem to be sparsely populated. However, tourist town on the beach also have been affected and evacuated.

The point I am making is, I see the situation, a crisis of both environmental and humanitarian. Aussie fire fighters are doing what they can. It seems it is not a crisis for the allies of the Australia to offer help to bring it under control. Aussies have not even asked for international help. I see the international community or the western allies don’t get their priorities right when there is a need for support of an international coalition to disaster mitigation. They act much faster to act in a coalition for bombing raids in some parts of the world. I don’t quite understand this world order.

Another point, I have not seen the Aussie state applying any other possible measures like clearing woods around human habitations before the fire reaches the dwellings. I would have thought that might mitigate the disaster. God save them!

hmmm @ international help.

69 canadian firefighters landed in Australia before Christmas.
More are on their way.

 

[Pickman's model]

I have only seen the Australia’s bush fires on TV, and feel they are horrific on the human populations. The areas of families and properties affected seem to be sparsely populated. However, tourist town on the beach also have been affected and evacuated.

The point I am making is, I see the situation, a crisis of both environmental and humanitarian. Aussie fire fighters are doing what they can. It seems it is not a crisis for the allies of the Australia to offer help to bring it under control. Aussies have not even asked for international help. I see the international community or the western allies don’t get their priorities right when there is a need for support of an international coalition to disaster mitigation. They act much faster to act in a coalition for bombing raids in some parts of the world. I don’t quite understand this world order.

Another point, I have not seen the Aussie state applying any other possible measures like clearing woods around human habitations before the fire reaches the dwellings. I would have thought that might mitigate the disaster. God save them!

Being as many millions of animals have died it's been pretty horrific on the non-human populations too

 

[cupid_stunt]

hmmm @ international help.

69 canadian firefighters landed in Australia before Christmas.
More are on their way.

I've seen reports that firefighters from both the US & New Zealand are also helping.

I am still puzzled that the NSW & Victoria state governments only seemed to have asked for military help from the national government a few days ago.

And, it seems only 2 ships & half dozen helicopters have been sent, surely the military has more kit than that, that they could throw at the problem?

 

[cupid_stunt]

Only in Aus, the prime minister being called a fuckwit...

I've just dipped into ABC News again, I love the fact they didn't bleep out 'fuckwit' during their coverage, unlike the UK news channels.