A question about climate change/global warming.

There’s only so many trees on Australia, cutting them down won’t make a difference when leonardo de caprio Bolsonaro is setting fire to the Amazon.

Seriously, Sic, I can’t see the contents of that Australian piece and I don’t really want to. Can’t be any more mad then the one from the other day that said we should build more dams so we have enough water to fight the bushfires. (NB for non Australians we don’t have enough water for our rivers to reach the seas because we recklessly grow cotton and rice on the driest continent on the planet, so any chance of water filling dams or staying in dams is slim to none).

have you all thought raking the forest? you wouldn't have forest fires if they were properly raked.

Zach, I think you'll find that brain geniuses on facebook have clearly established that the fires are the fault of the Greens Party stopping all federal, state and local authorities from conducting controlled rakes burns, despite the party having come out of May's election with one (1) federal MP compared to the Coalition's 44 Liberals (tories), 10 Nats, and 23 LNPQ members.

who is that one Green federal MP? this is all THEIR fault!!

(Ed, I got it with New Private Window in Firefox; it's apparently pulling quotes from Morrison's presser yesterday that I hadn't seen reported before, framing them with something close to objectivity, adding two Albanese quotes from elsewhere - not op-ed from a Murdoch hack. The main Morrison chunk is:

Asked if the fires were the new normal, Mr Morrison said the season­ had been “quite extraordinary” because of the drought that preceded it but he hoped that would break this year. “That will hopefully ensure we’ve got a differen­t situation as we confront next year’s fire season,” he said.

“That equally then has a need to address issues around hazard reduction in national parks, dealing with land clearing laws, zoning laws and planning laws around people’s properties and where they can be built in countries like Australia, up and down our coast …

“There have been many restrictions put around those issues that now I think would have to be reviewed on the basis of the impact of the broader climatic effects we are seeing in this country.”

)

poxy fuling, so unembedding some urls...

NB: the reason Scotty added his secret Hawaii holiday was because he couldn't take January off, as he had important Prime Ministerial business then. Governing the country? Responding to a climate emergency? No, he's going to India* with a coal lobbyist that he employs** as COS on probably around $600,000***, so the two of them can sell more carbon emissions.

This trip, he confirmed today, is still happening.


* https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/indias-carbon-dioxide-emissions-up-5/article26646376.ece

** https://reneweconomy.com.au/former-coal-industry-boss-is-scott-morrisons-chief-of-staff-69647

*** https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/pm-malcolm-turnbull-defends-pay-rises-for-his-staff/news-story/8b11ce62a86530c915f32fa81077ddaf

Greg Mullins - Former NSW fire chief who has been out fighting fires.

The ex-fire chief who has been asking Morrison to meet with a group of 23 emergency services experts since April, to warn of the conditions they were projecting for summer, on video two months ago

"Catastrophic" bushfires are predicted to hit [Angus Taylor's] electorate... on Saturday

https://i.imgur.com/F4t8Sok.jpg

the Labor Party leader who lost to Morrison's Coalition in May had a $101 million firefighting investment as a campaign plank, to be funded by closing tax loopholes on multinational corps operating in Australia:

https://www.billshorten.com.au/_labor_s_national_fire_fighting_fleet_sunday_17_march_2019

Abbott turned up to annoy up the place on Israel radio. Claims we are in the grip of a global ‘Climate Cult’

Sees to have been checked harder than he ever would on the ABC.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/03/tony-abbott-former-australian-pm-tells-israeli-radio-the-world-is-in-the-grip-of-a-climate-cult

have you all thought raking the forest? you wouldn't have forest fires if they were properly raked.

― But guess what? Nobody gives a toot!😂 (Karl Malone), Friday, January 3, 2020 1:43 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is basically the gist of most of the published letters in the herald sun.

The heat has hit melbourne early

Meant to be a high of 29 today we’re already over 35.

Listening to that whole abbot interview. The guy is a conspiracy nut and he goes on to say that because we had the warming in the Roman period and the little ice age in the early modern period its a ‘matter of simple logic’ that anthropogenic carbon dioxide isn’t causing the the current change in the climate.

Fuck me the guy is a poisonous idiot, but this is what we are fighting.

note for foreign readers: the Herald Sun is a Murdoch tabloid in Melbourne, so virulent that in decades when there was more choice, it was known nationally as The Hun.

From that Graun link: His anti-science views on climate change are well known in Australia and have been corrected many times by leading climate scientists but Mor-Cicurel was not aware of his views before the interview.

hollow lol at foreign media seeing what's happening in Australia and just blithely assuming that a recent Prime Minister would have a sane awareness of events

Meanwhile [Angus Taylor] the federal Minister for Emissions Reductions - last seen 12 days ago in this post, his criminal investigation there now referred to the feds by state police - has just issued an opportunity for business donors to pay to attend the cricket with himself on Saturday.

Apparently the cost is $3000 a head for the chance to peddle influence. Due to optics, however, Angus will now not be attending.

‘make sure you burn as much oil and gas as you can over summer, put your roast in a gas fired oven, fill up your gas bottles, and fly from one end of the country to the other.’

This elected MP, who was parachuted in to his seat by Scotty, posts several of these theories, links and memes a day on Facebook.

getting abused by residents in the only fire-affected town he has visited

https://i.imgur.com/uSUHWFf.jpg

The video at that link has been updated to add Scotty grabbing the hand of an exhausted, seated firefighter who had refused to shake, the guy snatching it away, and then getting up and walking out of the shed he's taking shelter in, bcz Scott just stood around like a balloon instead of taking the hint. Clip of that.

Here's the followup:

Shortly after the non-handshake:
PM: “Tell that fella I’m really sorry, I’m sure he’s just tired.”
Local incident controller: “No no, he lost a house.”#AustraliaBurning #ausfires #nswfires pic.twitter.com/9PodUTCf9z

— Siobhan Heanue (@siobhanheanue) January 2, 2020

(also note to Americans: 35 degrees is 95 in Fahrenheit.)

An unrolled thread of specific actions / inactions by the LNP Government just in the last two years that have contributed to the current blazing situation:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1212861755212197888.html

Apologies if this has been posted already:

Police are now working on the premise arson is to blame for much of the devastation caused this bushfire season. A strike force will investigate whether blazes were deliberately lit, and bring those responsible to justice. https://t.co/TWh1KQycs4 @ebatten7 #NSWFires #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/Dul8dMFrZv

— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) January 3, 2020

let’s speculate for a minute that a team of dedicated arsonists did indeed set out to torch australia - what were the environmental factors that allowed them such remarkable success and what caused them? makes u think

or, er, not

Police dusting the bodies of half a billion dead animals for fingerprints

thread to encourage us all to walk into traffic:

Until now, I have not been pessimistic about long-term climate outcomes. I thought that a combination of just-in-time action and mitigation would be effective.

— Richard Cooke (@rgcooke) January 3, 2020

we're all depressed enough without this "here's some shit to encourage you to kill yourself" framing, thanks

directly pertinent to viborg's revive.

yeah I don't wanna be fatalistic or nothin' but the fact that the one person who could theoretically do the most to help this can go off endlessly about "windmill cancer" and "bird graveyards" without being challenged whatsoever doesn't give me a lot of hope

this is the story of the last few years in one tweet -

The informational environment is almost impossible to counter. It has an almost Middle Ages witch rumour quality to it no facts can penetrate.

— Richard Cooke (@rgcooke) January 3, 2020

it's no mystery that people don't want to stop what they like doing, how they like living, even if they know it's bad for them. I mean, just read ILX.

Most of the people saying the greens did it aren't (as per twitter thread) low info voters.

This is fine.

Incredible footage of a so-called "fire twister" on #KangarooIsland has revealed the intensity of the flames burning near the Ravine Des Casoars Wilderness Protection Area. 🌪️

🎥: Kangaroo Island resident Brenton filmed this yesterday. #ausfires #SouthAustralia pic.twitter.com/VngAwBEomL

— ABC Adelaide (@abcadelaide) January 3, 2020

I predict that mandatory forest raking will be a precondition for getting your cashless welfare card or NDIS payment.

47.6° (117°F) in Sydney's west today.

Wholesale energy prices maxed out for an hour and were close to max for another hour in NSW after they had to shut down the transmission lines from the Snowy hydro dams with everyone maxing the AC in Sydney. Lucky not to black out some suburbs (or lucky it was a Saturday).

Meanwhile you can see the cool change come through SA and VIC in the price graphs. I love looking at energy market graphs it makes the solution seem so obvious and easy.

Prices went negative as the wind turbines picked up speed. Shows up how poorly connected our electricity grid is when prices in NSW are 1000x higher in NSW than VIC. Australia is not building infrastructure for resilience or renewables. More grid, more geographic diversity in renewables.

Some good illustrations, satellite imagery and graphs in this NYT piece.

https://i.imgur.com/iaf9mUV.jpg

(the 1974 spike includes when the largest tropical cyclone in history to date hit the city of Darwin in the Northern Territory, destroying 4 of every 5 houses.)

https://i.imgur.com/ZOLpinO.jpg

wE hAvE buShfiRE sEasOn evErY yeAr

Scott Morrison made an appearance at a disaster relief centre yesterday: he donated one plastic shopping bag of groceries, had his photo taken and left.

It has only been noted obliquely in this thread so far, but his complete failure in terms of optics this month is remarkable in that he entered politics on the strength of ten years as national director of tourism marketing for New Zealand* and subsequently national director of tourism marketing for Australia**.


* (a role from which he was fired for misappropriating $184 million in contracts)

** (a role from which he was fired for...[checks notes] ...misappropriating $184 million in contracts? [hits notes, reads them again])

so he was a consistent performer

oh wait, here's some proud promotion from Scotty

https://i.imgur.com/fZwyQ7A.jpg

[checks notes again]

https://i.imgur.com/zyb87bg.jpg

(Guessing this is the work of a $190,000/pa comms hire, though. Let's see what sort of brilliant, clear marketing he comes up with under his own steam:)

wishes all fellow dads a great daym let's be the best dads we can be. also thinking of dads no longer with us. thanks dads

— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) September 5, 2009

Donate to firefighters or relief efforts or charities, or to a fund for people who've lost their homes? Ha ha ha ha, no, to Morrison's political party.

that dads tweet is dril-tier

American singer P!nk has just donated $500,000 to firefighters. Morrison is advertising for donations for his own party, who have spent thirty years fighting, weakening, and cancelling existing legislation and actions that were intended to avoid this situation.

Two new fires have just started in coal seams in the Blue Mountains', at Sydney's western edge, second largest town.



https://1v1d1e1lmiki1lgcvx32p49h8fe-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/scott-morrison-coal-joyce-aap-960x540.jpg

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/09/scott-morrison-brings-coal-to-question-time-what-fresh-idiocy-is-this

yeah, if just one of those "dads" had an errant apostrophe, it'd be perfect

a $190,000/pa comms hire

whether it's this or a secretary or Scott himself, someone's busy deleting comments on Morrison's facebook ad, apparently within seconds, leaving a sea of this:

https://i.imgur.com/xs6L0vf.jpg

Imagine a terrorist attack destroying 1000 houses, killing 18 people and half a billion animals. Imagine a terrorist attack ravaging millions of acres, causing pollution in cities 11 times a hazardous level. Imagine if it was just the beginning. The world would change overnight.

— Matt Haig (@matthaig1) January 3, 2020

daym let's be the best dads we can be!

#ItsTheGreensFault is now trending.

by constantly repeating the fake news of climate change for so long, the greens have actually willed it into being. shame on them!

Last I checked, that hashtag had been taken over by parodic responses.

Herald sun is full of it. Letters to the editor saying ‘greens dominated councils’ have banned land clearing, a two page article on the need for land clearing, for some variety a letter saying we should take lessons on youth offender management from Joe Arpaio.

Murdoch press full court press on how we should be raking, burning and chopping down the forests so they don’t do it again.

Good luck with this horrible shit. I cannot imagine it really.

I've been searching Australia, Oz, Sheepfuxxors etc for days looking for where people were discussing this situation and finally realised it was happening on this thread.

Anyway, here we are.

Fucking hell.

Are there any ILX friends at risk? I dunno what to say other than to say that I care about this a lot and I care about you all who are affected. And that I know there's really nothing I can say.

I know there are Oz ILX people who aren't on this thread though, so are they talking on ILX elsewhere or using social media?

California has at least a couple wildfire threads, the Aus situation is certainly worth its own thread.

Crazy stories from my sister in law. She said they were at the farm when they got the order to evacuate ... but the main road was closed, so they couldn't go anywhere. They had a place to hunker down, but she said they saw cars lined up and down the side the road, just sitting there, waiting for it to open. She and her family spent their time making sandwiches to hand out to people stranded. She said there was no power, no cell service, and it was really scary trying to track down her husband (my brother in law) who was back at the farm doing his own controlled brush burns to try to protect what hadn't burned yet. She said it was downright apocalyptic, driving through clouds of smoke, huge embers landing on the dash .

cheers jed. there aren't really many regular Australian posters anymore, and most who are still here stick to a pet thread or two.

In more Liberal (tory) Party fundraising hypocrisy, the Minister For Fascism, who's given himself more spying powers than any governmental agency has ever held in Australia, and recently spent $100 million reopening one single concentration camp to hold one single family, is asking people to donate to the Red Cross, rather than coming up with any way for the government to contribute to relief funds or firefighters.



As of the election last year, the IMF estimated government subsidies to fossil fuel companies to be $29 billion in Australia, or 2.3% of GDP.

The report found that if fossil fuels had been priced appropriately, global carbon emissions would be reduced by 28 per cent. Significantly, effective fossil pricing would also lead to a decrease in air pollution deaths by up to 46 per cent. The elimination of fossil fuel subsidies would also increase global government revenues by 3.8 per cent of GDP.

A recent report from the Climate Council estimated that up to $571 billion were predicted to be wiped off Australian property values as a result of the impacts of climate change.

Economists from the University of Newcastle have estimated that a green job guarantee program, set up to create over 600,000 jobs and virtually eliminate involuntary un- and under-employment, would cost around $28 billion.

Here are a couple of (I guess) 60-year-old-ish volunteer firefighters with measured words for the Prime Minister:

Here’s the full clip: “Stand down now. You don’t deserve to govern. You knew this was coming.”

Firefighter who collapsed: “I’ve already lost seven houses in Nelligen. I’m not gonna lose anymore, dickhead.”

via @FocusNewsNow #AustralianFires pic.twitter.com/vTFHjsIetG

— Angus Duncan (@Angus_Duncan) January 4, 2020

I drove right through the southern highlands this spring. I’ve just been going through my photos from tumut through Adimanby to Cooma. This was on my insta from October.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3-2gdQgO_x/?igshid=l83ev061fxdb

It’s all burnt out now. It will grow back, but only at the speed trees grow. I remember riding through kinglake when I first got to Australia in 2013, four years after black Saturday. A lot had grown back but there where still a lot of blackened stumps and bare patches. This will take decades ti recover.

Is this the driest/hottest part of the year or may there, god forbid, be worse weather to come?

December through March is generally the hottest, and the most prone to fires in the southeast part of the continent.