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Wildfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia

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21–30 of 215 posts

Re: Wildfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia

#21
post #5

As a long term Australian, this is categorically the worst fire season Australia has experienced. Summer in Australia always comes with one or two big fires in at-risk rural areas over the months from December to February. Queensland and New South Wales were burning heavily by early December. And now Victoria and South Australia have joined in as well and we're still only just into the second month of three. It's unp…

How will de-carbonising the economy stop bush-fires on this scale?

Re: Wildfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia

#22

If you live in Australia, what is this doing in terms of changing what people think and do about climate change? Is it motivating personal changes in diet, traveling and election voting choices? If this nightmare scenario isn't enough to push people into taking action, what will?

> election voting choices Unfortunately, I don't believe voting one way or another will make much difference. One party might be slightly better than another, but ultimately none will dare to implement sufficient measures. Climate problem will have to be solved outside of party politics. We need something akin to civil rights movement. On the global scale.

> We need something akin to civil rights movement. On the global scale.

We also need someone other than Greta as the face of it. While she does a great job, she's often dismissed due to her age and the US president has even publicly called her retarded in the literal sense.

Re: Wildfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia

#23
> The Australian Defense Force is sending ships to the Victoria town of Mallacoota on a two-week supply mission

Sums up the lies from Time etc pretty well

Using logic from primary school, exactly how could this happen?

Two-week supply mission?

Richest nation on earth, aka Australia.

How does a fire destroy the ability for trucks to get through a road?

Falling trees is the best fantasy I can think of. Which as long and they are slow moving, trucks can manage.

Australians LARPing hurt like this is pretty fucked up. Two weeks supply my arse.

Next door in Indonesia many people have died in flooding today, but they are brown. So Ozies bring it up about their pain for Facebook likes while the brown people have a true hurt.

Re: Wildfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia

#24
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you expect them to actually do? The entire CO2 output of Australia could drop to zero with negligible effect on climate change.

If every country acted that way, we'd make no progress. Every country needs to do its fair share, and Australia is not: http://theconversation.com/australia-hit-its-kyoto-target-bu...

And this will convince china and india to also lower how?

Re: Wildfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia

#25

If you live in Australia, what is this doing in terms of changing what people think and do about climate change? Is it motivating personal changes in diet, traveling and election voting choices? If this nightmare scenario isn't enough to push people into taking action, what will?

What do you expect them to actually do? The entire CO2 output of Australia could drop to zero with negligible effect on climate change.

Export less to the bigger emitters. Campaign to the world using the bushfires as an example of how normal historic occurrences (bushfires) are intensified - which will probably strike a chord, although unnecessarily, in California. Use Australia's phenomenal natural gifts of empty expenses of land and abundant sunshine to generate electricity, to use directly or create portable hydrogen, or any other such pursuit requiring large amounts of electricity.

Re: Wildfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> election voting choices Unfortunately, I don't believe voting one way or another will make much difference. One party might be slightly better than another, but ultimately none will dare to implement sufficient measures. Climate problem will have to be solved outside of party politics. We need something akin to civil rights movement. On the global scale.

> We need something akin to civil rights movement. On the global scale. We also need someone other than Greta as the face of it. While she does a great job, she's often dismissed due to her age and the US president has even publicly called her retarded in the literal sense.

"...publicly called her retarded"

I didn't catch that one - is there a source? All I am Googling up is Trump telling her to chill, watch a movie, and a reference to anger management.

Re: Wildfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia

#27

If you live in Australia, what is this doing in terms of changing what people think and do about climate change? Is it motivating personal changes in diet, traveling and election voting choices? If this nightmare scenario isn't enough to push people into taking action, what will?

Nothing. A fire is not evidence of climate change any more than an absence of fire is evidence against.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the sheer number of them, how early they are occurring has got to account for something, no?

Re: Wildfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia

#28
post #20
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you comparing Australia's electricity to to call it cheap?

Our wholesale power prices are actually quite low. Residential power is expensive because rooftop solar is putting the economics of maintaining the grid into a death spiral.

Rooftop solar became popular because residential electricity prices were so high.

Look up gold-plating poles and wires.

The grid death spiral is a long way off. It's also something that could have been mitigated by the networks themselves if they'd had any economists worth their salt.

Re: Wildfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia

#29

If you live in Australia, what is this doing in terms of changing what people think and do about climate change? Is it motivating personal changes in diet, traveling and election voting choices? If this nightmare scenario isn't enough to push people into taking action, what will?

What do you expect them to actually do? The entire CO2 output of Australia could drop to zero with negligible effect on climate change.

Each serial killer has a miniscule effect on the overall crime rate, so it's stupid to have any kind of moral expectation for them to stop!

Re: Wildfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia

#30

If you live in Australia, what is this doing in terms of changing what people think and do about climate change? Is it motivating personal changes in diet, traveling and election voting choices? If this nightmare scenario isn't enough to push people into taking action, what will?

Here in Canberra, it feels like I'm living in a space station on a toxic planet; I haven't seen blue skies in a month. See this chart (https://air-quality.com/place/australia/australian-capital-t...) which has air pollution literally OFF their chart ranges.

Hearing the drivel spewing from our PM and other politicians; It's always the same pandering responses with no real strategic change. It's beyond frustrating. We will have to be destroyed (are being?) before anyone admits there is are real problems requiring real actions. I have noticed that at a more local level of government, the messaging has changed and is more serious now.

Here are some thought bubbles;

* more aggressive back-burning and fuel load management: managed at a federal level by law.

* stop all new coal, keep replacing with ?whatever?, including a reappraisal of nuclear.

* start retreating populations back towards cities: reverse the sprawl into protected urban bubbles.

* start requiring building to have ventilation and filtering systems that can handle smoke better, and are more efficient at sealing air: I've heard many people complain about smokey insides: happens to me too !

* stricter criminal penalties for any arson related crimes.

* restrictions on tourism to risky areas during the fire season.

Either that or we finally DO become a giant desert from coast to coast: should be safe enough then!

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