6 million brace for catastrophic bushfires in New South Wales

Discussion in 'Australia, NZ, Pacific' started by Bowerbird, Nov 11, 2019.

  1. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    upload_2019-11-12_9-36-34.jpeg
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-12/nsw-fires-catastrophic-day-arrives/11694264

    I have been reluctant to post about the fires in NSW and Queensland given the horrible responses on this board about the California fires but it must be said

    These fires are horrific and we do not see an end in sight unless and until significant rainfall
     
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  2. m2catter

    m2catter Well-Known Member

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    Yes,
    we cannot stop them now, we do however need to make decisions about our future. I say:
    1- No more groundwater to mining companies, if they want to continue mining, they have to build desalt plants for their own water usage. We need to restore our ground water levels!!!
    2- End of coal mining is a must, with a named year.
    3- Reforestation needs to be started, wherever reasonable.
    4- No more excuses that climate change is not man made, because this one is!
    5- More investments in alternative energies/technologies.
    6- More sustainability thinking needed as a base ethic in our value system.
    I hope not more people gona die is those fires, terrible, but somehow it was to be expected. If you listen to the fire chiefs, they ring the alarm bell for more than 20 years, and not a single politician listens !!!!
    Reg.
     
  3. Steady Pie

    Steady Pie Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    There are things we can do symbolically, like move to a nuclear-solar energy mix, but really there's nothing we as Australia can do. The world is a big place.

    So we better ensure controlled burns take place regardless of whether some endangered wallaby will die.
     
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  4. alexa

    alexa Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Nuclear apart from fusion which has not been invented is not acceptable for the following reasons. Although better than fossil fuels it is not clean. In the weather we will be having they will not be safe. It is quite quick to go from energy nuclear to bombs nuclear so just about the whole world could have them and it takes between ten and 20 years to get a nuclear site up and running and the IPCC says we have only ten or eleven. In addition they are very expensive.

    Now renewables take from 2 - 5 years to get up and running and once properly running are the cheapest of all. Australia has plenty of time to do this as long as she gets started fairly pronto and yet your Government has done sweet f all about this For the time that is wasted the rest of the planet will find that when it eventually stabilises it is in a worse position than was needed and you will be one of the guilty countries.

    You are correct that we are in this together and that if some countries refuse to do what this planet needs to survive we all die.

    The UK as a country was way ahead with its work but recently has fallen back. My concern is that they may be thinking like you. Why are people not expressing concern for the Australian people over these fires? It is not that people do not care for the people and animals who die and are injured, lose their houses and so on. It is because you have one of the worst records for putting in your share for our survival so it does appear that with yourselves, as with the US it is self inflicted.

    Now if you had been putting in your share the world would have been horrified and could have used you as an example to get others moving. There is no sitting on the fence here. You are either working to solve the problem or you are part of it.
     
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2019
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  5. Adfundum

    Adfundum Moderator Staff Member Donor

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    I was wondering if Australia was competing with California in the wildfire championships.

    It's pretty tragic to see this happening. I do hope you all get some rain soon. Do the fires there provide an excuse for partisan rantings like they do here? I hope not.
     
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  6. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    You don’t live in a rural area do you ?
     
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  7. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    Only minor ones and some real pressure being put on the PM to finally freaking do something to reduce carbon emissions
     
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  8. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    We are a long way down the road on renewables but our real carbon footprint comes from exporting coal and that has to stop. Thing is it brings in too many dollars.
     
  9. alexa

    alexa Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Yes I did see a video about that and that American who has been doing a lot of the work in Australia after I wrote that post. It remains that you are still increasing not decreasing your CO2 and that needs to come down by 7.2% every year till 2030 to give everyone a chance. As I said at the moment you are increasing and I hear it will take a noticeable change, a bit of discomfort for countries to achieve this. We are on the edge now. Continue as before and there will be no further chance.

    Concerning your Government I did though also hear that they were being very difficult about renewables - not providing help where help is needed. While your Government was in one news story saying it was going to cover the cost a battery farm for renewables this has not happened. It also said that renewables were having trouble getting on the grid.

    I also noticed that when countries started realising that they really had to start acting if we wanted to save the planet - we know now we are going to face serious problems - but I noticed that at this time Australia was right at the front, wanting to do things. What happened?

    About your coal and money. I was listening to Chomsky talking to Lowkey tonight. He was saying the US is now drilling everywhere, pouring money into fossil fuels, claiming it is now the Number One in the world and, as Chomsky says, regardless of the reality that these actions are going to make the world uninhabitable. He did though point out that renewables when up and running were the cheapest around and thought possibly that might give the world a tiny chance. money, money money.. When did we give up on quality of life. ;)

    Basically the people need to get moving not just XR. They must demand their governments tell the truth and they must demand they get off their assess and do what they can do yesterday.
     
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  10. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    Look into south Australia and the big battery. Now THAT is a success story
     
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  11. alexa

    alexa Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Yes, I saw that in the program I saw and the american was Elon Musk but even in that your Governments commitment did not come over well and if I am remembering correctly he was getting concerned that because of the Governments position his work could come to little - I 'm not sure if I am remembering right there.. You may have introduced renewables and may have good reason to be very proud of them though I hear it is a very recent activity and regardless of that you are still increasing your C02 not decreasing. You still are one of the worse in the world. What happened after your initial positive response. What stopped it. Why if your renewables are as great as you are saying, are you for your population size, one of the worst polluters in the world.

    By next year Scotland expects all of its electricity to be by renewables. Why can't you do that?
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2019
  12. Bowerbird

    Bowerbird Well-Known Member

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    I know but unfortunately the TWONK we have at the moment are all conservatives and they are owned by the coal miners
     
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  13. Steady Pie

    Steady Pie Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Not as my primary residence
     
  14. alexa

    alexa Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    It strikes me as corruption. There is no question that we are now zooming towards climate destruction, none. That in such a situation your Government should choose to make personal gain rather than doing its bit to save the planet - and I think unlike the UK, money for renewables in Australia has not been coming from the Government. I look forward to the crime of ecocide being recognised by the UN and hope this happens then. Then Governments who are deliberately making personal profit when such profit is going to result in the 6th Mass Extinction should be severely punished. That you do have the infrastructure to put it in place renewables makes their crime even worse and their actions harm the whole world not just Australians.
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2019
  15. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    And stop living in dangerous locations!
     
  16. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    You have NO idea. It's utterly disgusting. It's like a bunch of religious zealots were given amphetamines and megaphones.
     
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  17. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    Some good token gestures there .... and heck, they'll totally ease our guilt!

    Meantime, here are my suggestions:

    1) stop buy imported foods
    2) stop flying
    3) stop driving cars
    4) stop using electricity all day every day
    5) stop buying newly manufactured goods
    6) stop buying new clothing
    7) live in much smaller houses
    8 ) don't use air conditioning
    9) stop flying
    10) stop flying
     
  18. Derideo_Te

    Derideo_Te Well-Known Member

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    Devastating fires are occurring worldwide and they are only going to get worse unless we stop using fossil fuels.

    https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps/MOD14A1_M_FIRE

    We depend upon our planet for our survival as does every other species. While some plant species rely upon fires they are usually based upon a longer period between them. Fires occurring too frequently can result in extinction for species that never have the opportunity to reach maturity before the next fire.

    In essence we either stop the cause of these fires or we, and the rest of the species, suffer the dire consequences of own arrogance and stupidity.
     
  19. Thehumankind

    Thehumankind Well-Known Member

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    Because it`s situated in the Southern Hemisphere, Australia is now officially in summer season, I was there for 10 months in Toowoomba it's around 125 kilometers west of Brisbane, It was a nice green city but the summer is really warm.
    With the ongoing palm Tree plantation and deforestation in nearby Indonesia and Malaysia making way for palm trees and it`s oil, I think aggravate more the climactic condition in Australia.


    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/nat...k-at-no-rain-as-australia-enters-grim-summer/
     
  20. gnoib

    gnoib Well-Known Member

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    I really feel for those people.
    Last year my farm was surrounded by huge wild fires. I have spent the 30 years I have had the farm to make it as secure as possible, without destroying its charm. Last year we got our second pre evacuation order in the last 10 years. I can not evacuate, because of the livestock and the farm is a recorded defensive space, that's what I worked for.
    It is a helpless feeling, if you watch day after day the fires coming closer. The smoke, the red glow at night and the ashes raining on you.
    The smoke detectors have their batteries out, chain saw on the porch, tracktor with heavy equipment park at the house, the water truck loaded, generators checked and than all you can do watch and wait. The house is empty, every thing valuable in storage, loaded with emergency food.
    We got a stage 2 team on the Farm, those are the super pros. Great folks, the best of the best. But when they come back to camp exhaust and a little down beat, you know there is trouble.
    When your house becomes the assembly point of the slurry bombers, you know that there is a problem.
    You just get stoic, what else can you do, the ground you stand on is your live.
    They stopped the beast 2 miles from the farm, or half a day of fire.
    10 years ago, my house was the drop point for the slurry bombers. they drop and 1000 feet or so away the stuff hits the ground, my fence line. It was a mad fight for what we have for several days.
    It was foaling time and I brought 2 foals into this crazy, smoking, burning world. Made sure they were fine, cleaned the navels, got them to drink and rushed back to the fires.
    We did not have those firestorms, we had moisture, no sick forest, no draught, month after month with no rain at all and record breaking heat.

    Something changed, biggly
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2019
  21. LeftRightLeft

    LeftRightLeft Well-Known Member

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    There is a lot we can do, better land and water management for a start.
     
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  22. LeftRightLeft

    LeftRightLeft Well-Known Member

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    Do all but 3 and 8. Both are economical and only used when needed.
     
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  23. LeftRightLeft

    LeftRightLeft Well-Known Member

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    Toowoomba the garden city, quite a temperate climate, not a good example of outback Australia
     
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  24. Thehumankind

    Thehumankind Well-Known Member

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    Yup, I think so but I was not able to visit Alice Springs back then.
     
  25. gnoib

    gnoib Well-Known Member

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    You forgot the greatest polluter, ships like freighters or Cruise ships and the fuel they use.
     

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