Australian bushfires

[wez130]

I was in QLD in August right at the start, i saw a couple of fires then, i would never have imagined how out of control they would get! We've had a haze for the last few days over NZ and we've got family in QLD, they haven't been affected but it''s a horrible situation for Australia. I can't see a solution any time soon unfortunately

 

[Sankari]

Under Julia Gillard's Labour government we had a carbon tax. It wasn't perfect, but it was working. The Liberals scrapped it as soon as they came to power.

Hundreds of thousands of people have evacuated their homes

Tens of thousands, but yeah.

@Evangelion I've not been following the story much, I don't follow much news nowadays. Are you guys getting support from other countries? I'd have thought that NZ at the very least would be able to mobilize some tankers to help with dousing?

The US and Canada have sent some of their firies to help. That's all we've had so far. NZ is 4,000 km away and there's an entire sea between us, so it would take them too long to send tankers. Would be nice if they could fly out some firies though.

I'd have thought that Japan would be all over this too tbh. Your PM is a ***** anyway, at least he'll be out when next month's PM comes in.

 

[Abraxaz1]

If they have so much bio mass on the floor, why dont they have vacuum excavator and use it in bio fuel power plants. Surely a company could make a killing?

 

[Mr Jack]

What exactly is he meant to do about the fires?

He was warned earlier in the year that bigger than normal fires were expected and that Aus should prepare by acquiring extra equipment was available, etc. He ignored this advice.

 

[Maccy]

I'm amazed that more isn't being done, it's 2020 (almost put 2019!) and the resources to deal with this haven't been provided. I get that it's a massive issue and can't just be tackled by throwing money/bodies at it, but more needs to be done - very upsetting to see so many lives being lost.

 

[R.P.L]

This must be a terrible situation for anyone affected and the impact to the environment and wildlife is devastating, but possibly the most depressing thing is that it's being used for political point scoring. Humanity is dead.

 

[Orionaut]

Under Julia Gillard's Labour government we had a carbon tax. It wasn't perfect, but it was working. The Liberals scrapped it as soon as they came to power.

The carbon tax, or absence of one, makes absolutely no difference to whether these bush fires will or will not occur. Nor would it have any effect on their severity.

Nor does the amounts of CO2 that Australia generates, or doesn't generate.

At the extreme, Perhaps if less money had been spent on irrelevant and pointless attempts to control the weather, more might have been available to fund damage control.

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If they have so much bio mass on the floor, why dont they have vacuum excavator and use it in bio fuel power plants. Surely a company could make a killing?

It is likely that the EROI would be very poor and the fuel harvested not particularly useful

 

[Dugganator]

Now I say the following to hopefully but proven truly wrong. But does anyone else feel that the worlds response in aid and help has been a bit crap? I mean sure Australia is a large country, far away with a decent economy but unless I have missed it or hasn't been reported on very much it does seem like anyone is sending ships, people or aid. I don't think offering money or aid in the form of money will help in the short term and maybe some large scale international help/task force would be better suited. Of course getting there in time to be helpful again will be an issue. I guess also it will be down to bad timing over Christmas delaying the types of international response.

 

[Sankari]

If they have so much bio mass on the floor, why dont they have vacuum excavator and use it in bio fuel power plants. Surely a company could make a killing?

You'd think so, but although the Australian government has been pouring money into biofuel R&D for some time, the private sector shows little interest in pursuing this technology even though the ROI is comparable to wind farms and even some fossil fuels.

The carbon tax, or absence of one, makes absolutely no difference to whether these bush fires will or will not occur. Nor would it have any effect on their severity.

Nor does the amounts of CO2 that Australia generates, or doesn't generate.

I never claimed that it did. But global climate change has certainly aggravated the severity of the weather conditions that support and trigger extreme fire behaviour. Changing Australia's CO2 output alone won't make much of a difference; it has to be an international goal.

At the extreme, Perhaps if less money had been spent on irrelevant and pointless attempts to control the weather, more might have been available to fund damage control.

Absolute nonsense. No Australian government has been spending money on 'irrelevant and pointless attempts to control the weather.' There was always money available to fund damage control, the government simply refused to spend it.

Now I say the following to hopefully but proven truly wrong. But does anyone else feel that the worlds response in aid and help has been a bit crap?

Yeah, you'd think that a catastrophic fire event significantly larger than the one that hit the Amazon might spur a few countries into action, but apparently not.

 

[Diddums]

I'm amazed that more isn't being done, it's 2020 (almost put 2019!) and the resources to deal with this haven't been provided. I get that it's a massive issue and can't just be tackled by throwing money/bodies at it, but more needs to be done - very upsetting to see so many lives being lost.

Some of the replies in this thread are genuinely interesting in how much they reveal about the poster and their very limited life experience, or living in a cocoon of safety. I'm a bit of an outlier given my life history but it never fails to amaze me how ignorant people can be despite being presented with actual live video, enough photos to cover the whole of Australia, enough very obvious evidence of complete and utter dire straits and hopelessness, yet for some it means nothing, instead we need to discuss how taxes should be spent.

I legit think that these people won't be able to relate to utter helplessness and desperation until they experience it first hand. It's mind boggling tbh.

 

[LeMson]

Surely a big part of the problem is the sheer scale of this and the low population density

30,000 people forced to evacuate
* >2,500 buildings destroyed
* 5.9 million hectares destroyed (that's ~1.8 million hectares larger than Switzerland)

Switzerland has 8.5 million people. The scale of the fires is mindblowing :O

 

[ajf]

Don’t forget the huge toll this is having on the wildlife as well.
Whilst terrible for the people involved, in the main they can plan and escape.
The koalas have been hit hard as during danger they generally climb trees for safety, and now get burnt to death instead....

 

[jsmoke]

He was warned earlier in the year that bigger than normal fires were expected and that Aus should prepare by acquiring extra equipment was available, etc. He ignored this advice.

Ok I can see that. So what preparations can be made, there are fire breaks, what else?

 

[Mr Jack]

Ok I can see that. So what preparations can be made, there are fire breaks, what else?

Having enough firefighting equipment and firefighters so you can respond quickly to fires and get them under control before they spread.

 

[Ahleckz]

Utter devastation, I just can't see what can be done but I'm amazed that it took so long to mobilise the military. I would have thought they would have been called out almost immediately due to the scale.

I didn't comprehend so many animals had been lost, that's tragic and I'm sure many populations will never recover.

 

[jsmoke]

Having enough firefighting equipment and firefighters so you can respond quickly to fires and get them under control before they spread.

Is there data to back this up, there's also a lack of fresh water I believe and you can't use sea water as salt ruins the land?

I'm talking about firefighting techniques, you can have all the bodies you want but not so easy to stop any bush fire.

 

[doodah]

The human lives lost are tragic but nearly half a billion animals .

 

[RedvGreen]

I am frankly stunned that this happened on 'our watch'. Nothing technological can slow its inevitable creep and scorch - destroying vegetation in front of the fire, airdropping water/heavy-gasses etc.

 

[RedvGreen]

This must be a terrible situation for anyone affected and the impact to the environment and wildlife is devastating, but possibly the most depressing thing is that it's being used for political point scoring. Humanity is dead.

Unfortunately we need something big to happen to render billionnaires' wealth useless. A mild reset, if you will. I appreciate the 'Star Trek' model is cloud-cuckoo thinking, but a society where wealth and currency doesn't exist in the same way as it does currently is surely something that would help alleviate the 'Us versus Them' ideal at both ends of the wealth spectrum?

 

[jsmoke]

Unfortunately we need something big to happen to render billionnaires' wealth useless. A mild reset, if you will. I appreciate the 'Star Trek' model is cloud-cuckoo thinking, but a society where wealth and currency doesn't exist in the same way as it does currently is surely something that would help alleviate the 'Us versus Them' ideal at both ends of the wealth spectrum?

Your saying that being a billionaire makes others poor and causes social division?