Thread: Climate Change and our Land of Fire, Flood and Drought.

Originally Posted by Arch

The extent and reasons behind the application of fire by the original Australians, while popular in the media and several books, in the scientific community it is a large unknown. In some parts of Australia, particularly central and northern Aus we have good knowledge due to this information being passed through the generations. In other areas, such as the south-east, with respect to the traditional owners of these lands, this is largely lost due to the fragmentation of the groups and other post settlement influences on the population. Some information is still available, but again, this is largely incomplete and the context of the use may have been lost.

This question has been looked at by the scientific community as the extent of indigenous burning is perhaps the most contentious issue in Australian ecology. When scientists have sampled the tree-ring, lake charcoal and pollen records it has been found to be extremely difficult to measure the traditional use of fire as what has been found is the levels of fire in SE Aust was extremely low. There was certainly periods of frequent fires across different areas but it is difficult to put this fire in any context of those periods. Variations in climate may have been more of a factor. In the Aust alps it has been clearly shown in tree ring records (fire scars) for example that the arrival of Europeans changed the fire regime - more fire. Look up Lindsay Pryors work from the Brindabellas.

Ultimately, we are now in a different climate regime and it is perhaps time to change our approach to fires and do away with hazard reduction practices and focus on asset protection. Former NSW fire commissioner Greg Mullins gave a very interesting interview to the ABC today Breakfast - Breakfast - ABC Radio - it starts at 2:20 and is well worth the listen.

My sister did some research while at Uni on the history of fires around Sydney. Lots of trips to the bush, taking core samples of stuff. Wish I could remember what the eventual findings were!

'I have a debt to Australia': Afghan family stay and defend neighbours' homes with buckets
Afghan family to stay behind and defend Lake Conjola homes from NSW bushfires - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Originally Posted by gusthedog

*In a cooler climate without the same weather extremes we have now.

what weather extremes?

I have our site on High Alert.


That’s 2 of the 3 fronts developing near my site. Looking West with a current Northerly.

In about 3 hours the wind will turn WSW and this is the predicted outcome.


Looking to be a long night.

At least it’s not homes at risk.

Be careful and stay safe.

This not the time to be patient. Patient people have been ignored for over a decade. This is the time to be really angry and demand effective responsible action.


We are seeing the very worst of our scientific predictions come to pass in these bushfires

We are seeing the very worst of our scientific predictions come to pass in these bushfires | Joelle Gergis | Opinion | The Guardian

AFAIAC, if you can see gum trees from your house, you live in a potentially fire-prone area. Build, landscape and plan accordingly.
Kudos to all the firies and other emergency personnel involved!

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

.....

We are seeing the very worst of our scientific predictions come to pass in these bushfires | Joelle Gergis | Opinion | The Guardian

This is the kind of sensationalist BS that dilutes the climate debate, and sends it off the rails!

All they do is feed on the current emotional condition of the population, to perpetuate this myth that bushfires are worse in some way.

Until someone comes up with some hard evidence that bushfires are worse now than in previous times .. it's just BS.
And by hard evidence, I don't mean the current situation, I mean actual evidence that clearly shows that bushfires are worse now than 'pre climate change era'.
Impossible task, because the records show that fires were much worse, and regular pre climate change, than they are now.

Case in point AGIAN! .. Vic had one of the worst bushfires in history where hundreds of people died, but the fire itself was small in area. ie. the issue wasn't the spread and breadth of the fire, it was civilisation encroaching on native bush.
Bad planning exacerbated the issue. Climate change was blamed for the '09 fire, and not bad governance, as it should have been.

Another case in point, Cockatoo/Emerald 1983 in Vic(Ash Wednesday) .. 36 years ago badly burned, lives lost, property lost. Never happened again in this supposed catastrophic climactic conditions ... why?
36 years ago, it was simply headlined as a human tragedy, or a natural disaster .. climate change wasn't even a thing in 1983.

All that's changed is that now they have this new scapegoat .. climate change, to look too, and the climate can't defend itself and point its finger at the stupidly of modern civilisation in building infrastructure where it shouldn't be!

The sooner that these morons stop blaming climate change for a regular natural phenomenon, the sooner these naturally occurring fires will cease harming peoples lives.

The only (surprising) positive to come from this weeks events in East Vic was that the governance teams(fire depts/govt/media) called it early .. as it should have been.
They gave many days of forewarning that the conditions were likely to be catastrophic, so to evacuate as many people out of the areas as possible.