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Bushfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia. They're Only Going to Get Worse:
Australia has deployed military planes and ships to provide aid as hundreds of wildfires rage across Australia, forcing residents to flee and destroying homes.
The Australian Defense Force is sending ships to the Victoria town of Mallacoota on a two-week supply mission and using helicopters to bring in more firefighters since roads were inaccessible, according to the Associated Press (AP).
On Tuesday, thousands of people from the town on Australia's southeastern coast fled towards the water as a fire ripped through the area.
Photos of residents taking shelter on boats circulated on social media.
[...] In New South Wales, where Sydney is located, firefighters are battling more than 100 fires, according to the state's Rural Fire Service.
Sydney's famed New Years Eve fireworks went ahead despite the fires. A petition calling on the government to cancel the display and give the funds to firefighters and farmers instead got more than 280,000 signatures.
[...] New South Wales' Rural Fire Services Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said this wildfire season is the worst on record.
"We've seen extraordinary fire behavior," he said Tuesday, according to the AP. "What we really need is meaningful rain, and we haven't got anything in the forecast at the moment that says we're going to get drought-breaking or fire-quenching rainfall."
More than 900 homes have been destroyed in the state, according to New South Wales Rural Fire Service.
A fire tracker map maintained by researchers in Western Australia shows that they are also threatening areas around every major city in the country.
Additional coverage:
- Australia fires live: two dead in Cobargo as NSW and Victoria face bushfires threat – latest updates - interactive map too
- 9news live feed
- Large parts of the NSW South Coast are expected to lose all telecommunications in coming hours
- Tens of thousands of lightning strikes spark dozens of fires across South Australia
- More than 30,000 tourists in Australia who defied orders to leave area east of Melbourne amid raging bushfires are 'TRAPPED' as roads are cut off, after locals warned staying would be 'suicide' - have the pinch of salt ready
- 4000+ blocked on Mallacoota beach as forest fire approaches
- The Navy joins fleet of military helicopters called in to help evacuate south-eastern Victoria
- A total of 33 fires are still burning across Victoria as of 7pm Tuesday, with the majority of those blazes in East Gippsland.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @02:37PM (15 children)
The rainforrest and alpine parts will likely never be the same. Otherwise will take a few years.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday January 02 2020, @06:12PM (14 children)
Gotta love when a fucking RAINFOREST catches fire and the deniers are still running around claiming everything is fine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @06:35PM
Sounds like a deep insight for someone with a shallow mind.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @06:46PM (2 children)
oh shut the fuck up, you fucking zombie.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @07:09PM
Lol, reality is finally making it theough your thick skulls! I forget all the steps of loss, but the first is denial if I recall. I'd have more sympathy for the loss of a happy world view if yours wasn't so very anti-human. Yes I am generalizing your stances based on being angry a climate denier comment.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday January 02 2020, @08:04PM
Haha, touche indeed! I guess this is what passes for an argument amongst the purposely ignorant.
(Score: -1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @08:38PM (9 children)
You don't understand Australian bushfires. The Australian ecosystem has evolved to be reliant upon bushfires; Australian rainforests are no exception to this. The problem is that humans insist on living within bushfire zones and then are politically forbidden to manage bushfire fuel around the homes. There are people who believe that burning bushfire fuel before a wild bushfire occurs will contribute to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The consequence is that people are politically forbidden to manage the fuel by burning it before it becomes a threat to houses.
(Score: 5, Informative) by EventH0rizon on Thursday January 02 2020, @09:01PM (5 children)
"The consequence is that people are politically forbidden to manage the fuel by burning it before it becomes a threat to houses"
This is simply not true. We live in Gippsland. The fires are nearby. There has been extensive back burning here over the last few years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @11:37PM (3 children)
You mean hazard reduction burns? Back burns are used to contain an active fire.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by EventH0rizon on Friday January 03 2020, @04:21AM (2 children)
You're correct, but I mean both.
The Swifts Creek fire (as an example) has been active for months. Some of the terrain in the this years fire was burnt out last summer.
DEWLP and CFA personnel (local firefighting authorities) use fuel reduction burns, bulldozer clearing and back burning.
Our farm is blanketed in thick smoke today and I naturally worry about whether our part of Gippsland is next.
If I hear another fuckwit blame the fires on "Greenies" I think I may abandon a life time of civil discourse in favor of just punching them in the mouth.
Believing in made up, just-so stories has consequences. Voting for politicians who push same fabrications has consequences.
Down here we're living those consequences.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 03 2020, @04:38AM (1 child)
So what you're saying is that "the greenies" have had zero effect on reducing bushfire hazards in the recent times? It's great that your area has had these measures take place, but not all Australians are allowed to take the necessary measures.
(Score: 2) by EventH0rizon on Tuesday January 07 2020, @01:43AM
This statement (from firefighters themselves) tells it like it is: https://www.facebook.com/ColytonNSWAustralia2760/posts/2668626616551840 [facebook.com]
"Political parties of any denomination do NOT influence the decisions of organisations like FRNSW, ACT Fire and Rescue, ACT and NSW Rural Fire Services and Parks and Wildlife Services when choosing when and how to do Hazard Reduction burns. It just doesn’t work like that."
It's worth reading in full.
And then perhaps ask, how reliable is the information you have used to form your opinion?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 03 2020, @04:28AM
The fact that you have had hazard reduction burning in the past doesn't change the fact that your houses are in natural bushfire zones. There are two answers to the problem of bushfires 1) reduce the bush fire fuel loads even more 2) migrate to other land.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Friday January 03 2020, @04:08AM (2 children)
If your argument is on the line of "Aussie forests need fire; thus the more fire the better for them", neither you understand Australian bushfires.
False [vicrainforest.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 03 2020, @04:35AM (1 child)
Victorian rainforests are exceptions to the rest of the Australian ecosystem that are filled with fire loving eucalyptus forests. They are a relic of an older time when seas covered the continent of Australia. The Australian inland seas have drained which means the conditions that established the rainforests in Victoria can no longer support them over the long term. Even without human intervention, it is very easy to see that these rainforests will simply go away over time.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday January 03 2020, @05:04AM
First, your initial statement made no room for exception. So, you moving goal posts maybe?
Second, rain forests exist in other places of Australia - it's not "all eucalyptus", you know? - and they contain species that won't recover from a fire:
Examples:
1. World Heritage areas in Tasmania containing species as old as Gondwana [theguardian.com] - a large percentage burned last years.
2. Queensland rain forests - see the transcript here [abc.net.au]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford