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Bushfire - Australia (3 Viewers)

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A highlight of our January around here is watching the Aussie Open.
So glad to see the rain this year! Normally that would be a bummer, but what a blessing this year.
 
It's the trees fault..............

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-51132965
......

Sometimes I think that Eucalypts go beyond just a superb adaptation to fire in the environment - and into the realms of something like the kamakaze ninja cannibals of the plant world !

Looking at distant mountains of Eucalyptus Forests shows a blue haze. This is from all the volatile oils the leaves give off. This protects them from insect attack - but it also makes fires roar through like a gas cloud explosion. Not only do the trees themselves explode in a ball of flame - but the entire surrounding air ahead of it does too. It's like Armageddon for everything else around ........ :eek!:





Chosun :gh:
 
Vetinary advice for how to give water to animals seeking help.

** VERY IMPORTANT !! **

Several pictures have emerged of people giving water to surviving animals fleeing firegrounds - some people unintentionally doing more harm than good .....

Do NOT - pour water down an animals throat - this is like waterboarding it and can kill, as sadly has happened to at least 1 Koala. :C

DO - pour water into a shallow bowl, tray, or even your cupped hands and let the animal control it's own water intake :t:

https://www.boredpanda.com/falling-water-could-kill-koalas/





Chosun :gh:
 
'Yuin woamn' (sic) and 'Bundjalung man', the people pictured in this article don't look like what I have in my mind as Australian Aborigines?
 
A burning question: Why was Australia’s government so ill-prepared for the bushfires?

https://www.economist.com/asia/2020...7ym-oT5LfXV2xmj1g2enoa8kiW57woi7tH75LD7DllNGA

"Greg Mullins, the former fire commissioner of New South Wales, and other ex-chiefs warned authorities in April that extremely dry conditions in Eastern Australia were likely to lead to a very dangerous fire season. They wanted cash for water-bombing aircraft, but Mr Mullins says they were “fobbed off”."





Chosun :gh:
 
" Survival-by-respect or death-by-stupid: your choice Straya"

Obviously as an Australian you will be considering this to be yet another example of fake news, and the other facts/items reported as of negligible importance?

<add smiley>

That's far too narrow a view .... :cat:
It omits entirely the part where the Australian Government lit the fires (/kept them burning) .....:eek!:

It's just a symptom of a far bigger issue:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/sur...PxGVYS05JImmw7fYKFQsPS0JM3BviaHU78PjReJmd6j_k


<add emoji of choice>




Chosun :gh:
 
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...4zpXih4KVh4QRVcRnpEE9911X9UONbpb4q0b2DdqqrPIQ

"Helene Marsh, chair of the national threatened species scientific committee and an emeritus professor of environmental science at James Cook University, said the scale of the ecological tragedy had made Australians more aware of the risks facing the country’s unique animals and plants and provided an opportunity to improve conservation.

With fires still burning, scientists warn it is too early to have a clear picture of the devastation, but preliminary government data suggests more than 100 threatened animal and plant species have lost at least half their habitat ...."


"Marsh said the threatened species committee planned to review the decision-making process for officially listing species as vulnerable or worsewithin the constraints of existing national environment laws. She said the protection offered to species after they were listed should also be reconsidered as the existing model of recovery planning had not worked. Fewer than 40% of nationally threatened species have recovery plans in place."

"An analysis by environment groups found the Coalition had cut funding for environmental programs, monitoring and staff by about 40% since being elected in 2013.

Marsh said changes would be needed to the national environment laws, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity and Protection Act, "







Chosun :gh:
 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...6NEVarwe9D2hNOsIarkqZYFlW5coFk2jEBafwDFqanZNc

"This season’s fires are transformative, Bowman said, because they have affected rainforests that don’t typically burn.

“When the rainforests start burning, they are telling you that the system is being taken right outside its operational framework and it’s flipping into a new state,”"

...........
"As the blazes fuel a political debate about climate policy, the traditional role of fire in the landscape has also come into focus, drawing on the expertise of Australia’s indigenous people, whose interaction with fire goes back 40,000 years. Much of that knowledge was lost, however, when European colonization decimated Aboriginal culture."
............
"“If we’re just using Western mentality to manage landscapes — where they just fly over the top and drop water bombs, or hazard reduction, or solely for the protection of people — we’re going to miss all those layers and we’re going to continue to see a degraded landscape,” said Victor Steffensen, an indigenous expert on cultural burning practices."
............
"Bowman laments what he says is an “ideological civil war” that has broken out over the issue of fire management. He also laments the loss of indigenous know-how.

“We really missed out on capturing a lot of Aboriginal knowledge,” he said. “Had we captured that knowledge 100 years ago, we’d be in a better place.”



Let's also be clear on this - it's the water taken out of the landscape (by over extraction, exploitation, and soil degradation and erosion) that is also a major issue, and for all this articles good points it fails to even mention that.




Chosun :gh:
 
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