Australian Bush Fires

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by RainbowSingularity, Dec 31, 2019.

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  1. Tiassa

    Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Reading up at BBC↱ suggest some of the problem is just social media and its audience. Maybe it's complicated to explain, but the Hearsey visualization still works, for me; the overlay works well enough because a prior version I saw already compensated for map distortion, but used really big fire symbols so it looked even worse.

    It's not that I utterly disdain the advice about the maps; it's easy to forget some people really do need to be told.

    Meanwhile, these fires are apocalyptic: Fires for a month? And? That amount of fire is still not supposed to happen. Six times as much as we lost in California in 2018; as a question of the larger fire season, as such, I do wonder at the threshold you're parsing. Still, though, thank you for the reminder. We'll be sure to pass it along, for you, and tell them to not worry, because it's not really that bad at any one given moment.
    ____________________

    Notes:

    Rannard, Georgina. "Australia fires: Misleading maps and pictures go viral". BBC News. 7 January 2020. BBC.com. 8 January 2020. https://bbc.in/2QTRCTm
     
    Tiassa, Jan 8, 2020
    #61
    LaurieAG likes this.

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  3. LaurieAG

    LaurieAG Registered Senior Member

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    Unfortunately it's the same at both extremes, arsonist arrests have also been exaggerated by using whole of year figures and including people not charged etc. That doesn't mean that arsonists don't light fires or that the fires themselves are tame.

    It's also a scammers paradise at the moment so people who want to donate should go through sources like our ABC/RED CROSS Bushfire fund. https://about.abc.net.au/press-releases/abc-and-red-cross-bushfire-appeal-raises-13-3-million/
    I posted this link from a federal report on the 2003 ACT bushfire previously and it explains the severity of the fires then and now. "Land management factors contributing to the severity of recent bushfire damage" https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...ees?url=bushfires/inquiry/report/chapter2.pdf

    While things may have cooled down a bit with some rainfall since Monday the temperature is expected to rise by tomorrow (Thursday) so the fires are expected to get worse again as the moisture from the rain is already drying up.
     
    LaurieAG, Jan 8, 2020
    #62

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  5. RainbowSingularity

    RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    fires for about 3 months now and expected to last easily another 2 months

    that's going to be 6 months of fires.
    minor detail is the fire season hasn't started officially yet.
    that super hot high fire risk time starts around now.
     
    RainbowSingularity, Jan 8, 2020
    #63

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  7. LaurieAG

    LaurieAG Registered Senior Member

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    Not quite, spring is September to November and summer is from December to February.

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    LaurieAG, Jan 9, 2020
    #64
  8. RainbowSingularity

    RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    currently is this map is correct...
    it might get worse
    i hope not

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    RainbowSingularity, Jan 9, 2020
    #65
  9. LaurieAG

    LaurieAG Registered Senior Member

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    The original Australian BOM link for this image is below the image and the BOM link to the image I posted is below that. The color code has been changed by Bloomberg.

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    Also note that this map is only for risk of forest fires and does not show risk of grass fires. With good vegetation management these risks can be mitigated.

    http://www.bom.gov.au/state-of-the-climate/australias-changing-climate.shtml
    http://www.bom.gov.au/weather-services/fire-weather-centre/bushfire-weather/index.shtml
     
    LaurieAG, Jan 10, 2020
    #66
  10. LaurieAG

    LaurieAG Registered Senior Member

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    There is currently a very high fire danger due to a cooler change coming through with strong winds. The map I posted was the current fire risk not the historic fire risk. Also, don't forget much of Australia is desert and the worst fires at the moment are mainly in the temperate zone.

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    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deserts_of_Australia
     
    LaurieAG, Jan 10, 2020
    #67
  11. RainbowSingularity

    RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    RainbowSingularity, Jan 11, 2020
    #68
  12. RainbowSingularity

    RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    RainbowSingularity, Jan 11, 2020
    #69
  13. LaurieAG

    LaurieAG Registered Senior Member

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    The south-west of Queensland is primarily desert, so no these dust storms aren't due to the fires. From your link below.
     
    LaurieAG, Jan 11, 2020
    #70
  14. RainbowSingularity

    RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    RainbowSingularity, Jan 11, 2020
    #71
  15. Bells

    Bells Staff Member

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    A month?

    We have been burning since September.

    Bushfire season started at the start of September last year when South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales went up in flames, and rainforests caught fire and it's still burning, just not in spots where it endangers lives or homes at the moment.

    Australia's bushfire crisis started since then and only worsened.

    It was around this time that our Prime Minister booked his secret holiday to Hawaii.

    And no, it is not supposed to happen like this.

    A friend of mine in a town called Lithgow, that saw this appear on their doorstep several weeks ago sarcastically noted...

    "On the plus side, there's not going to be anything left to burn, so we may not have to face this for a while now.. We won't have any wild life left, but you know, silver linings where we can get it"​

    For us, the threshold is catastrophic.

    500 million animals dead. Koala populations decimated. The seed stock of koalas on an island off the South Australian coast also decimated due to bushfires. That stock was vital, due to a disease that has affected mainland koala populations. Kangaroo Island koala populations were clear of disease and they were our last line of defense if anything happened to the mainland population.

    And it's not just dead animals. Those that survive, will end up starving to death, as there is no food left for them to eat after the fires have gone through. Everyone is crying about burning animals and the fires now. Many fail to realise that those that survived, will now starve to death. Many Australian plants may have evolved to propagate by fire, but not like this. Never like this. In the past, one area or section burnt, others would still remain safe.. Animals that escaped, had places to escape to. Now there is nowhere. Everything is gone.

    "There's not going to be anything left to burn"..

    Literally.

    Our green spaces, the green hills around the city in Sydney and many parts of Queensland went up in flames. In many parts, there literally is nothing left to burn, but it burns anyway. The soil itself was burning because everything is bone dry.. Roots or any vegetation matter that compost in the soil, became so dry, it made the soil catch fire.

    So yeah, the threshold is catastrophic. We are in the midst of a crisis, but that crisis will become really bad in the coming months, because not only is the ground water contaminated (where there is water that is), but there are no food sources for the animals that survived.

    It's South West Queensland...

    It's a dust bowl. Literally.

    Especially during times of drought:

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    Any greenery you see in the distance would be around creeks or streams that may still have some water. It rarely gets rain. On the rare occasion it does rain though, it is magical and becomes one of the most beautiful places on this planet.
     
    Bells, Jan 11, 2020
    #72
  16. RainbowSingularity

    RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    https://www.news.com.au/national/ns...y/news-story/cb03ac3ab4484c6805bd4b11adb088c0
    when ya gotta go, ya gotta go
    but how far did they need to go ?

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    plenty of holiday spots in Australia they could have gone, spent locally, saved money and helped the local economy.

    that seems like the right way to lead as a leader
    leading by example
    they chose the job that is supposed to be 24/7
    it certainly pays them 24/7 money

    interestingly ...
    NSW Minister for Emergency Services David Elliott
    supposedly he has just publicly declared he agrees that there is something real about man made climate change(it has been done by the men)

    my point is the massive areas of Forrest which is now massive areas of ash and dust will add to the dust storms and make them dramatically worse.

    instead of forests absorbing various amounts of the dust storms, they will be fueling them with ash and large particulate with the heat adding lift.

    i wonder if they can tanker drop dust storms to pull out some of the dust and reduce its kinetic energy
     
    RainbowSingularity, Jan 11, 2020
    #73
  17. Bells

    Bells Staff Member

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    Not really that interesting.

    It's politics and it is politically expedient to make such declarations at the moment.

    Not really.

    We have had dust storms reach the coast in the past before the fires.. Those forests kind did not do that much.

    More to the point, where it has burnt is not fine ash.

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    I don't think you realise how big our dust storms are. They can be hundreds of kilometers long. For example:

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    Forests do diddly squat.

    You can try and tanker drop these dust storms if you like (whatever that may be).. And good luck with that.
     
    Bells, Jan 11, 2020
    #74
  18. RainbowSingularity

    RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    smells very dusty
     
    RainbowSingularity, Jan 12, 2020
    #75
  19. RainbowSingularity

    RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    RainbowSingularity, Jan 13, 2020
    #76
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