You can't correct my view of the 1994 fires which is what I covered..my opinion from what I personally experienced.. what I saw and what I experienced is the issue and again why is it so difficult to accept that what I offer is what I personally experienced...why? I expect for no other reason than my real experience just does not meet the picture you want to paint ...
And facts be damned.. You experienced 1994 and others are experiencing even worse now.
By sheer numbers alone, the 1994 fires pale in comparison to what we are currently experiencing.
Perhaps you should broaden your views and understand that it's not just about you...? You know, just saying..
The biggest issue with the 1994 fires is how long they lasted for. The biggest issue with what we are currently experiencing is that it is more ferocious, is burning hotter, it has burnt twice as much in much less time, it is spreading faster, is burning in rainforests because everything is so dry (even the soil is dry in these parts), is being fed by weather conditions that started in winter and made things worse, and there is no end in sight as they are expected to burn well into next year - due to lack of foreseeable rainfall.. Which means we will lose more houses, more bushland, more rainforests and possibly more lives.
The two are not comparable. Just as no one would compare the current bushfire crisis
to the horror that befell Victoria in 2009. Because that fire is in a league of horror of its own and also because the conditions, where the fires burnt, is vastly different to what we are experiencing.
Do you understand now? You are essentially comparing apples to oranges.
I am an easy going chap and all I can suggest is to review your overall approach and ask why you have found me somewhat not so.
You are offended that I am daring to look at it from a standpoint that tackling bushfires means and should entail a broad approach, as opposed to yours which is 'people are starting fires, this is bad, what can we do?'...
I'll put it this way. The crux of your argument has been 'setting fires bad and it is worse than climate change'..
Ermm okay..?
And?
I've asked you this before.. And?
You've stated the obvious, Alex. What now?
What do you propose be done about it? In QLD, 10 of the fires were lit by kids.. What do you propose be done to those kids? Should the laws be changed to deal with kids who start fires? Should laws be changed for accidental fire starters? How about the guy who did an illegal burnoff on his property to protect his marijuana crop, that went on to become one of the worst fires on the north coast of NSW? What do you propose?
You came in interested in only one issue now you claim to be more or less pissed off because I won't roll over.
No. I came in to address an issue I notice you have been repeating a few times across this site. To the one, whining that people are commenting about climate change in the event of catastrophic fires that is catastrophic
because of climate change is ironic all on its own.. To the other, you seem to want to pick this fight - given you've repeated the same argument about climate change in at least 3 threads that I have seen so far from you.. It really bothers you, doesn't it?
But there's one thing that you keep ignoring and
what the victims of these fires have been saying.. Starting fires is a major issue. But the conditions make that even worse. And the reason rainforests are burning is because the climate in these parts has changed so drastically. No one is suggesting that the people who start this are not a problem.
Everyone who is not a climate change denialist recognises and understands why climate change has made this much worse than it would otherwise be.
Understand now?
What were you thinking re 1994 fires?
All you could focus upon was my observation that it was worse for me and somehow got stuck on that forgetting presumably I am talking about my personal experience .the facts you present have absolutely no bearing on my personal experience..try thinking about that for a while.
I am saying what I experienced in that one (1994) was much worse than the recent one and rather than accept that is my personal experience you think somehow you can diminish what I experienced with facts unrelated to my personal experience.
Now if you want the worst fire in my life experience it was the fire of 2002 where I lost everything I (we had) had that was stored in a shed while I was fixing the house.
It burnt the same region as the recent one but it burnt faster covering in one afternoon what the recent one covered in a week ... Now that is a fact and although it won't fit your determination that the fires are getting worse that fact will remain.
Bells it was really scarry.
First we evacuated the house and went to the end of our road with the rest of the folk in the road meeting at the fire shed, well the fire caught up in about an hour so we all left and waited at the river but the fire caught up in about an hour and a half, so we set off for the town in convoy, I was the last and my truck stopped no one noticed and I was left alone, but a tourist came by and saved me..the truck did not burn but everything at home did.
The recent fire took two days to travel the same distance the 2002 covered in little more than an hour and a half.That is a fact.
Check the facts sure but just remember I am talking about my personal experience which has absolutely nothing to do with any overall observation other than your obsession with climate change...I am suggesting your obsession is clouding your judgement. I was perhaps too polite in my reply where you discovered I was being flippant because you see I had at that point given up on you and in retrospect I should have taken more time to handle your post a little differently.
I am not diminishing what you experienced and went through. Far from it.
You are talking about your personal experience in your own personal vicinity. I am looking at the entire state. Twice as many houses burnt, twice as many acres burnt and destroyed, more people killed in less time than the 1994 fires. You cannot compare it because the conditions we are experiencing, the areas these fires are burning is in rainforests and sub-tropical rainforests that normally do not burn like they are burning now. Do you understand what I am saying? You are comparing apples to oranges. I'll put it this way. We lost everything, nearly lost our lives in a horror storm that destroyed our house while we were still in it. If there's a cyclone, I'm not going to rock up and go, 'well, what I experienced was much worse, because I lost my house in a few minutes while your house took several hours to be destroyed'.. Apples and oranges. Completely different events that cannot be compared. Your experiences are horrific and awful and I am very sorry you went through that. Just as what we are experiencing up here is horrific in its own very different way.
These fires are the worst we have seen, and the reason for that is because it's burning in places that should never be burning this ferociously and for this long. I'll give you an example of how bad it is for us up here.. A few days ago, a bushfire started in land that is usually swampland. As in it's a marine reserve and designated as swamp marshland. It's not a gum forest. And there was a bushfire in it. And it wasn't the only one. Another fire, on the same day, in another swampy area less than 20 minutes away.. And that one has been on and off for the past week.
Well, it used to be swampland. It's bone dry now. Even the soil is dry.
The same goes for these rainforests. Normally a fire hits the rainforests in these parts, it doesn't penetrate too deeply, because everything is damp, the soil itself is damp, slowing the fire down. Look at Mackay and the rainforests up there that are currently burning.. Climate change meant worse cyclones, which destroyed a lot of the canopy trees, which means the undergrowth dried out and/or died.. No rain for a very long time, even though it's the tropics, they have had no rain.. The bushfires up there are burning in these rainforests.
So you want to only focus on people who start them. Okay. And? Even if they did not start these fires, even one fire would be devastating - be it lit naturally by dry lightning or accidentally - it would burn just as bad and would be just as problematic.
If we don't address what's making these fires so bad, then you can get rid of every ability to start fires and bushfires would still be just as bad, because everything here is like a tinderbox now. The soil is bone dry and water resistant. In rainforests.
And that's why people are focusing on climate change.
I remember fifty years ago we had a client who wanted to fight a fine for lighting a cigarette during a total fire ban.
I wonder if authorities are that tuff these days...
Alex
Over policing and draconian laws is not a fix.
