Climategate

"Carbon (Dioxide) trading is now the fastest growing commodities market on earth.....And here’s the great thing about it. Unlike traditional commodities markets, which will eventually involve delivery to someone in physical form, the carbon (dioxide) market is based on lack of delivery of an invisible substance to no-one. Since the market revolves around creating carbon (dioxide) credits, or finding carbon (dioxide) reduction projects whose benefits can then be sold to those with a surplus of emissions, it is entirely intangible." (Telegraph)

This blog has been tracking the 'Global Warming Scam' for over ten years now. There are a very large number of articles being published in blogs and more in the MSM who are waking up to the fact the public refuse to be conned any more and are objecting to the 'green madness' of governments and the artificially high price of energy. This blog will now be concentrating on the major stories as we move to the pragmatic view of 'not if, but when' and how the situation is managed back to reality. To quote Professor Lindzen, "a lot of people are going to look pretty silly"


PS: If you have arrived here on a page link, then click on the HOME link...

Tuesday 14 January 2020

Bushfire brilliance: let’s sue ourselves out of harm’s way

Spectator Australia
While most of us took a break over Christmas and New Year, the hysteria around climate change didn’t so much as draw breath. I’m not here to argue the science: my barb is reserved for the Change.org petition seeking to commence a class action against the federal government for alleged inaction on climate change.  
I stumbled across it on Twitter, clicked the link… and chortled.  
Just when I thought the ‘fragile masculinity is the biggest obstacle to climate action’ palaver was the new historical low of human stupidity, I have been unpleasantly surprised by this latest ideological brain fart.

Climatologist Dr. Roy Spencer: Blaming Australian bushfires on ‘climate change’ is ‘alarmist nonsense’ & ‘virtually no basis in fact’

Climate Depot
Dr. Roy Spencer: "So, to automatically blame the Australian bushfires on human-caused climate change is mostly alarmist nonsense, with virtually no basis in fact." 
Summary Points: 1) Global wildfire activity has decreased in recent decades, making any localized increase (or decrease) in wildfire activity difficult to attribute to ‘global climate change’.
2) Like California, Australia is prone to bushfires every year during the dry season. Ample fuel and dry weather exists for devastating fires each year, even without excessive heat or drought, as illustrated by the record number of hectares burned (over 100 million) during 1974-75 when above-average precipitation and below-average temperatures existed.

Did NASA Know Back in 1958 our Sun and Not CO2 Was Causing Climate Change?

LewRockwell
Christmas Eve, 1957 our Sun had 503 sun-spots, scaring the science community resulting in President Eisenhower to authorise the opening of NASA   .......
It is undeniable, climate change is real, however, Liberals, the establishment, most of the world leaders and leading media outlets want us to believe the reason behind climate change is the fault of human beings using fossil fuels and our high use of CO2, Carbon Dioxide. They claim Carbon dioxide absorbs more sunlight passing through it than oxygen or nitrogen, and therefore becomes hotter, much like a black substance like tar becomes hotter than a white one like concrete. This has the effect of increasing the overall temperature of the Earth. as we add more carbon dioxide to the air, the temperature will continue to rise. Actually, the records of temperature and CO2 over the past 650,000 years indicate that Earth’s temperature always rises first, followed by a rise in Carbon Dioxide. Published papers, clearly show it is always temperature which rises first by at least several hundred years and then the carbon dioxide responds.......The records of temperature and CO2 over the past 650,000 years indicate that Earth’s temperature always rises first, followed by a rise in Carbon Dioxide.

Wednesday 8 January 2020

The Climate Decade that Was: Failed Predictions, Tour De Paris, and the Gretas

WUWT
No Snow Australia
Australia may be embroiled in historic wildfires—mostly caused by arson—right now. But climate scientists were caught red handed when their predictions of a snow-free Australia failed by massive proportions in the past decade.
The reason was obvious. The warming was not as pronounced as it was forecast to be, and snowfall in Australia is controlled by regional weather patterns. Moreover, there has been no significant change in the number of very hot days since World War I."

Are Australia Bushfires Worsening from Human-Caused Climate Change?

Roy Spencer PhD
Summary Points
1) Global wildfire activity has decreased in recent decades, making any localized increase (or decrease) in wildfire activity difficult to attribute to ‘global climate change’.
2) Like California, Australia is prone to bushfires every year during the dry season. Ample fuel and dry weather exists for devastating fires each year, even without excessive heat or drought, as illustrated by the record number of hectares burned (over 100 million) during 1974-75 when above-average precipitation and below-average temperatures existed.
3) Australian average temperatures in 2019 were well above what global warming theory can explain, illustrating the importance of natural year-to-year variability in weather patterns (e.g. drought and excessively high temperatures).
4) Australia precipitation was at a record low in 2019, but climate models predict no long-term trend in Australia precipitation, while the observed trend has been upward, not downward. This again highlights the importance of natural climate variability to fire weather conditions, as opposed to human-induced climate change.
5) While reductions in prescribed burning have probably contributed to the irregular increase in the number of years with large bush fires, a five-fold increase in population in the last 100 years has greatly increased potential ignition sources, both accidental and purposeful."

China Plans to Put 300 Million Chinese People in Africa

Electroverse
Europe plundered wealth from Africa. The USA plundered slaves from Africa. Now it’s China’s turn to plunder resources from Africa, as they step-up their prep for the coming Grand Solar Minimum.  
With most of China’s agriculture destined to go offline in the next 5-10 years –due to the impacts of solar cycle 25 and this next Grand Solar Minimum cycle– could the world’s most populous country’s investment in desert farming be their way of maintaining the “Mandate from God” (holding onto power)? The lower-latitudes are refreezing in line with historically low solar activity, with NASA recently revealing this upcoming solar cycle (25) will dip further still, to become “the weakest of the past 200 years” and the has agency correlated previous solar shutdowns to prolonged periods of global cooling here. Don’t be fooled by bogus political agendas — our future is one of ever-descending COLD. Prepare accordingly — learn of the threats, relocate if need be, and grow your own."

This burning issue of life and death

SMH (Australia)
One of the biggest furphies in the supercharged debate in the wake of Victoria's bushfires is the claim by green groups that they are great supporters of hazard reduction burning.
Also known as prescribed burning, this scientific regime creates a mosaic of lightly burned land at regular intervals of five to seven years, thus reducing surface fuel loads by varying amounts within the mosaic.
This reduction of fuel loads is expensive, but Australia's pre-eminent bushfire researchers, such as the CSIRO's Phil Cheney and Monash University's David Packam, say it has been proven to reduce the power and intensity of fire. Every bushfire inquiry since the 1939 Stretton royal commission has recommended increased prescribed burning to mitigate the effects of inevitable wildfire.
It is a matter of public record that green groups have long opposed such systematic prescribed burning, as is evident in their submissions to bushfire inquiries from as far back as 1992. They complain of a threat to biodiversity, including to fungi, from "frequent burning" regimes and urge resources be spent on water bombers and early detection, as well as on stopping climate change - good luck with that."

Greens leader declares he SUPPORTS hazard-reduction burning as Facebook critics accuse him of being responsible for bushfires

Daily Mail

Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale has angrily insisted his party supports hazard-reduction burns as his critics accuse him of causing bushfires.
The campaign against the Greens has intensified on Facebook after blazes destroyed more than 6million hectares of bushland in Australia.
Conservative commentators, including News Corp columnist Miranda Devine, have consistently accused the left-wing minority party of being responsible for raging infernos.
More extreme critics have accused the Greens of being responsible for lives being lost, with 25 people now killed as a result of recent bushfires. "

British TV Personalities Savage Aussie Politician Over Climate Action, Bushfires

WUWT
British TV personalities including Piers Morgan have attacked Aussie politician Craig Kelly on air during an interview, over Kelly’s claim that dry weather and the buildup of fuel load is the reason for Australia’s horrific bushfire season. 
The claim by British TV personalities that anthropogenic climate change is making Australian bushfires worse is pure ignorance, not supported by the evidence.
MP Craig Kelly is spot on about the lack of long term drought trend. Although he later recanted a little, earlier this year Professor Andy Pitman explained in a lecture in Sydney science can’t tell us what impact climate change will have on Australian droughts, because there is no long term trend.
As for Craig Kelly’s claim about fuel load, I can confirm this by personal observation. My local area, much of the region along the road from my hometown to the Queensland state capital Brisbane is a vast tinderbox of dry, scrubby bush and dry grass growing on the ground between the trees, overlaid with flammable eucalyptus deadwood ranging from twigs to fallen tree trunks, all ready to be ignited by the slightest spark  ......
Hardly anybody in Australia dares to clear the bush and trees away from their houses, an obvious safety precaution in a bushfire area. People who make their homes or properties safe from fire risk financial ruin under laws based by urban green politicians, if the government catches them clearing native vegetation. Nobody, no matter how remote, is safe from the scourge of potentially lethal government bullying; Aussie state governments use satellites and AI to target and prosecute people trying to keep their properties safe from bushfires.
I am not personally at risk from bushfire, but I know people in my area who could lose their homes if it all ignites."

The information war about astonishing arson figures

JoNova (Australia)

Rapidly the word about the astonishing rate of arson and man-made accidents* is spreading, but it doesn’t help “the cause” (which for left-leaning journo’s appears to be getting left-leaning politicians elected).   .....

Firstly: Most of these fires are man-made but it’s arson and accidental* not climate change:

In NSW alone 24 people have been charged, with legal action happening against 180 in total ( that’s just in NSW)

NSW Police take legal action against more than 180 people

6 Jan 2020. NSW Police: Since Friday 8 November 2019, legal action – which ranges from cautions through to criminal charges – has been taken against 183 people – including 40 juveniles – for 205 bushfire-related offences.
  • 24 people have been charged over alleged deliberately-lit bushfires
  • 53 people have had legal actions for allegedly failing to comply with a total fire ban, and
  • 47 people have had legal actions for allegedly discarding a lighted cigarette or match on land.....
In Queensland, police have arrested 101 people accused of starting bushfires, 69 juveniles and 32 adults.
Five people were arrested for allegedly setting bushland alight in Tasmania – and a further 10 in South Australia.
Meanwhile in Victoria, where locals have experienced some of the most catastrophic conditions the nation has ever seen, 43 people were charged with firebug offences."

Tuesday 7 January 2020

Bushfires: Firebugs fuelling crisis as arson arrest toll hits 183

The Australian

More than 180 alleged arsonists have been arrested since the start of the bushfire season, with 29 blazes deliberately lit in the Shoalhaven region of southeast NSW in just three months.
The Shoalhaven fires were lit between July and September last year, with Kempsey recording 27 deliberately lit fires, NSW Bureau of Crime and Statistics and Research data shows.  

Police arrested 183 people for lighting bushfires across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania in the past few months. NSW police data shows 183 people have been charged or cautioned for bushfire-related offences since November 8, and 24 arrested for deliberately starting bushfires.
Queensland police say 101 people have been picked up for setting fires in the bush, 32 adults and 69 juveniles.
In Tasmania, where fires have sprung up in the north of the state and outside Hobart, five were caught setting fire to vegetation. Victoria reported 43 charged for 2019.
Melbourne University associate professor Janet Stanley said arsonists were typically young males, aged 12 to 24, or older men in their 60s.
“There is no one profile, but generally they seem to have a background of disadvantage, a traumatic upbringing and often have endured neglect and abuse as a child,” Professor Stanley said. “They are often kids not succeeding in school, or they have left school early and are unemployed. The boundaries between accidentally and purposefully are unclear because many arsonists don’t plan on causing the catastrophe that occurs. Often there is not an intention to cause chaos and the penalties for accidentally lighting a fire are far less than purposefully lighting a fire.”
Swinburne University professor James Ogloff said about 50 per cent of bushfires were lit by firebugs and impending fire seasons excited them. “They’re interested in seeing fire, interested in setting fire and quite often the information around how fires burn and accelerate excites them,” the director of the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science said."

The Greens: cashing in on death and destruction

Spectator Australia

It’s an ill wind and all that — and the Greens are certainly making hay while the bush burns.
Only a matter of minutes ago their saintly leader Richard Di Natale sent around a pious email missive. It’s too long to catch in one screengrab, but this gives you enough of a taste:   ...."

'Arson is not caused by climate change': Row breaks out over real cause of Australia's bushfires after it emerges more than 180 people have been arrested for starting them

Daily Mail

In Queensland, police have arrested 101 people accused of starting bushfires, 69 juveniles and 32 adults. 
Five people were arrested for allegedly setting bushland alight in Tasmania - and a further 10 in South Australia. 
Meanwhile in Victoria, where locals have experienced some of the most catastrophic conditions the nation has ever seen, 43 people were charged with firebug offences. 
There have been 183 people arrested or charged with lighting bushfires nationally - and police fear that figure will climb. 
'Police are well aware that we need to take action against people, whatever that might be, in this time it is particularly a heightened risk of fire activity and we've seen the devastation it causes,' NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said on Tuesday."

Sunday 5 January 2020

Liberal-hating 'greenies' have 'unfairly politicised' disastrous bushfires

Sky News Australia
Sky News host Chris Smith says “We have never seen a natural disaster so horribly and unfairly politicised” as the Prime Minister receives a “big bash” from more Liberal-hating “greenies”. The Prime Minister was enveloped by enraged local residents in Cobargo on Thursday who demanded more resources and funding from the Federal Government for the bushfire crisis, but funding for volunteer fire fighting units are provided by the States “never the Federal Government”, Smith said. Smith said for a town of 776 people, four fire fighter units was an “excellent ratio of fire units to residents”, but Smith decoded the “ugly episode” and said these greenies “hate conservative leaders… and blame Scomo for not changing the weather”. “These are greenies who … hate the fact that we survive on the energy from fossil fuels”, Smith said."

The green agenda is exacerbating Australia's wildfire problem

Telegraph
The unfolding tragedy in Australia is being interpreted as an apocalyptic portent of a “climate emergency”: justification for the drastic prescriptions of Extinction Rebellion to “close down the capitalist system”.
Heart-rending tweets from the fire zone convey the raw anger of farmers burnt out of their homes. But their interpretation is strikingly different. Far from begging everybody to embrace the green agenda, many are blaming the greens for exacerbating the fires by meddling in the time- honoured practice of burning off excess vegetation to mitigate wildfires."

Opportunists and the backlash: Tree changers meet a megafire, and Greens meet some rage

JoNova (Australia)

November 2019

Catastrophic fires are predicted tomorrow across the East Coast of Australia.  Around 500 schools will be closed tomorrow. Some 400,000 people have been warned “to be ready. Thousands are evacuated. A state of emergency has been declared. 1,400 interstate fire fighters have gone to NSW to help.
For updates about  New South Wales, check the NSW RFS website. For Queensland, see the QLD RFS website.
MyFireWatch has a live map updated regularly with outbreaks.

Spot the fuel

Our hearts go out to those that have lost homes.  But in every scene here, tree changers who never thought it would happen to them, were living with their $3000 bicycles in idyllic fire traps. How much were these folk misled by an ABC constantly reporting on climate change, and barely ever discussing fuel loads and almost never interviewing skeptics? Firefighters who recite the permitted “climate change” lines were put on a pedestal. Firefighters with data on fuel loads don’t get called.
And why was that ABC journalist wearing brand new fluro fighting gear to interview the victims?

But proximity is not the biggest problem.

If the fuel loads are too high across the state, there is no firebreak big enough to stop the embers in a Firestorm. Once a fire is generating its own weather and high-speed-wind every house would need a 10km clearing all around.

Scientist David Packham on what’s really causing the bushfires

2GB (Australia)

As former State Fire Chiefs call for a summit on bushfires, expert and scientist David Packham explains that it has nothing to do with climate change and everything to do with fuel-loads. (podcast)

Bushfire scientist David Packham warns of huge blaze threat, urges increase in fuel reduction burns

The Age



Forest fuel levels have worsened over the past 30 years because of "misguided green ideology", vested interests, political failure and mismanagement, creating a massive bushfire threat, a former CSIRO bushfire scientist has warned.
Victoria's "failed fire management policy" is an increasing threat to human life, water supplies, property and the forest environment, David Packham said in a submission to the state's Inspector-General for Emergency Management.
And he argued that unless the annual fuel reduction burning target, currently at a minimum of 5 per cent of public land, "is doubled or preferably tripled, a massive bushfire disaster will occur. The forest and alpine environment will decay and be damaged possibly beyond repair and homes and people [will be] incinerated."
He said forest fuel levels had climbed to their most dangerous level in thousands of years.
Mr Packham produced his submission in response to a review of bushfire fuel management announced last month by the state government and to be conducted by the Inspector-General for Emergency Management."

'Illegally' clearing his property cost him $100k in fines. But when the Black Saturday fires killed 173, his family and home survived while his neighbours died - so LIAM SHEAHAN asks, why can't we control our own homes?

Daily Mail
A Black Saturday survivor whose home was the only one standing after the bushfires raged because he illegally cleared his land, says property owners should be allowed to take matters into their own hands if authorities don't act. 
Liam Sheahan cleared trees and shrubs within 100 metres of his home in the hills at Strath Creek, central Victoria, in 2002 to create a firebreak in case bushfires ever hit.
While Mr Sheahan thought that was a 'common sense' decision, the local council did not, taking him to court where fines and legal costs left him $100,000 out of pocket.
However his decision to clear the land was vindicated on February 9, 2009, when his property was still standing after Black Saturday bushfires devastated the tiny town. "

Are Australian Wildfires Due To Climate Change?

 Paul Homewood

Many have questioned what role climate change has played in the Australian wildfires currently wreaking havoc in NSW and across the border in Queensland.
The commonly heard cry is that it is now hotter and drier than in the past.
But what does the actual data say? 
To sum up, NSW is not hotter or drier than it used to be, though undoubtedly it has been unusually so this year. It is simply experiencing weather it has seen many times in the past.
As the Australian BOM themselves point out, the country has always be vulnerable to major fires:
To suggest that climate change is to blame, as the Guardian and BBC have regularly done, is disgraceful climate porn, taking advantage of personal tragedies in order to make political propaganda."

Environmentalists Made Australia’s Bush Fires Worse

Breitbart

Australia is on fire, at least 17 people have been killed, hundreds of homes have been destroyed, and an estimated half-billion animals — both livestock and wildlife — have been burned alive. The area burned in the bush fires so far is considerably bigger than the area burned either in last year’s Amazon rainforest fires or the fires in California. ..... 
But let us not allow the heartbreak and the emotion to distract us from the truth about this natural disaster: it has nothing whatsoever to do with ‘climate change’.  
As Paul Homewood pointed out last month, there has been no significant long-term decrease in rainfall or increase in temperatures in the affected regions.
Yes, it has been dry in New South Wales (where most of the worst fires are), but there have been several years, especially pre-1960, when it was drier:The same applies to temperature. Yes, this has been a hot spring in New South Wales. But there have been times when it has been much hotter — making a nonsense of all stories in the Australian media about temperatures being the hottest evah:
So, to be clear, there is zero evidence of any change in climatic conditions that might have increased the likelihood or severity of these bush fires. This is not — repeat NOT — a man-made climate change story, and anyone who claims otherwise is either a gullible idiot or a lying charlatan.
There is, nonetheless, good reason to believe that the stupidity and irresponsibility of man is at least partly to blame for this disaster — just not quite in the way that the left-liberal MSM and the green wankerati would have you believe.
Man-made culprit #1: all the firebugs who have been deliberately starting fires in New South Wales, Queensland, and elsewhere. You won’t be surprised that their involvement has had very little coverage in the left-liberal MSM.
Man-made culprit #2: well-meaning idiots who don’t understand that unless you manage forested areas with controlled burns, you’re going to end up with out-of-control wildfires.
Man-made culprit #3: Greens
The people most to blame for the Australian bush fires are the greens. Just like in California, their tree-hugging Gaia worship blinded them to the reality that forests need regular clearance and maintenance if they are not to become a major fire hazard. Some Australian politicians on the right side of the argument are well aware of this:



Australia’s arson crisis (updated)

thedailychrenk.com

According to my calculations and estimates, the number of individuals around Australia whose arson has contributed to the current bushfire crisis has now passed 200.
This figure is not presented as a counter-argument to those who blame the fires on climate change. Most people (I hope) understand that trees tend not to spontaneously combust, no matter what the air temperature is; when we talk about bushfires starting naturally, we are talking about lightning strikes igniting tinder. The climate change argument posits that the more extreme weather conditions – higher temperatures, drought, etc. – make fires, however started, much more destructive and much more difficult to control and extinguish. These are debates to be had between climatologists, forestry experts and fire fighters. What is painfully clear, however, that Australia has a firebug crisis. It will no doubt be up to future royal commissions and inquiries to calculate exactly what proportion of the current loss and destruction can be attributed to human action, but I suspect it will be a significant one. Man might be making climate change, but man is most definitely making fires start."

'Unleash Hell': New Al Qaeda magazine describes in detail how to start huge forest fires across the U.S..with instructions on how to make 'ember bombs'

Daily Mail
Al Qaeda has called upon its followers to unleash massive forest fires upon the United States this summer.

Published in the latest edition of the notorious terror magazine, 'Inspire', are graphic instructions for the creation and ignition of 'ember bombs'

Detailed in the memorably titled, 'It is of your Freedom to Ignite a Firebomb', the magazine encourages any would-be terrorist to target Montana, because of the rapid population growth in its wooded areas."

Dozens of firebugs blamed for destructive Queensland fires

.brisbanetimes.com.au

Almost 100 firebugs have deliberately started blazes across Queensland that have destroyed homes and consumed thousands of hectares of bushland.
Some 65 fires continued to burn across the state on Friday, jumping from 55 reported on Thursday, as the fire threat deepened heading into the weekend
As firefighters remained on high alert, police revealed 103 of the destructive fires that had lashed Queensland since September were deliberately lit.
Figures obtained by AAP revealed police had dealt with 98 people - 31 adults and 67 juveniles - for deliberately setting fires."

POLICE Strike Force ‘Indarra’ To Investigate Arson As Cause of Deadly South East Australian Bushfires

Climatism
DON’T expect to see this reported on your local mainstream-media ‘news’ outlet while they are busy attempting to link the awful South East Australian bushfires to manmade Global Warming Climate Change.
POLICE are now working on the premise, arson is to blame for much of the devastation caused this bushfire season. A strike force will investigate whether blazes were deliberately lit, and bring those responsible to justice."

Australian Police Say Arsonists & Lightning To Blame For Bushfires, Not Climate-Change

zerohedge.com
Despite the fact that bushfires are not uncommon in Australia, the severity of the damage led numerous climate change alarmists to blame the disaster on man-made global warming.
Earlier this week, Bernie Sanders blamed those who were “delaying action on climate change” for “the blood-red sky and unbreathable air in Australia because of raging forest fires.”
However, according to those tasked with investigating the fires, climate change has nothing to do with it."

"Many bushfires are also actually caused by environmentalist ‘green’ policies which prevent land owners from clearing their own vegetation to protect themselves."

Raw Data Bombshell: no change in Very Hot Days in Australia since World War I

JoNova (Australia)
What a bombshell. Despite the non-stop stories of unprecedented heat the original data at 60 of the oldest sites across Australia shows there are no more Very-Hot-Days now than there were early last century. That’s no trend in 40 degree days for 100 years. No change – that is, until the Bureau of Meteorology adjusts the data…

Sydney police hunt arsonists who deliberately started bushfires

Daily Mail

Horrific fires which threatened to destroy 100 homes in Sydney's west were started deliberately by cruel arsonists, locals said. A police manhunt is underway to find the culprits who allegedly started two blazes in Georges Hall and Badgerys Creek. It comes as a massive bushfire in Sydney's southwestern outskirts is threatening to break containment lines and reach suburban areas."

The Real Reason Australia Is Burning

Quadrant Online
They’re good at it, our political class, when it comes to acknowledging tragedy while adroitly sidestepping the obvious explanation.
Up and down the east coast, fires are raging and people are dying. Our alleged leaders are blaming coal, climate change, anything but the real reason.
Here’s a video from bushie Chris Dynon that explains it all. ......

from the comments -

padraic
I’ll pass this on this video. The other reason why Australia is burning is because of the scum who are lighting these fires. I trust that when they are found their identity and motives are revealed and they receive long jail sentences. I understand that about 40% are deliberately lit, 47% lit by humans by accident or carelessness and 13 % by natural things like lightning. Spontaneous combustion by “climate change” is BS. Almost as bad as the scum lighting these fires are those who are making political capital by blaming “climate change” when death of humans and animals and destruction of property is occurring as a result of the scum lighting the fires."

Aboriginals didn’t need a water bomber God to save them from Government nurtured firestorms

JoNova (Australia)

There is no lake, no dam large enough to put out the firestorms we have created

Like some kind of cargo cult, modern inhabitants pray to the sky for enough water bombers to keep things they love safe. They fret that the season for safe burning is too short, while they leave the litter to burn at the most dangerous time possible. The quest for perfect forests, perfect air, and perfect centralized planning is the perfect recipe for a catastrophe. Utopia burns again.
This is a great article by Viv Forbes describing how radically different fire “management” was in ancient times. Management being almost like non stop arson. The main rule, apparently, was to light often and always, and never extinguish.  — Jo "

"Today we have replaced decentralised fire management by aboriginals and settlers with government-nurtured fire-storms.
First governments created fire hazards called National Parks, where fire sticks, matches,  graziers and foresters were locked out and access roads were abandoned or padlocked. And Green-loving urbanites built houses right beside them, and planted trees in their yards. The open forests and grasslands were invaded by eucalypt regrowth, woody weeds, tangled undergrowth, dry grass, logs, dead leaves, twigs, bark and litter – all perfect fuel for a wild-fire holocaust.
These tinder-boxes of forest fuel became magnets for arsonists, and occasionally even disgruntled neighbours, or were lit by wind-blown embers or dry lightning. With high winds, high temperatures and heavy fuel loads some fires will race through the tree tops of oil-rich eucalypt forests."

ABC deleting facebook posts on how protesters stop prescribed burns “more worried about climate change” than wildfires

JoNova (Australia)

Could be a clue here about how the nation got its priorities so screwed?

Back in September ABC Gippsland put a story on Facebook about how locals were protesting the spring prescribed burns which were “killing baby birds alive”. The East Gippsland locals managed to stop the hazard reduction burns. We note also that the Forest Fire Management Victoria local manager said that the burns were planned “after extensive community consultation”. Which tells us just how impossibly hard it is to get even a small (tiny) cool burn done. We’re only talking about 370 ha.
Sharp eyed Michael Ayling noticed that the ABC deleted this Facebook post below. Most of it is still captured on Google Cache, though for some reason, if you wait on the google cache page even that will disappear soon too. Luckily skeptics with no budget are here to help the ABC and Google Cache keep historic records that may help explain the mystery of how a first world nation created such a catastrophe.
It’s probably not the protesters’s fault that she thought climate change posed more threat than bushfires. She probably watches Their ABC.
*UPDATE: This is not about the protestors (or about a tiny 370 ha, which wouldn’t have changed anything yesterday). Accountability lies with decision-makers. Everyone has the right to protest and after twenty years of one sided and well funded propaganda it’s no wonder people are confused.  The ABC cheered for “climate change”, and asked no hard questions. They mentioned fuel loads but didn’t put those experts on high rotation. They did repeated interviews with people who know nothing about climate change like Greg Mullins. He was free to repeat the mantra. The ABC decide what message goes out. "

Fire policy shift: Government says “hazard reduction” to stop fires. Labor says “Carbon market”

JoNova (Australia)

A nation watches the fires. The Australian Navy has rescued around 1,100 people and 250 pets. Thousands of other have fled. Thousands more on the SE corner of Australia have been chopping down trees, cleaning properties, waiting in queues for fuel and food. Today is forecast to be as bad as New Years Eve when 380 houses burnt down. Temperatures will be above 40 C — up to 45C inland in places like Wagga Wagga.  (Right now, perhaps there’s a BOM site glitch but temperatures from Nowra south range from 30 -45?) Humidity levels will be very low. But a cooler change is coming late. Things should be much better on Sunday. Best wishes for everyone on the front line.

Suddenly, many people are taking “hazard reduction”. If only it weren’t too late.

Meanwhile the Labor Party still hope to reduce bushfires with an international carbon market. Good luck with that. A carbon market is form of carbon tax that sends money overseas and will make their friends at the UN and Goldman Sachs happy, but probably won’t impress the workers the Labor party used to serve. The only way it will stop fires is if people clearfell old growth forest to plant palm trees or corn for biofuel, to to make way for a solar “farm”. Otherwise, carbon storage = fuel for fires."

Decentralized renewable power, interconnectors pose bigger risk. Coal stations more reliable in a crisis

JoNova(Australia)

Who wants to rely on renewables in a crisis?

Just when power is so important the interconnector went down yesterday between NSW and Victoria effectively cutting the East Coast “National” grid in half. It’s not clear if the transmission lines are damaged which will take weeks to repair or just tripped out. But there were blackouts yesterday in NSW, and coal fired power stations in Victoria that could be supplying customers were disconnected from most of NSW. Large industry was again forced to shut down temporarily. Call it “demand reduction” or call it incompetence. We’re a nation that can’t supply heavy industry with electricity. The people of Sydney have been told to turn off washing machines and dryers, spare appliances. Sure, it’s a national crisis, but what got us through the crisis was coal, and what would have stopped a price spike, and kept the industry online, was more coal."