|
Post by Twoddle on Jan 10, 2020 0:03:51 GMT
Put into a British perspective, the area of Australia that's been burnt is about a quarter the size of the UK (or the same size as Norway, or twice the size of Belgium), and per capita of population the number of houses destroyed equates to around 3,600 in the UK. As to the number of wild animals killed, it's mind boggling. I never thought to see such horror in my lifetime.
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Jan 10, 2020 0:54:58 GMT
Put into a British perspective, the area of Australia that's been burnt is about a quarter the size of the UK (or the same size as Norway, or twice the size of Belgium), and per capita of population the number of houses destroyed equates to around 3,600 in the UK. As to the number of wild animals killed, it's mind boggling. I never thought to see such horror in my lifetime. Neither did I, Twod, even in this land of frequent fires. Current estimates are approx. 8M hectares (20M acres / 31K sq miles) burnt. KoalasAn estimated 30–40K koalas are dead from the fires – and no-one's finished counting yet (neither have the fires gone out). Half of Kangaroo Island's 50,000 koala population are feared dead in the weekend's bushfires. On the mainland, it's estimated that up to 30 per cent of koalas on the New South Wales mid-north coast may have been killed in the current bushfire crisis. The state's mid-north coast is home to a significant number of koalas, with an estimated population between 15,000 and 28,000, so an estimate to date of between 5,000 and 9,300 dead. Those figures don't include koala losses on the NSW far north coast (my region), which is home to a significant koala population, neither Victoria, Queensland, nor mainland South Australia. It's likely that final counts / estimates of koala losses will exceed 50K – more than half the estimated national population. As of 2015, the Australian Koala Foundation estimated that there were fewer than 80,000 koalas remaining, with the possibility of that number being as low as 43,000. Cuddle a live koala while there are some left! A "Bear" of Very Little Brain (Of course, you all know that a koala is not a bear. :-)Total animal toll " We're looking at imminent extinction." By latest estimates (24 hours ago), the loss of (non-human) life in my state, New South Wales, is 800 million terrestrial animals, including birds and reptiles. But that figure doesn't include frogs, fish, bats, and invertebrates. Combining these figures it is likely well over a billion animals have died in the fires. It's impossible to estimate the loss of invertebrate life, but it'll be undoubtedly in the hundreds of billions. Someone commented in response to this news: "Great! No more mozzies [mosquitoes]!" But that's a very shortsighted view. Insects are essential elements of the ecosystem. Without them insectivores die, insectivore-vores starve, plants aren't pollinated – and ultimately we die. If these fires keep up, Australia could return to a state of Terra Nullius – an empty land / nobody's land. I'm thankful that recent temperatures in my neck of the woods (or what's left of those) have hovered near the low 30s C (92°F); other parts of the continent have had weeks of mid-high 40s (113–120°F). In the late 80s I lived in a hippy community near the infamous Nimbin (Australia's Woodstock), in a lovely little gingerbread house. It stood less than two metres back from the edge of a 150 m cliff, and above it the hill rose steeply for about 1 km; the whole area was under a wet sclerophyll canopy. A few weeks ago when fires tore through that region, the house copped it from both directions: the fire roared up the heavily wooded cliff face and down the equally forested hill above, leaving the cottage no chance of survival. The heat was so intense that even some of the stones (river rocks pulled from the creek below some 40 years ago, so well dried out) exploded. Fortunately (?) the house was unoccupied at the time. Here are its remains. It was reduced to this sad state in about 10 minutes from the first lick of flame. (Fortunately, I had long since detached from that house.) The Gingerbread House, Upper Malapiki, Co-ordination Co-operative, Tuntable Falls via Nimbin, northern NSW.I have also recently learned of the death by fire of two other previous abodes: one isolated timber shack in the middle of 700 acres of dry sclerophyll forest (about 150 km south of my current address), from which I escaped in 1993 (it didn't burn that time but everything around it was reduced to ash) and the other – a mud-brick house in the middle of a quarter-million acres of national park / state forest on the NSW south coast – from which I only just escaped a major fire in 1986 (as I exited via the only road, a very narrow bush track, the paint on my car was seriously blistered and the passenger-side door-window shattered; again, that house failed to perish then). Both are now history. Although I no longer live in forests, I do live near some, and my rural area has been well scorched: the fire that destroyed the stone cottage was a mere 5 km from my present address, and had the wind changed unfavourably for me, I'd have had little time to evacuate – the fire at times advanced at 15–20 km/h. Twice I departed at the urging of the firies, and twice returned. That "stone-house" area fire is not yet extinguished though is "under control" whatever that means. Please, Thor: some rain!
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Jan 10, 2020 21:30:29 GMT
Update: 11M hectares / 27M acres / 42K sq miles have now been burnt, and there are reports of roads “just melting off mountainsides”. Fires' path of destruction
|
|
|
Post by Twoddle on Jan 11, 2020 0:12:48 GMT
Incomprehensible to me without relating it to something else. About one-fifth the area of mainland France. Approaching half the size of the UK. Twice the size of Croatia. Ten times the size of Jamaica.
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Jan 11, 2020 8:23:50 GMT
Incomprehensible to me without relating it to something else. About one-fifth the area of mainland France. Approaching half the size of the UK. Twice the size of Croatia. Ten times the size of Jamaica. Twod: I thank the gods, and you, that you didn't use the football-field comparison. I still have no concept of a football field's area measure – perhaps because I've attended only one footy game in my entire life (about 40 years ago), and most of that I spent in the change room rolling joints for the after-game party. (Shock! Horror! LOL)
|
|
|
Post by Little Jack Horner on Jan 11, 2020 9:54:01 GMT
The devastating bushfires in Oz are appalling and frightening and one has enormous sympathy for those who suffer their consequences as well as admiration for the thousands of professional and volunteer fire fighters involved. Moreover, the consequences for wildlife and, potentially, for biodiversity are grim. But I recall witnessing a small bushfire when I was on holiday in the Kimberley with my late wife maybe sixteen years ago. We were told by the tour guide that fires such as the one we were witnessing were commonplace and were known as “cool fires” and were an essential part of traditional land management. Apparently, cool fires travel rapidly across the ground’s surface but the heat doesn’t penetrate far underground (so burrowing animals were safe) and largely leaves the canopy and larger trees and flying birds unaffected. Aboriginal people’s, we were told, had been using fire to manage the land for millennia at least in part because the fire-cleared “clean” land made for easier hunting. It was recognised that many plants depend on burning to promote germination. The tour guide told us that the widespread reduction of setting cool fires following European colonisation was leading to an increase in hot fires which, whilst not more widespread, were more damaging and more dangerous. A report from Melbourne University in 2016 seems to support this view blogs.unimelb.edu.au/sciencecommunication/2016/08/31/black-and-good-more-fires-more-biodiversity/ . In the daily news coverage here in the UK, I have seen no mention of this aspect of the problem and only global climate change with increased lightning strikes, record-breaking temperatures; widespread and long lasting droughts; and tinder-dry undergrowth being blamed. Of course, few things are simple and no doubt climate is an important factor but I wonder what the view is in Australia?
|
|
|
Post by Twoddle on Jan 11, 2020 10:56:05 GMT
Incomprehensible to me without relating it to something else. About one-fifth the area of mainland France. Approaching half the size of the UK. Twice the size of Croatia. Ten times the size of Jamaica. Twod: I thank the gods, and you, that you didn't use the football-field comparison. I still have no concept of a football field's area measure – perhaps because I've attended only one footy game in my entire life (about 40 years ago), and most of that I spent in the change room rolling joints for the after-game party. (Shock! Horror! LOL) Over here anything that's too big for comparison with football pitches gets compared to/with Wales, not that most people have much notion of the size of Wales.
|
|
|
Post by Twoddle on Jan 11, 2020 11:03:33 GMT
In the daily news coverage here in the UK, I have seen no mention of this aspect of the problem and only global climate change with increased lightning strikes, record-breaking temperatures; widespread and long lasting droughts; and tinder-dry undergrowth being blamed. Of course, few things are simple and no doubt climate is an important factor but I wonder what the view is in Australia? On that subject this comes as no great surprise. I'm afraid Australia doesn't fare too well on this list when it comes to greenhouse-gas emissions per capita.
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Jan 11, 2020 11:19:41 GMT
LJH: You raise a good point.
Our Indigenous / First Nations peoples' land management by fire has recently become quite the topic of conversation in Oz. Its reintroduction was even suggested by one of our most reactionary / redneck senior federal politicians a few weeks ago; studying and incorporating the practice is now being suggested by fire chiefs, some farmers, and others in land management.
Of course, allowances and adjustments will be needed to cope with a built environment. Our indigenes had no built environment apart from casual bark-hut shelters, as they were nomadic hunters and gatherers. We 18th-century invaders and successors removed much of the native natural vegetation to plant fodder crops and grain while at the same time massacring the original peoples and burying / discounting their knowledge of the land. These are reasons that exacerbate the fire threat.
It doesn't help that global heating (it's no longer just warming) and changes in precipitation patterns make more big fires an inevitability on this continent. Neither does it help that too many our politicians are busy doing a Nero (fiddling while Oz burns) rather than anything meaningful.
This week I've been helping friends clean up after the fires nearby (the community around my burnt-out former gingerbread cottage). Although most of the smoke has dissipated from that place, walking through shin-deep ash requires top-grade face masks to avoid choking on the dust raised. At the end of each day we wash off in the creek – and come out just as grotty as we entered – only wet. The water of streams, lakes, dams, and rainwater tanks has been "poisoned" by the ash and will be unfit for humans or other creatures to drink for some time to come. Multiple filters and bringing the water to a long-rolling boil only eliminate some of the toxins that are byproducts of the fires.
Some days it's more than a koala can bear.
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Jan 11, 2020 11:21:10 GMT
Over here anything that's too big for comparison with football pitches gets compared to/with Wales, not that most people have much notion of the size of Wales. It that bigger than a blue whale?
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Jan 11, 2020 11:56:22 GMT
On that subject this comes as no great surprise. I'm afraid Australia doesn't fare too well on this list when it comes to greenhouse-gas emissions per capita. Twod: I'm sure it comes as no surprise that the Murdoch media lead the way in climate-change denialism, promotion of fossil fuels, criticism of alternative energy generation, and sucking up to conservative / reactionary politicians. Murdoch and his lot are utter scumbags. As for Oz's poor rating on emissions, there is no excuse. Whatever hoi polloi may do to ameliorate our contributions to planetary destruction is more than undone by our coal-peddling industries and their bought pollies. That, however, is no reason for we the people to slack off. Last year I purchased a modest number of shares in a local, community-owned electricity retailer start-up that sources its energy from alternative / "green" generators. Now my home (courtesy of the landlady once I informed her) is supplied via the grid to these cleaner forms of power while also being partially solar-panel powered. The grid-supplied energy is even a tad cheaper than it was from our previous, non-"green" retailer, though the infrastructure (poles and wires) owners vengefully increased their fees for grid access – only for "alternatives". Win some, lose some. Because I'll never be able to afford an electric car in the remainder of my driving lifetime, I've taken measures to reduce my car's fuel consumption: I exchanged the differential gearing for a considerable taller one, thereby reducing consumption from 10–11 litres per 100 km to a more modest 8.5 litres / 100 km – almost identical to that of a modern, small, 4-cylinder Korean shitbox, despite my Benz's 5-litre V8 (a largely non-biodegradable car that will last far longer than modern ones that are designed to be crushed after seven years' use). A few other tweaks have also reduced noxious emissions to those of a modern, small car. I have also rearranged my routine so that I need drive to town (nearest one is 14 km away) only once weekly instead of thrice (we have no public / mass transport systems in the bush, so a bus is not an option). Most of my food comes from the local farmers' markets and is "organic", pesticide and herbicide free, and farmed on a human scale. Single-use plastics are out (now banned in most states), and by composting rubbish I send very little garbage to landfill (though council rates for rubbish collection remain undiscounted from the full rate for three bins weekly; I now set out one bin fortnightly). I'm far from the only Aussie taking such steps, but until we compost the corrupt politicians and their coal-mining mates I feel we're fighting a losing war. Perhaps the best thing for our planet's future survival is the elimination of humankind (but only after we've safely powered down all fossil-fuelled and nuclear power sources as we turn out the lights to leave). Pessimistic – me? Perhaps, but I prefer to think of myself as realistic.
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Jan 11, 2020 11:59:34 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Jan 11, 2020 12:54:34 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Jan 13, 2020 23:59:41 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Jan 14, 2020 0:00:39 GMT
|
|