The Prime Minister and LNP politicians should be condemned for over a decade of climate change denying policies and budget cuts to fire services. Australians should be angry. Politicians & the media outlets that support a ‘do nothing/marketing’ approach should be made accountable for their inaction and their lies.
It’s clear from the scientists that, although there is no direct link between specific bushfires and climate change, the climate crisis greatly increases the risk and severity of bushfires.
This is the Government’s own report in 2018 from the Bureau of meteorology:
‘Australia's climate has warmed just over 1 °C since 1910 leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events.
There has been a long-term increase in extreme fire weather, and in the length of the fire season, across large parts of Australia.’
Source: State of the Climate Report 2018, Bureau of Metereology
In 2019, Scientists and fire experts have been ignored by the LNP government.
‘Was Australia warned about the risk?
…
In April, 23 former fire chiefs and emergency leaders issued a letter, warning the government about "increasingly catastrophic extreme weather events". It requested a meeting which was declined by the government.’
Source: BBC World News, 11 Nov 2019
The government has peddled the argument that it’s the greens fault for these extreme bushfires. This is a blatant lie. See this article giving evidence on hazard reduction.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison should resign and the LNP change it’s policy on climate change & fighting bushfires. Morrison must resign for a lack of leadership.
“Australia’s bushfires have exposed its leaders’ failings” - Source: Financial Times,
At least then we will give hope to our children that scientific evidence based policy is the best way of addressing long term problems.
Doing nothing & continuing on the same climate crisis denying path is not an option. Reality trumps ideology.
We need to change our politics or we will continue to suffer as people lose their homes, businesses and lives.
Firies and fire fighting resources are at breaking point. Governments are not doing enough & the PM is not leading:
‘Fire trucks that should have been replaced years ago are being held together with “tape and hope” in some cases. But these trucks cost up to $600,000 to replace, according to one private-sector employee who works with fire agencies and volunteers on crisis mapping. Upgrading the entire fleet would require hundreds of millions of dollars.
Another symptom of funding shortfalls: Australia’s lack of aerial firefighting craft.
“One of the problems for resourcing firefighters at the moment is we lease large aircraft from the USA,” says Greg Mullins. “Other countries are after them, like Chile … We have to get in early to get enough of them.”
The NSW government owns one Boeing 737 air tanker, which costs about $7 million and another $20 million over a decade for maintenance and personnel. The rest of the national fleet, including the thundering Erickson Skycrane helicopters – “Elvis” and co – are leased from the US and shared between the states.
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“[These aircraft] give firefighters an edge on the worst days. But once we have every state alight, which is likely this year, there’s going to be a lot of competition for those scarce resources,” says Mullins.’
Source: The Saturday Paper, 21 Dec 2019, Rick Morton
More on links between extreme bushfires and climate change:
‘And after several exhausting days of spearheading crisis response, commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said Wednesday the New South Wales Rural Fire Service acknowledged the new reality.
"We are mindful that the science is suggesting that fire seasons are starting earlier, and extending longer," he said.
The government's own Bureau of Meteorology has acknowledged human-caused climate change is "influencing the frequency and severity of dangerous bushfire conditions".
Scientists say the link between climate change and bush fires is complex, but undeniable.
Wind movements around Antarctica and sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean can also help determine fire-friendly conditions in Australia.
But warming provides key ingredients for fires to thrive: high temperatures, low humidity, strong winds and drought.
"Bushfires are not directly attributable to climate change," said Janet Stanley of the University of Melbourne. "However, the fast-warming climate is making bushfires more frequent and intense."
"The mountain of irrefutable evidence linking global warming to bushfires makes the federal government's failure to act—or even talk about the problem—extremely hard to explain," she said.”
Source: AFP, 14 Nov 2019
Here’s a climate scientist:
“Q: What is unusual about these fires?
A: The geographical scale and intensity—it’s happening all up and down the country. The very early start to the fire season across eastern Australia. The scale of housing loss.
We’re seeing recurrent fires in tall, wet eucalypt forests, which normally only burn very rarely. A swamp dried out near Port Macquarie, and organic sediments in the ground caught on fire. When you drop the water table, the soil is so rich in organic matter it will burn. We’ve seen swamps burning all around.
Even Australia’s fire-adapted forest ecosystems are struggling because they are facing increasingly frequent events. In Tasmania, over the past few years we have seen environments burning that historically see fires very rarely, perhaps every 1000 years. The increasing tempo, spatial scale, and frequency of fires could see ecosystems extinguished.
Q: What is the role of climate change?
A: You have to ask: Has there ever been a fire event of 1.65 million hectares that’s burnt a large area of what is generally considered fire-proof vegetation, and also occurred simultaneously with fires in other regions of Australia and California?
What is happening is extraordinary.
It would be difficult to say there wasn’t a climate change dimension. We couldn’t have imagined the scale of the current event before it happened. We would have been told it was hyperbole.
This is teaching us what can be true under a climate changed world.
The numbers, scale, and diversity of the fires is going to reframe our understanding of bushfire in Australia. This is a major event which will have huge intellectual and policy legacies.”
There has been an unexpected alliance between 24 former state fire and emergency chiefs who are advocating an awareness of increasing bushfire risk linked to climate change. They argue the government has ignored their advice because it doesn’t want to talk about climate. What they are saying is harmonizing with the warnings coming from scientists.
Here’s some more experts & scientists:
“Climate change is driving worsening bushfires in Australia.
The burning of coal, oil and gas is driving up global temperatures, leading to hotter Australian conditions.
Since the mid-1990s, southeast Australia has experienced a 15% decline in late autumn and early winter rainfall and a 25% decline in average rainfall in April and May.
Across Australia average temperature has increased leading to more record breaking hot weather. Extreme fire danger days have increased.
Source: https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/not-normal-climate-change-bushfire-web/
What we need to do:
The catastrophic, unprecedented fire conditions currently affecting NSW and Queensland have been aggravated by climate change. Bushfire risk was exacerbated by record breaking drought, very dry fuels and soils, and record breaking heat.
Bushfire conditions are now more dangerous than in the past. The risks to people and property have increased and fire seasons have lengthened. It is becoming more dangerous to fight fires in Australia.
The fire season has lengthened so substantially that it has already reduced opportunities for fuel reduction burning. This means it is harder to prepare for worsening conditions.
The costs of fighting fires are increasing. Australia relies on resource sharing arrangements between countries and states and territories within Australia. As seasons overlap and fires become more destructive, governments will be increasingly constrained in their ability to share resources and the costs of tackling fires will increase.
The government must develop an urgent plan to (1) prepare Australian communities, health and emergency services for escalating fire danger; and (2) rapidly phase out the burning of coal oil and gas which is driving more dangerous fires.”
Here’s more measured evidence based analysis:
“And although these bushfires are not directly attributable to climate change, our rapidly warming climate, driven by human activities, is exacerbating every risk factor for more frequent and intense bushfires.”
Source: https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-bringing-a-new-world-of-bushfires-123261
