Koala in Flames: Climate Disaster Animal Vid of the Week
November 19, 2019
Climate deniers cheer.
Everything that made Bear the dog a terrible pet has made him a bushfire hero.The Australian Koolie has boundless energy, an inquisitive nature, intelligence and a great nose for sniffing out trouble.It was too much for his previous owners, who decided they could no longer keep him after he literally ate their apartment, chewing through furniture and walls out of boredom.
He ended up with the Detection Dogs for Conservation program at the University of the Sunshine Coast, where he has become a trained koala detection dog.He is the only one of his kind trained to track live koalas rather than droppings, known as scat. Decked out in special boots to protect his feet from the scorched ground, Bear has been searching for koala victims of the bushfires that have been devastating Australia’s east coast in recent weeks.

November 19, 2019 at 10:47 am
Australia has a set of Governments at state and federal level who are refusing to back down on not only climate denial but also refuse to speak with retired fire chiefs who are calling them out for such things are large cuts to fire services when the drought was looming!
A large fire disaster has been predicted for many months now!
Refusal to meet for over 6 months with fire chiefs at both state and federal level.
The red neck fringe in North QLD won the Federal governemnt its last election after a Labor predicted win failed at the ballot box due to three marginal seat full of mining towns who are out of work or low in work.
Tourism is much bigger in Australia than mining for jobs but has not organised it’s self into a lobby with funds like the billionaire miners have.
They are staying pure to “The Stupid”.
November 19, 2019 at 11:09 am
I’m guessing all that sweet, sweet coal money has nothing to do with it.
November 19, 2019 at 10:54 am
Good to see that the folks down under are caring for the Koalas, just as they did the baby flying foxes who were orphaned when heat waves knocked their parents from the skies. Seems strange that at the same time the country is exporting large amounts of coal and LNG and wants to increase that trade.
I’ve said before that AUS is the one developed country most at risk from climate change, and the heat waves, drought, and fires are occurring as predicted (and are predicted to get worse). When are people going to start paying attention?
November 19, 2019 at 4:53 pm
Amidst the smoke, fire and fury there is some cheer to see the rescue of a few furry bush dwellers – the smoke from the wildfires has drifted all the way across to South America: Inview of temperatures continuing the climb up and a recent respected scientific article, stating winds have been increasing through the last decade or two, the prognosis is not good, not good at all.
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Smoke from Australia’s bushfires has spread to South America
Satellites show atmospheric pollution created by the fires across New South Wales and Queensland has travelled more than 10,000 kilometres to Chile and Argentina.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2223677-smoke-from-australias-bushfires-has-spread-to-south-america/
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Wombats airlifted to safety as Australia bushfires rage on
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/wombats-airlifted-safety-australia-bushfires-rage
November 19, 2019 at 5:03 pm
The World’s Winds Are Speeding Up
The trend contradicts concerns of a “global stilling,” with implications for wind energy
By Chelsea Harvey, E&E News on November 19, 2019
A study published yesterday in the journal Nature Climate Change finds that winds across much of North America, Europe and Asia have been growing faster since about 2010.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-worlds-winds-are-speeding-up/
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Fire tornadoes are set to become a more common feature of the Australian landscape as climate change takes hold later this century.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-18/more-fire-tornadoes-to-hit-australia-as-climate-change-sets-in
November 19, 2019 at 5:07 pm
The dread and worry keeping young Australians up at night
Yet it’s a fine line as a parent between acknowledging scientific reality and causing alarm, especially when you have imaginative children already prone to anxiety.
All around me I see climate change casting a pall of dread and despair over so many lives. I’ve long thought this must be a factor in the skyrocketing rates of depression and anxiety, especially among the young.
Now the peak body for psychologists has confirmed my hunch.
The Australian Psychological Society (APS) has called for governments to declare a climate emergency, having reviewed the research on climate anxiety among young people and established a Youth Advisory Group of 16 to 25 year olds to dig deeper.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/the-dread-and-worry-keeping-young-australians-up-at-night-20191115-p53aw5.html
November 19, 2019 at 11:33 pm
The adult chick’s name is Toni. She used her shirt to grab the Koala out of a tree surrounded by fire. Great that the wild Koala would accept a drink, douse and rescue from a human.
GO Bear the dog!
The Feds here are deniers, the RW shits. Getting a lot of pressure from firefighters whom are suffering discouragement.
Ten years ago the Met had to add an extra color to the temperature maps. Same time, top fire danger level went from ‘Extreme’ (light a fire is a hanging offence) to ‘Catastrophic”. Catastrophic is not hyperbole, get ‘firestorms’ that are basically impossible to stop. Global warming is here now, to preach to the converted.
Am in the city of Adelaide, 35 deg latitude, on a gulf that connects to the southern ocean. Today the temperature is 42 c, 107.6 f, and this is the Spring.
November 20, 2019 at 1:31 am
The Australian PM spent his time in the last 6 months talking with religious leaders and finding a way to have coal – a traditional industry- protected under the religious freedoms bill the Liberals are putting together. So coal use becomes a religious right and freedom.
The fire chiefs still want to talk to the PM after the 30 burn of NSW forests in the last 8 weeks! The PM is busy watching the chricket. A traditional game.
Bone stupid? Oh yer!
November 20, 2019 at 1:33 am
30% burn of NSW forrests…
November 21, 2019 at 9:33 am