Australian PM Jeered visiting Fire Area
January 3, 2020
Putting Australia’s wildfires in context:
2019 in the Amazon: 900,000 hectares
2018 in California: 1,800,000 hectares
Since July in New South Wales: 4,000,000 hectares
Across the scorched southeast, frightened Australians — taking a few cherished things, abandoning their homes and vacation rentals, and braving smoke that discolored the skies — struggled Thursday to evacuate as wildfires turned the countryside into charcoal wasteland.
And from government officials came a disheartening warning: This weekend will be one of the worst periods yet in Australia’s catastrophic fire season.
“It’s going to be a blast furnace,” Andrew Constance, the transport minister of New South Wales, told The Sydney Morning Herald.
January 3, 2020 at 10:29 am
Good On Ya, Cobargoans! It just proves what an idiot Morrison is that he would walk down the street in that town to try and prove what? That he cares? that he understands why his country is burning? LOL He should be hiding in his paid-for-by-the-coal-industry bomb shelter instead.
January 3, 2020 at 9:36 pm
Quite correct! Expect this area is RW heartland also.
The fires are nation wide, not just NSW. The high status hero firefighters stand solid in blaming climate change. Continental ALL time record high temps, and in December, make that argument irrefutable. Public perception on AGW is changing, hopefully a lot!
January 3, 2020 at 3:26 pm
We need more of this kind of response: politicians (even ‘moderates’ paying lip-service to climate change) won’t do what needs to be done (that is, make it clear to fossil fuel companies that the argument is over and the end is in sight) — until there’s enough real, lasting anger out there to make them more afraid not to do it than they are to do it.
January 3, 2020 at 9:37 pm
Go BB!
January 4, 2020 at 8:51 am
Absolutely right. Except many of them will never do what’s needed—in the US or maybe Australia, and will need to be removed from power, prosecuted and convicted for crimes against humanity and the Earth, treason, fraud, securities fraud, millions of counts of felony murder, and others. These criminals should be allowed to take part in a truth and reconciliation process. We need to get the whole truth about the lies and manipulation they’ve engaged in for 50 years, while they’re separated from the fortunes they’ve made and prevented from ever again having any responsibility.
Meanwhile we need to move forward with an emergency climate mobilization—a comprehensive Green New Deal—with the necessary changes in energy, agriculture, forestry and industry, and find out if we’re too late or we can actually save anything we love. Whatever peaceful means it takes.
January 4, 2020 at 9:07 am
Good heavens. Agreeing with J4, the world is upside down.
January 4, 2020 at 7:48 pm
Well it is a trifle over the top. When the huge and powerful USA screw poochie shed loads of people get hurt because of that overwhelming power. Just remember that the people are overwhelmingly nice, even the 40% incapable of rational thought.
January 4, 2020 at 10:53 am
The usual Jeffy rant. Could we just start by electing Elizabeth Warren to the presidency and replacing a lot of the other Repugnants?
Do you vote, Jeffy? I’ve asked you many times. Who do you support? And words are cheap, Jeffy. Have you sent any $$$ to Amy McGrath in Kentucky, who is trying to unseat the biggest criminal of all?
January 5, 2020 at 2:50 am
Are bribes (AKA “campaign donations”) legal in Australia the way they are in the US?
January 5, 2020 at 4:45 am
Oh yes!
Oz is behind the Hew Es Ay in the system of aristocrats and peons. Working damn hard at catching up.
January 5, 2020 at 10:38 am
You’ll never catch us—-we are so good at it that the gap is increasing almost exponentially. Unfortunately, much of OZ is likely to be ashes if things keep going bad climate-wise—-the peons and the aristocrats (or their hired armies) will be busy shooting at each other, and that will upset the race to catch the US.
January 5, 2020 at 8:48 pm
Meanwhile the establishment works DILIGENTLY to create a compliant underclass.
Multi page rant on the subject not included.
Your predicted revolution here, there or both?
January 5, 2020 at 9:05 pm
The revolution will take place there first—-Aussies have bigger balls than the typical spoiled American and the situation there is much worse—you won’t sit still for it much longer.
The right wing nuts are likely to be the ones who begin it here, and I’m not sure the left will be able to counter unless, of course, they hold the White House and Congress when it starts—it will then be interesting to see if the “rightish” members of the military resign and join the new confederacy as they did in 1861 so that they don’t have to obey the orders of “socialists”
January 5, 2020 at 9:35 pm
Stralians are spoiled and smug too, no worries. Recently discovered the origin of the term Red Neck and today’s version. A small reason for hope.
January 5, 2020 at 10:33 am
LOL—-without knowing the real answer, I will bet the house on YES. I’d bet that since the first “politician” appeared on the scene maybe 10,000 years ago that campaign contributions/bribes were the rule, even though they likely started as a goat or a bushel of apples.
January 4, 2020 at 11:07 am
A two-thirds of a page article on page 5 of the A section of the WashPost today about the wildfires in Oz, focusing on the Lake Conjola community. Sad stories. Also coverage each night for a week now on the CBS and NBC nightly news.
ALL of it focused on the “human interest” and sensational aspects of the fires (to say nothing of those cute Koalas—Lewis, the one who died after being rescued, is still getting lots of screen time). The coverage is akin to that given to vicious muggings, big car crashes, and female entertainer wardrobe malfunctions, i.e., WOW—Look her—for 10 seconds.
NONE of it is mentioning the underlying cause of the situation—-climate change—-or the “canary in the coal mine” situation in Australia. Time for another letter to the editor of the Post.
(And sorry, denizens of Oz—-until ALL the koalas, a couple thousand people, and the Sydney opera house all go up in flames, the media and folks in the USA will pay little real attention).
January 4, 2020 at 8:08 pm
The good news (good news?) dog, is that local reporting blames AGW unequivocally. Even international networks include it in their reporting. Have observed that, CNN specifically, reports differently internationally and domestically. Aside and to be exceedingly obvious, fox is a DRAG on your nation.
January 4, 2020 at 4:51 pm
Australian bush fires
Considering the huge scope of the fires and the potential for them to increase I think Australia has reached its climate tipping point. Under the present conditions nothing but rain can contain these fires. A new fire can start suddenly many miles away because burning embers float on wind currents then land and another holocaust begins. I have experienced this firsthand having been a volunteer firefighter during the fires in the Dandenong ranges east of Melbourne in 1962
As Australia has reached its tipping point so have I personally. And I am so f-cking upset it hurts. These fires should be a wake up call to all Australians and the rest of the world. It is time to make the climate denier politicians and others accountable