Australia needs to shift its economic model from mining coal to restoring its ecology, whether that is its coral reefs, its bush and outback and its town planning creating urbanisation right along the eastern coastline. I say this as someone brought up there from the 1950s. As the song goes, we paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
488
You need intelligent voters to want/need these things. When a large chunk of the electorate is on a diet of disinformation from Fox News and Murdoch newspapers, sound reasoning is not happening. Same exact problem in the Divided States of America.
68
@G Rayns I agree, but Australia can't do it alone. The reefs won't recover, nor will the fires cease, until the whole world stops belching out CO2. Australia is high on the list of offenders, but still a tiny fraction of the whole.
35
@aeemrr It does not appear the trump administration or the morrison administration are going to educate the lambs they're sending to the slaughter, that is, the lower classes taught to obey their teachers rather than to think critically; lambs upon whom insatiable politicians & FOX & Murdoch prey. See how the uninformed unwittingly enrich the hypocrites!
So it falls to us, ordinary citizens everywhere, to live out that commandment, "Love thy neighbor," and do our darndest to enlighten the badly misguided.
The way this reporter approached the retiree, asking a question, respectfully listening to the answer, offering an alternative without rancor--wasn't that brilliant? A model of how to inspire your neighbors!
26
Bushfires have been happening in Australia since time began.
Unfortunately clearing of undergrowth has been stopped by the greenies. Also with our increasing population more families are moving to the areas affected. Global warming is just an excuse for for governments lack of management in bush management.
Bushfires are a natural phenomenon. But with proper management lives can be saved.
12
@Steve
The word ‘environment’ might help this perspective get back to the real basics. European migrants of peak industrial revolutions have not been in Australia ‘since time began’. Environment is about clean air, water and land. If you don’t like words used in science, then I would agree to best keep it simple.
10
@Steve
You say "Unfortunately clearing of undergrowth has been stopped by the greenies." Evidence? The Green party holds power nowhere n Australia. To repeat this unsubstantiated myth is easy and convenient.. a lot easier than facing reality.
24
It's not the "greenies" it's the reduced window of opportunity to perform the burns safely due to the longer, drier, and hotter periods over several years. Or maybe the Rural Fire Service has no idea what they're talking about?
The budget cuts didn't help either, I'm sure.
12
The gravity of this article is well founded. For me, as an Australian, it is more than heart-breaking. I feel like the burnt countryside, scarred by the inferno. It has changed me forever.
An enduring image for me is the picture of the Australian Prime Minister, Morrison, standing in the Parliament with a fatuous grin, holding a large lump of coal, in his apology for a mind, making a point against the environmentalists.
This man and his supporters, denying reality, must be thrown out. There is no forgiving. Morrison, the Prime Minister, and his lackeys, are nothing but “fossil fools”.
312
@Hugh Garner Those with sincere concerns about the Australian environment will follow the wisdom of the Aborigines who for thousands of years knew how to use controlled burns to rid the forests of tinder and enrich the soil with the remaining ashes.
Everything else is a political Trojan Horse.
14
You can't fake empathy for long and Morrison has been found out by the Australian electorate. His performance throughout this bushfire crisis has been deeply disappointing - from relaxing on his 'hidden' Hawaiian holiday as volunteer firefighters were dying near Sydney, to blame-shifting from Federal to State governments throughout the height of the crisis.
27
@Hugh Garner - Sorry Hugh & countless others Commenting here, but I too am an Australian & nowadays live in Sydney, originally from Cudal in the NSW Central West. I've seen major bushfires before & have absolutely no doubt that I'll see them again.
Especially if we continue to ignore past practice by the Aborigines who were here well before European Settlement in only 1788. They had a far better knowledge of the Australian bush & burned it on a regular basis for good reason.
Unlike nowadays when environmental regulations preclude access to national parks where the fuel load has built up to the point where it's little more than a 'ticking time bomb'.
Just waiting for the right conditions (inevitable drought, hot dry winds from the Centre plus lightning strike, or arsonists match) ultimately results in a raging unstoppable inferno.
The best we can do is limit the loss of life & property damage UNTIL the inevitable drenching rains come to quench the inferno - which is EXACTLY what has happened on this occasion!
Within a week of the 'Alarmist' picture accompanying this article appearing (1st Feb 2020) the drenching rains arrived!
Albeit, not forecast by our supposed experts in the Australian Bureau of Meteorology who were predicting no rain before late April or early May 2020!
All major bushfires on the eastern seaboard are now out! Instead, and unsurprisingly, we now have dams refilled to overflowing & floods!
Nature, not mankind, at her very best!
8
It was indeed a man-made disaster, made by arsonists.
6
@JQGALT even the best arsonist needs kindling
1
@JQGALT Unfortunately this is fake ‘news’ promulgated by ‘opinion’ media on the right. Let me guess, Fox ‘news’. Yes arsonists exist, but according to information from state police in NSW and Victoria, when the worst of the burning had occurred, arson was estimated to be responsible for less than 1% of burnt area in NSW and 0.003% in Victoria. The majority of fires, by far, were started by dry lightning and flying embers (up to kilometres from source). A number of other others were man induced but unintentional such as machinery contacting dry grass. Best to fact check from a reputable source when getting information from fake news sources such as Fox in the US and Sky in Australia.
9
@JQGALT
Careful there, your Ayn is showing.
5
There is a world catastrophe going on. We started it. This is the greatest threat to the biosphere in 66 million years. "Climate Change" media call it, because they want to please the fossil fuel financial plutocracy which is smothering the planet. However, the climate is changing to the Jurassic... in a few decades (instead of millions of years). Species don’t have the time to adapt.... Except the real small ones, the viruses, bacteria, and countless parasites which kill trees by the billions.
So how is this “climate change” going to manifest itself? Well, the first thing is that ALL the temperate forests are going to deperish, die and burn, roaring from winds as never imagined before. This just happened in Australia and Corsica: air tankers couldn’t fly. All this enormous burning will not just augment CO2, it will decrease oxygen. Already oxygen has disappeared from giant swathes of the ocean. At any time, the unstable methane ice on the Siberian continental shelf could erupt: there is more of it than all other fossil fuels.
So what are Australian doing? Getting wealthy by using and selling coal, to China, Japan, etc. Australians, per capita, per year, emit from usage or export, 80 tons of CO2. France, and the world average is five (5) tons, 16 times less. Australia is hoisted on its own petard, and it burns.
This is the greatest holocaust of the biosphere in 66 million years. And it’s not just plants and animals which will die en masse. It's a world emergency!
5
Scare mongering hyperbole. No wonder more kids suicide when reckless 'journalists' put out rubbish like this. Australia is still the same and has always been the land of droughts, floods and bushfires. Learn about our history before you publish more nonsense.
7
I can barely watch those poor koala bears being driven into a horrific extinction . Is mankind guilty of a Holocaust?
1
Love Australia!
But NYT article is just too funny
Here’s a question no NYT reporter or democrat running for office ever asks or answers?
Pet addiction and poor humans migrating from Under developed regions to developed nations are the very serious preventable cause of global warming. So why don’t we ban all pets and ban human migration?
2
If would be nice if the NYT’s Australian correspondents gave us all a balanced view of the world from an Australian perspective rather than this continual left wing biased reporting.
7
This is the most ridiculous piece I have read in a long time! fires in the past have burnt larger areas and killed more people but none have attracted more media attention, Chicken Licken is alive and well in the 21st century, lift your game NYT.
8
Despite the damage that can occur to property and people, good things can come out of forest fires, too.
Forest fires are a natural and necessary part of the ecosystem. Even healthy forests contain dead trees and decaying plant matter; when a fire turns them to ashes, nutrients return to the soil instead of remaining captive in old vegetation.
And, when fire rages through dry underbrush, it clears thick growth so sunlight can reach the forest floor and encourage the growth of native species. Fire frees these plants from the competition delivered by invasive weeds and eliminates diseases or droves of insects that may have been causing damage to old growth. Wildflowers begin to bloom abundantly.
Most young, healthy trees are resilient enough to survive a forest fire and will soon have a growth spurt, thanks to flames that thin light-banning canopies above [source: National Geographic]. And scientists report young-growth forests recovering from fire are home to more diverse species, in both plants and animals [source: Krock]. This is because the remnants of burned trees offer attractive habitats to birds and small mammals, and nutrients from burned vegetation continue to leach into the soil to fuel the birth of new plants [source: Pacific Biodiversity Institute].
3
So many comments speak just of Australia. Clearly all people and nations must work together for any hope of change.
Only if huge economies move in a new direction is there any possibility of survival.
1
Are any of these articles going to address the fact that the Australian government won’t allow aboriginal societies to manage these lands the way they did for 15,000 years?
2
What an absolute load of Climate Alarmist hogwash!
Drought & bush fires go hand in glove with one another Down Under! They are by no means uncommon in the Australian landscape. This has been so for millions of years & will remain so into the distant future.
The aborigines learned long ago how best to use fire as a tool and a means to manage the bush for their survival.
Many Australian plants & trees evolved over millennia such that they require an intense fire to enable their seeds to burst through in preparation for the next drenching cycle that inevitably follow major bush fires.
In the absence of empirical evidence proving otherwise, the claims that CO2 in our atmosphere is the root cause of ‘global warming’ (now morphed into ‘climate change’), is nonsense.
CO2 has far more benefits to forests than dangers, since it causes trees & vegetation to grow bigger, more vigorously, thicker & makes forests more resistant to drought.
All of which is excellent for the Australian bush/environment, and also for the fauna that relies upon a healthy forest to thrive. Which is fine, provided nobody ELECTS to live in the middle of the Australian Bush forest, since they then become a prime target for the inevitable bushfire that will arrive, sooner or later.
But it will arrive & when that time comes, they'd better be well prepared for the inevitable onslaught!
4
I wish I could cite Australia as a lone example of the future but I surely cannot.
Australia has their Morrison and we have our Trump. When Trump has finished squeezing every last dime out of America, he will walk out of it with a smirk on his face caring not if it is a smoking ruins, literally and politically.
5
Just heartbreakingly tragic to learn of such spectacular loss of wild life and habitat.
Our collective ‘inaction’ towards climate change has gone on too long.
Let the fires of Australia, California and Alberta become the catalyst for change that inspires us to change our errant ways, pronto or risk our own peril/extinction from the planet.
2
Total garbage, I live at the centre of the fire media attention and most people know what caused the fires. Green regulations and government not doing the necessary winter burn offs for decades. The people are angry, but not at the climate.
7
Every time I read anything about Australia in your newspaper I feel like i'm reading about a foreign and totally alien land, yet it is the country in which i was born and have resided in for over 50 years. Almost all of the articles present a warped and grossly exaggerated pessimistic view of Australia. The tone is almost always hysterical. I know the majority of the readership like the Australian contributors are left wing and therefore a certain ideological line has to upheld but please how about some diversity of perspective here. Bari Weiss is the only one to write about Australia and do it justice; and she was only a tourist.
7
Weird that you mention climate change as the cause of the bush fires when it is arson.But don't let those pesky facts get in the way.
The end of Australia as we know it. You should have done this same scenario on the end of Pennsylvania as we know it. In 2018 the GOP coal supporters killed by air pollution from toxic coal 3,100 poor victims. Our Democratic governor Mr Wolfe tried to put regulations on the toxic coal plants doing this but the whining GOP/Grand old Polluters pushed back and got there way. It it time to impeach Trump for all the deaths he and his coal industry are causing. Shame on all you supporters.
3
Aboriginal people in Australia have developed ingenious and subtle fire management techniques over the past millennia. Areas of Australia that have incorporated Aboriginal people as fire managers have seen fewer fires and no catastrophic ones. Clearly that is a key avenue for the future. Also, check out the fascinating book by emeritus Prof. Bill Gammage. "The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines made Australia for more detail on this. There are assorted videos on youtube from the Australian public broadcasters as well. All is not lost...yet.
2
I harken back to the amazing transformation you Aussies made happen regarding gun control. You stand as a model to the world for seeing the problem and fixing it. Take the pride of that achievement and show us all how it's done. Show us the way.
2
China, India and now Japan are building coal fired power plants as fast as they can. Anything Australia does will only hurt Australia.
1
I just read a horrible article i got in our Scranton times digital news. In 2018 toxic coal prematurely killed with air pollution 3,100 Pennsylvanians and thousands of others in nearby states. Now the facts and statistics are known we need to impeach our profoundly immoral Trump for crimes against humanity. Pope Francis recently spoke to oil men and warned them your toxic coal and oil is damaging our environment and you will be charged for crimes against humanity. The GOP or Grand old Polluters should be ashamed of themselves and need to be locked up. We will look like Australia soon in the photos from this article.
Step one is to elect politicians who will stand up to climate change denialist Rupert Murdoch and his media empire.
3
Anyone notice that the most vocal climate change deniers are at least in their 70s? They got theirs and could care less what mess they leave behind, even for their grandchildren. Truly a vacuous, greedy group.
5
It's already too late.
2
Australia is a risilient country and will recover but the image of our country and its inhabitants burning has been etched forever into our collective retinas.
Hopefully Australia has woken from our selfish complacency and realise that we need to act not only for ourselves but for those to come. Australia has gone from being a progressive world leader to a mean spirited and tricky hypocrite and have voted for the easy path of conservative self interst.
Whether the fires are the result of man made climate change or note is difficult to definitively prove - but if we wait for the evidence to become undeniable then the world will be but smoldering embers.
2
At the moment the stories of migration and change centered on South Asia, Africa and the middle East. Now, the world can see white people coping with migration and change, and it's big news. Good. Maybe these white dominated governments, like the U.S. and Australia, can finally see that climate change knows no economic or skin color bias. The fact that the U.S. and Australian governments are led by white climate change deniers is loud and clear.
“The world’s refusal to address it” - Australia is a very rich country with plenty of global influence. It, more than most, chose not to address it and in fact actively worked against it. It has been conveniently overlooked that most of the places burning to the ground voted for climate-denying right-wing governments FOR DECADES (and on the off-season, when the left was in power, they mocked the size of its leaders thighs).
And, let’s not forget, voting is mandatory in Australia. There is no “better angels, if only they turned out” argument to be made.
Australia has been completely behind the issue - as it has been on so many issues - and it is a rare catharsis to watch them reap the consequences of it. Hopefully the rest of the world learns from the ash heap and curbs the chauvinism in time.
1
Australia has had a series of utterly terrible leaders. Light-weight greedy fools it seems to me.
Australians might be better off if more of them realized that it is 'the people' who call the shots in a democracy and not the corporate lackeys occupying political positions.
Kick them all out and rebuild the country from scratch as model for the carbon neutral future.
2
"How can we dance
When our earth is turning
How do we sleep
While our beds are burning"
Midnight Oil, 1987
1
blah blah blah climate change this, climate change that.
It would be nice if the hysterics who write articles like this would present detailed facts supporting their case. I don't see a single fact here linking these fires to cc. Now I recognize that when it comes to a favored narrative (CC we're all gonna die, if you don't believe in it, you don't understand science blah blah) that facts don't matter to the Times.
But where is the proof that this fire season in Australia was made worse by CC? How much worse? A teensy tinsy bit? A huge mega amount? what % of the variance does CC account for. You know, facts like that.
And while you're thinking about it -- does it really make sense in a place that is already hot hot hot, that a slightly hotter than usual time period would increase the risk of fire. I'd put my bet on arson, bad forest mgmt, that kind of thing. Of course, pols love to blame CC for anything that goes wrong on their watch. I'm sure that Xi will soon announce that the Corona virus was due to CC. Now, it's possible Corona beer is good for fighting the heat, but....
6
First rate article. The extent of the NSW fires forced this idiotic climate change denying, Trump-loving government to just start admitting there might be some climate change in the bushfire mix. But the fossil fuel industry here is clearly not going to willingly let go of "Scotty from Marketing's" (SfM) short-and-curlies. Doesn't help that SfM is thick as 2 planks. I mean, how could a Prime Minister with half a brain work out it's a top idea to shoot off on a Hawaiian holiday just when the NSW fires were starting to really arc up? His party has dragged the chain on effective response to climate change for decades; the sooner they are gone the better.
2
Naked Apes playing with fire. To the back of the line we go again. Maybe devolution will correct our faults.
3
Those of us old enough to remember what the world once was like will miss what the hubris of the greedy has destroyed.
My biggest fear is that those who are too young to know what was lost won't even miss it and the stupid short-term thinking will continue.
2
Australia was established as a convict colony.
Three American aviators died, far from their homes and families, 'bombing' a local bushfire with fire retardant on 23rd January. Ian McBeth, Paul Hudson and Rick De Morgan Jr gave their lives trying to keep Australians safe, and we will be eternally grateful for their sacrifice.
7
Australia doesn't have a Bill of Rights. What hope is there for us as citizens when we can't comfortably assert our rights? Until I married a Forgotten Australian (State Ward) I had known a privileged life. What I learned after marriage was that here in Australia, the colonialist mindset is alive and well. It is what causes us to accept whatever spin we are fed by the Murdoch Press and the idiot politicians who are puppets for billionaires' vested interests.
This country is content to gorge itself on the yellow journalism and climate denial of Rupert Murdoch and his pals in the coal industry. The Karma Wagon is a-comin' down the street. Oops.
1
thank you Murdoch!
This is not just the end of Australia as it was, it’s the end of the world. Human populations continue to increase and the rich continue to plunder nature. I believe the tipping point of climate change has already occurred, we will only see when it happened in retrospect. I’m glad to be 64 and very unlikely to be around when things really come apart. I apologize for the damage that’s been done by my generation and those since the industrial revolution.
I, and two of my brothers made a conscious choice not to procreate, I recognized the beginning of the end even as a child, especially when traveling through Newark in the sixties, the air was literally yellow. Even a 5 year old could see something was seriously wrong with that.
7
Here in Switzerland this is our second winter that is not winter. Already the flowers are out, we strip and play badminton in shorts instead of a day's skiing (who wants artificial snow?) and a pot of fondue seems indigestible.
6
This article is exaggerated, and reflects views of people who are prone to catastrophism. Yes, the fire season was bad, but not as bad as many before. There is no historical perspective. Australia is prone to fire and always was, going back countless thousands and probably millions of years. One of our poets said, "I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains". Australia is fairly arid, largely owing to its latitude (other countries have large desert areas at similar distances from the equator). Adequate attention was not paid to recommendations regarding removal of fuel load in country areas, owing to political activism as well as simple neglect. The Australian aboriginal people used to manage it better. The bush recovers quickly. The vegetation is adapted to fire. Some species, including eucalypts, depend on it. Already everything is sprouting anew. This is my Australia. I love it. It can be hard, but recent events are nothing new. This land and its eternal character are not going away. Perhaps some commentators should.
5
Thank you for a well-reported, beautifully written, and heartbreaking story. But I am concerned with the headline, as it implies that the entire country is a disaster area. This is not the case. Full disclosure: I am Australian and work in Australian tourism. I don't think you'd ever intend to scare away potential travelers to Australia and that is not what this story is about. But it is important for the world to understand the entire country is not on fire and there are many safe, astoundingly beautiful, and unaffected areas including the states of Tasmania and Queensland (among others) which currently have no fires. The NSW fires are out. Australians are concerned - we all should be - but Australia as a whole is not paralyzed with fear and uncertainty. Unfortunately, many media reports on the fires - so difficult to report since they are changing by the day - have been inaccurate. Australia is not burnt to the ground. Please keep these important Australia recovery stories and up-to-date images that reflect the current fire situation and Australia's beauty, and resilience coming. I encourage the NYT to consider a companion story that shines a light on the many areas of the country that are safe and thriving.
4
Ah the tourism people... Do you really think anyone wants to take the risk of being in a capital city where just breathing the air is equivalent to 32 cigarettes a day? Or where you might have to be evacuated or take refuge on a beach to stay alive? I'll reconsider going to Australia when Australia stops exporting coal and building coal mines and coal-fired plants and denying climate change! When Australia stops EXPORTING climate change denial. When it becomes a good actor on the world stage and not a force for destruction. When it rejects Scott Morrison and Rupert Murdoch and all of their cronies. When it starts to behave in a responsible, ethical way on the world stage. Then I'll reconsider. For now, no thank you.
2
Towards the end of 2007 when Australia's first climate change denying PM (also our second longest serving overall) was staring an historic defeat in the face, largely based on what a lot of people attributive to this denial, I was sitting in a cafe in Sydney. Two guys next to me were talking about the likely proactive climate change policy of the new Government with some disdain, and then one of them said "I don't understand all this talk about us being one of the largest emitters per capita - I bet we are one of the lowest emitters per square kilometer" ....to which my mouth full of long black sprayed all over the table. When recounting this story to a mate, he replied with a wry smile "yeah, I am sure we are one of lowest emitters per kangaroo too". Things have only gotten significantly worse since then. It is a bit of a myth about Australia that we have a strong environmental culture. We love enjoying our environment, but when it comes to taking real action to protect it, we actually don't really care that much. Maybe things will now change, but don't bet on it.
6
How's solar power production in Australia? I would imagine the potential is huge; seems only natural that they would start investing heavily in it, as climate change is a big factor in the disaster they've been facing.
7
@Hmmm Solar power year round in Australia, but go tell that to the coal barons who probably invest heavily into local politicians and parties, but I'm sure the short term solution is a balance, facing out coal gradually, but they need to start now.
2
It is incomprehensible how still so many people don't believe climate change is driven by humans.
Even in Iceland, where glaciers are melting before our eyes, a recent Gallup poll showed a growing number of Icelanders believe that global warming is a naturally occurring phenomenon, 23%, up from 14$ just last year!
If we don't even fully recognize the problem which is squarely upon us, how are we to solve it in time before it destroys us all?
13
Finally, someone is talking about the real stakes and the real, spiritual truth. The world as we know it is gone already—up in smoke so many times around so many places in the world.
6
Australia is a tragic example of the effects of global warming, principally caused by fossil fuels.
That Australia's PM, Scott Morrison, still is eager to sell Australia's coal to the world, and denies climate change, is a sign that he should be removed.
The only logic to Morrison's madness is that he wants the continent down under to become devoid of life, and suitable only for open-pit coal mining. This would bring money into Australia. It would also contribute further to Earth's making the Southern hemisphere, then the planet, inhabitable.
Australia was beautiful and rare, a place where other species are not found. It's not suitable for tourism right now. And, going forward, under Morrison, is every Aussie to become a coal miner?
Morrison's attitude, like Trump's, China's, Brazil's, even Japan's guarantee death of food chains, oxygen-producing trees and eventually, the planet.
12
@Lilou Morrison denies climate change because he's selling coal to the world. The opposition's political platform should be to eliminate coal gradually and bring in renewable energy sources, we all need to be creative, a new world order is upon us...
1
Universal genicide as a policy. Hmm.
California imported Eucalyptus (highly flammable) trees and exported a destructive ideology to Australia that rejected proper forest management. (Well known to the Aborigines for thousands of years)
Ironically, now both have burned, while the SJW's choose to trumpet their pet social objectives.
1
The Wollembi pines, a secret grove of living fossils have survived for at least 200 million years. They were saved by the heroic efforts of a small group of park rangers.
This speaks volumes about the change that the mega fire is a product of climate change, not seen for 200 million years.
4
I wonder, does this make R. Murdock something of an arsonist?
8
Yes, we are doomed. I bet nothing of significance will come out of this tragedy. If the dying coral reefs weren't enough of a wake up call, these fires won't be either. China needs your resources and you will keep selling to them at all costs. Think about your kids futures and not the dollars in your bank accounts. We have built a mighty global economic machine which is now consuming our beautiful planet and we are unwilling and incapable of stopping it.
8
Nowhere in this gloomy article are the 3 most pertinent factors mentioned:
1. Australia is the second highest per capita carbon dioxide polluter, due to a hugely profitable coal industry.
2. Bushfires could be reduced to a huge extent (opinions vary from 50-80%) by simply adopting a sustainable forestry policy. Ask any aboriginal; they’ve kept bushfires in check for fifty thousand years.
3. Australia is 90% desert. Solar energy could replace coal tomorrow morning, and electricity )in the form of batteries and other electricity storage methods) could just as easily replace and exceed the lethal and immoral coal exports.
So why isn’t this happening? For the same reasons it doesn’t in the US and most of the rest of the world; hugely powerful special interest groups, a political two party system dependent on massive donations, corruption and an apathetic populace.
Burn baby burn!
21
A media outfit could place cameras at each railway line showing train cars filled over the brim with coal and headed to the ports. It continues to be out of sight, out of mind environmental vandalism for many Australians.
7
If you build houses in the forest you have to accept that it will burn from time to time. But really, count your blessings. It is tragic that some have died. It is sad that some have lost houses and possessions, but material items and can be replaced if not restored. We are nevertheless lucky the entire nation is not in lockdown with 1500 dead from a virus noone had heard of at Melbourne Cup time.
1
The people in the United States, U.K., and Australia, keep electing ineffective, incompetent, self-serving right-wing conservative politicians. They ignore the scientific data and overwhelming evidence (FACTS) that the environment and our planet is imperiled due to climate change. This malpractice has persisted for decades, and it’s not going to change until voters change their habits and elect people who can articulate the radical change that this climate crisis demands.
11
If articles like this appear in conservative media, or if they start to actually impinge on Australian politics, it will not be long before the US president is referring to Climate Change as an "Australian Hoax."
A note to our friends down under: And many, many Americans will believe the stable genius, and start saying your government is communistic.
Forget if the world can survive global climate change; the real question is, can the world survive the growing dangerous follies of the world's leading democracy.
6
I have very little respect for science deniers but I have zero respect for leaders who acknowledge the science and do nothing.
12
Yes, Australia as we know it has now changed in many ways. However the “she’ll be right mate”, head stuck firmly in the sand, climate change deniers are still alive and strong! No matter how many times the lines “ there have always been fires”, “the greenies have stopped hazard reduction” and “arsonists are to blame”, have been shot down by fire experts, the same mistruths are spouted ad nauseam. I fear this dreadful summer will fade into a lack of action until the next horror unfolds...
9
"Will politics follow"? It's in the hands of Australians, the urgency is there, vote for who's gonna start taking climate change seriously.
4
Australia as a “relaxed” country is American mythology. It’s one of the most regulated nanny states in existence.
1
Nothing convinced me of impending ecological doom more than a trip to the Australian tropical north in 2000. I learned that local environmentalists were waging a losing battle to preserve the (World Heritage) tropical forest near Cairns against the sugarcane developers. I thought, if a country as big as Europe with less than 20 million people is this compromised, there is no hope for the rest of us -unless we abandon industrial society altogether.
4
In 1996, following a massacre in Port Arthur, Australia, in which fifty-eight people were shot, thirty-five of them fatally, the Australian government passed laws outlawing assault-style rifles and instituted a mandatory buy-back of weapons.
It was possible because that country is not constrained by an equivalent of the U.S. Constitution’s 2nd Amendment, whose words and meaning have for decades been distorted by and for the ends of the gun lobby, which does the bidding of America’s gun manufacturers.
That gun lobby likes to describe the Australian government’s actions in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre as “taking away the people’s guns,” but nothing could be farther from the truth. What the country’s government did was simply ask Australians to be better citizens and, overwhelmingly, they answered that call. There has not been a mass shooting on anything like that scale in a generation, while in the U.S. one takes place every day.
If Australia’s ordinary residents can fairly be asked to be better citizens, so can its richest and most powerful, which in Australia means those who operate its mining industry.
It’s not entirely a question of whether the super-rich need to get any richer, of course, it also is a question of jobs, exports and balance of trade, but Aussies are an entrepreneurial and innovative people, and they will find a way to replace those things, and more — and the sooner they start, the sooner their economy will have found its new footing.
11
Climate change is no longer a "we better do something about it or the future will be a battle for survival" the future has arrived and Australia is part of the front lines, and still, thanks to an Australian, Rupert Murdoch, millions around the world are misinformed about climate change for the sole purpose of maintaining the corporate status quo of polluting for profit.
23
There are many front lines. I live at the headwaters of the Everglades, and we certainly face our own battle. I feel the sorriest for small, low-lying island nations.
4
For the last ten years of my mother's long life, I would fly into Sydney and head four hours south, by car, train or bus to her lovely home by the sea. Her beach, called Narrawallee, is close to Ulladulla and Milton (spared by the fires) and to the North, Lake Conjola where 88 houses were lost. What I take from the article is the concern that the populations of these seaside towns expanded after Christmas, for the "holidays", and there were not enough ways to get fire fighting vehicles in or people out, hence those haunting pictures of people marooned on beaches. I jump now to China where people were on the move because of Chinese New Year, again a swelling of population, making it harder to deal with a crisis. The two threats to life in China and Australia come together because of so many Asians now living in Sydney. At present there is no more hope that Scott Morrison will change his tune, than that the leadership in China or America will heed the expressed fears of scientists.
7
Everybody relax...Mother Earth is merely beginning some very necessary human control. We haven't done it, so she will. It's inevitable, actually, but it's going to be a very rough couple of thousand years.
13
Good point. The Earth has been here for millions of years. Short of world-wide nuclear anihilation, can one species destroy the planet? Doubtful. Maybe the human species, which has shown itself to be the most self-destructive, is really an evolutionary dead end.
Articles like this try to make the climate change issue into a simple yes/no dichotomy. The question with climate change is always “how much?” How much of the fires are caused by climate change as opposed to other factors? It may be very hard to answer a question like that with any precision, but it’s the starting point. From there, we can estimate the damages of the fires, and the other many adverse impacts of climate change, and arrive at a social cost of carbon to make policy.
And people also want companies and governments to just “do more”, yet what that “more” actually entails is the hard part. Air travel and shipping are still heavily fossil dependent, and electric cars are still not quite there. Steel, cement and fertilizer, key elements of the industrial economy, are made through carbon intensive processes at the moment. Making a reliable electric grid that can run on intermittent renewable energy is also very hard. And then getting the international community to agree is a whole other set of challenges.
None of this is to say we shouldn’t do anything, we definitely should. But the question is what. I’m not interested in people who just say “do more” but I wanna hear actual policies that would, even if slowly, decarbonize the economy.
5
The Insurance supremo was asked whether parts of Australia are now uninsurable. He said that the companies had factored in the scientific forecasts made last April , but that there would be 'upwards pressure' on premiums and stricter requirements on building standards and safety features.
So the risk management professionals took on the science. The Right Wing government did not - willfully. Because they have been wedged by the fossil-fuel funded denialist lobbies that dominate the popular media ( aka Murdoch ).
And now Antarctica has posted its highest temperature .. Morrison fiddles whilst Australia burns.
21
Thank you for this. As an expat who grew up in Australia, it breaks my heart that the Australian government isn't working to lead the fight against climate change. I hope this article helps shape a new perspective on how Australia might respond to the recent disasters.
8
A year ago, I put a large deposit down on a tour of Australia for Christmas 2019. I was concerned aboutthe potential for extreme heat as in January, 2018, but also excited to go. I was planning to buy carbon offsets for our flights. However, my daughter decided this trip was too much for her first year in college, and we cancelled. My sadness turned to deep relief when the wildfires started. I could not imagine flying across the world to visit a city where just breathing the air is the equivalent of smoking 32 cigarettes. And then I learned that Australia is the largest per capita exporter of coal in the world. That it is still building coal mines and coal plants (!). I saw that clip of Morrison and his piece of coal. I also thought about Australia's BIGGEST export - the evil Rupert Murdoch and his empire of disinformation. I can onlyt hope and pray that this will mean the end of THAT Australia and a new beginning. I hope Mr. Cave is right and that change is coming. Because - sadly - Australia has had more than a small part in creating this crisis. In the meantime, my new policy is to spend my tourist dollars in countries that are taking positive steps on climate, not those that promote climate denial and fuel the crisis that threatens us all. I pray for the people of Australia and even more for the wildlife, who bear the worst of it.
20
Hi. You will be very welcome over here in Blighty! We are getting warmer summers and snow is rare in winter, but we are making a real effort to change things.
Certainly the 2019-20 Australian fires have been very widespread and the effects have been disastrous.
However Australia is a sunburnt country and the sequence of drought, fire and floods has been with us forever.
At the time of Federation of the Australian states in 1901 there was a 7 year drought, much as now. They were very significant fires covering many millions of hectares, much as now. It is possible that there were less hectares burn then compared with now and I do not know the intensity of the fires, and I suspect no one does so that a direct comparison may not be possible.
The main difference then was that populations were not living in the middle of the regions which were burnt. Another significant factor is failure to adequately prepare defences against an obvious increasing risk with equally predictable consequences, and unfortunate set of circumstances this has multiple intertwined if unsatisfactory reasons.
In the interest of balance reporting, and so the world does not believe that all of Australia is burning, please do another piece to assemble all of the factors so that reasonable conclusions can be reached.
Regards and my blessings for your next article
13
@Edward Schutz
Pure sophistry Edward with no verifiable data; with respect too anecdotal to be credible. What you call balanced reporting I call false equivalence.
1
This article has a particular agenda behind it I’m afraid and it’s told with dramatic intent. Australia is not stranger to fires, drought and other “extremes”. We’ve exhausted the conversation about climate change and all come to a reasonable and somewhat fuzzy conclusion that uses the “likelihood” phraseology. And that is fair enough. But please, there has been no paradigm shift in the psyche of Australians, certainly not from what am seeing.
2
@Edward Schutz
This is exactly the reason to worry that nothing will change in Australia, because of people who think like this. (could have been straight out of the Murdoch media).
Yes, the fires were unprecedented:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/25/factcheck-why-australias-monster-2019-bushfires-are-unprecedented
It points out that total area might not look so much bigger than some years in the 20th century, but that's because previously much of the area was grasslands fire. This year's fires have indeed burnt an unprecedented area of *forest*, some of which hasn't burned for thousands of years. Which means much more wildlife killed and canopy fires that develop into these huge, unstoppable pyrocumulonimbus events, that the firies who fight them say are indeed new and terrifying.
Don't take my word for it, but please don't take Edward Schutz's or a conservative pundit's or politician's word. Listen to the experts, such as are quoted in the above article.
3
Fire is a nature occurrence with which ecologies of plants and animals adapt. But how and when and where fires occur may not be like what these ecologies happened to adapt when they evolved. For example, fast burning fires may destroy death matter and promote the growth of plants as a result. But a very intense fire can destroy everything leaving nothing to grow at all. That is what global warming can do when it produces extremely flammable material in great abundance due to drought and extreme heat that dries out living plants and lowers humidity.
5
I recently read the words of Martin Luther King:
"We need to stop just pulling people out of the river.
We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in."
The paraphrase isn't hard:
"We need to stop just fighting catastrophic fires.
We need to look at why they occur and do something about it."
19
@Stephen - Sorry, it was said by Desmond Tutu.
Yet you live in Australia and would well know this is a common occurrence in Australia and has been this way since time began.
A lack of temporal and spacial understanding.
3
Welcome to Easter Island. Human nature has not changed. Greed, lack of empathy, selfishness, tribalism will all continue to prevent a rational assessment of the global warming problem and solutions that are in our long term best interests.
16
RE: NYT Picks
Well, I agree with the sentiments. However, one possible solution to this mess is hopelessly unpleasant - i.e., a drastic reduction of world population. Because people want what they want. And will take what they want with disregard for the consequences - be it meat, oil, or whatever. If you can do that you'll get a prize of some sort - but not of the Nobel Peace variety.
9
Corona virus might take care of that
1
I wonder if a massive drive to plant in the burned areas would help. First, go in with fast-growing hardy succession plants to take root, followed by bushes and trees. Australia does have some world-renowned permaculturists; it's time to give them the resources they need.
3
Summer in Australia used to be a time to look forward to, to enjoy that well-known laid back Aussie life style of pools, BBQs, sport, catching up with friends and family. Safe. The lucky country. This summer was the culmination of several years of clearly deteriorating summer seasons. More storms, more fires, more unbearably hot days. In our city in a region dubbed the "food bowl" of Asia, we now experience temperatures unheard of a decade ago, temperatures more akin to Dubai or Death Valley rather then a place that could support the growing middle class of Asia. An unprecedented heatwave culminated in hottest day ever recently 46 degrees celcius (115 farenheit). Years of low rainfall have decimated gardens and food producers. And then the fires. The languid summers of the past have become too hot to be outside, too hot to swim, too dangerous to play sport. Friends and family gather and talk of their growing anxieties and fear. Fear not just for future generations but the current. The future is here and its a dangerous place.
172
@Craig
Said from Bonegilla, a safe Liberal seat? And not a word about the Liberals (who are our oddly-named conservative party) lack of policy on emissions reduction. Until people in places like this, places that helped the Liberals win Australia's "Climate Change" election last year, then yes, all your fears and more will be realised - your vote guarantees it.
And please don't tell me how Labour couldn't explain how much their emissions reduction policy will cost in economic pain, when the Liberals aren't even being asked how much their deliberate lack of a policy is costing us right now.
11
@A. Nonymous
There are several problems, There is a climate problem, and there is the problem that the climate problem is not - except for a small portion - of our (ie, Australia's) making. Yes, Australians could eliminate their contribution to the climate problem. No, not even the most dramatic change in the way we live will impact on the climate problem unless there is a world-wide change in lifestyles.
To put it very crudely, if we are all going to perish, why not eat, drink and be merry while it lasts? When some of the greenest of the greens still go on overeas holidays if they can afford them, why should they expect the plebs to change their ways?
2
@Craig one blue moon doesn't make the earth crumble.
Fire is a natural part of the Australian ecology. It is worsened by failure to follow the Aboriginal practice of controlled burns, and by planting non-native pines for their wood pulp.
Climate change has very little to do with it.
5
In most democratic societies, people get what they vote for. In Australia (like now in the US), they have repeatedly voted for a conservative government that has consistently (and still does) denied climate change and promoted business friendly fossil fuel extraction. The economy has done well and the people's standard of living has increased which has led people to vote for the same policies. Now, for the first time, they have seen the downsides of those policies. Will they change their votes in the next election? I very much doubt it.
8
@Sipa111 Don’t just blame the conservative party, Labor on the left have had climate policies virtually the same as the Coalition.
1
Meanwhile the coal lobbyists in Australia make their pet prime minister agree to ever more expansion of their mines and subsidies....
18
If there's any conundrum of a country more confusing that Oz I wonder which?
Known as "The Lucky Country" my interactions with Ozzies and visits there have left me more than a bit confused.
Of course, I realize that one has to firstly take into account that Australia is a continent-wide country with different regions and peoples. Trying to describe the average Australian is as difficult as describing the average American!
What has struck me the most of the people I've met is that while many Aussies hold views that appear progressive and environmentally-conscious, the dark secret few ever talk about is the fact that Australia's economy has always been heavily weighted toward natural resource extraction and exploitation.
This is a country that decries despoiling the Great Barrier Reef as it exports massive quantities of coal to China and India. One cannot spend much time in Melbourne, for example, before one is tempted by high end shops to purchase opals mined from the interior.
And on and on it goes. Metro dwelling Aussies express progressive beliefs in combating global climate change while prospering from the exploitation of the various resources that are spurring the phenomenon.
That said, I'd love to go back for another visit. Oz is special.
8
I'd hope that rationality would win over emotion, and that reason would win over fear and delusion.
The reality is that we are a species that can, and will, destroy our home in the pursuit of our own self-interests.
But we are also a species that can learn, adapt, and change.
Despair is not an option. Focused, energetic, consistent action is needed at all levels--from the voters who simply must throw out of office all the ignorant men and women who deny that climate change is happening to those leaders who must initiate, fund, and implement the short- and long-term changes necessary to preserve what's left of this fragile ecosystem that finally appears to be at the tipping point after centuries of exploitation and misuse.
God--or Gaia--help us all, but we have a choice to make and we must make it.
6
@Matlock: Judgement is upon us, and it is because of our own greed and self-focus. Gaia can’t help us. God can, but He is looking for us to come in humility and stop acting selfishly - unlikely, I’m afraid.
1
Australia is done for, anyone who is paying attention knows this.
Best case scenario, exploit the natural resources to the fullest, and use the money to plan on what to do next for Australian citizens, when its time to abandon the continent.
@Ravi: so are you preparing to leave the Central Valley? You do realise that without irrigation it is a desert? How do you feel about that?
7
Considering how we treat refugees. What country will take us?
10
@Ravi
That’s rich coming from California.
Why is it automatically assumed that naturally occurring events are nature's political statements intended to spur political action by us? If there's a brush fire that means you should vote for the Democrats, or some analogous party in Australia? If the climate is changing, and it's by no means certain that it is, it's a centuries long process, we humans probably have no, or little, effect on it and we shouldn't politicize it. It's probably a waste of time and money to 'attack' climate change through political action.
6
@Duke: of course responding to this threat should be independent of party, and you should vote for representatives that can do something about CO2 levels and global warming.
Unfortunately that rules out some Democrats, but all the Republicans at present.
6
Many in California watched these Australian fires with dread. Many residents I spoke to up and down the state had a common fear: “Are we next?”
The answer is not if but when.
16
Bush fires have been a part of Australia as long as we've been keeping records. The fires last year consumed around 46 million acres according to Wikipedia, but the bush fires in 1974/75 burned around 290 million acres, again according to Wikipedia. The End of Australia? I don't think so, didn't Damien Cave realize the internet exists and anyone can check his facts?
7
@NorthXNW: you are mistaken because you are missing key facts - the dryness of the land, the temperature of the fires and the areas that are burning. And the fire season is not over yet. Stop reading reality-deniers and start reading scientists.
14
I suggest you check your facts! I had to live through the recent fires. If you think they were the usual fires we have lived through in the past then you have no idea what you are taking about.
Australia will be fine.
5
Unfortunately, Australian's suffer from the plague of the Murdoch media. Rupert Murdoch is a climate change denier and got his start in interfering in politics in Australia. His newspaper columnist claim that the cause of these fires is not climate change, get this arson. Hmm a worldwide increase in arson. This falsehood has been debunked, no evidence of a global increase in arson and this fake news included man made causes like cigarette butts.
The real cause of these fires is hotter, drier for longer, not arson.
11
If they keep voting for half wits like Scott Morrison, that end will come sooner than later.
12
Australians blame the "greenies" for everything including climate change. Don't expect anything to change until they're sitting atop a vast uninhabitable wasteland. Even then, they'll blame the "greenies" for their misfortune.
7
What with Australia running out of water and Australia's Road Warrior lifestyle of high carbon emissions, maybe Australia should cut back on its pedal-to-the-metal immigration?
1
“When birdsong and the rustle of marsupials ....” there are no song birds in that continent !!
Read ‘Where Song Began’ by Tim Low for an account of the origins of songbirds.
@CitizenUSA: "No songbirds" on Australia?
Interesting viewpoint, considering I'm an American, and can name 3 or 4 (in South Australia) right off the top of my head.
Sorry, what? I’m actually just confused about why you’d think that. There are most definitely songbirds in Australia. None in Antarctica though! And all songbirds originate from ancestors in (what would become) Australia.
2
New Zealand provided the world with an example of how to react to a tragedy. They showed us by immediately strengthening their gun laws after the Christchurch massacre. If Australia could do the same with environmental laws, they would become a beacon of hope for the rest of the world.
28
@Salem Sage NZ immediately strenghtened their gun laws by a tiny fraction relative to the severity of restrictions on guns imposed by Australia after the Port Arthur massacre in '96. All NZ is attempting to do is make the worst kind of military style automatic weapons illegal. They have the one of the highest levels of unregistered gun ownership, and of automatic weapons in the world. Don't believe everything you read about Arden's NZ as some sort of Utopia. A country that takes a fraction (gross and per capita) the number of refugees as Australia, yet lectures Australia. A nation whose intensive agriculture industries employ some of the most environmentally destructive methods in the world. And yet they lecture Australia. A nation that deliberately disarmed its airforce (it now only flies transports and rescue choppers) and relies on the protective capabilities and good will of Australia (and by default the US which it spurned 30 years ago).
4
Hopefully, this predicted Grand Solar Minimus will have a positive effect on our planet soon.
@Don predicted for when? Sounds like something that might be a thousand years away. Meanwhile can we make a 1-5 year goal instead of ten to thirty years goal for zero emissions? It's URGENT!
1
Will there be change? Only nine months ago Australians reelected their conservative government. The (defeated) opposition party had gone to the election with a 2050 net-zero emission promise. That was rubbished by the conservatives who kept asking for a detailed costing. The Murdock press and the thermal coal lobby were very influential.
At the Madrid UN climate conference In December 2019, with fires already widespread and many homes, farms and animals destroyed, Australia actively talked down the case for stronger global action. Australia, with its modest Paris commitment to achieve by 2030, also argued it should get 8% credit for having exceeded its Kyoto 2005-2020 target. Few will remember though that Australia (and Russia) held up the Kyoto declaration and, to shut them up, were allowed to increase emission by 8% between 1990 and 2012.
Now, undoubtedly the conservatives will try to get out of counting the carbon emissions from the fires.
It’s a bit like Trump on gun policy. After a terrible event, make “we must do something” type remarks. But then, go to rallies like in VA last month and stir everyone up and say the opposite.
21
@Noel McFarlane yes but that was our idiot Prime Minister Scott Morrison trying to play with the figures- carbon credits from the past. Many victims of the fires didn't vote for his Liberal/National Coalition party. Yet these victims deserve some sympathy or assistance. They are seriously traumatized and many underinsured by hidden clauses that are alluded to by companies refusing to pay out for burnt down houses. Eg.'That was radiant heat damage , not the actual fire flame.'
Crises can bring solidarity. However, under systems that do not force the players to pay for externalities, a crisis can bring the dog-eat-dog morality of game theory's "prisoner's dilemma."
4
As an Aussie who left Australia for the US almost 40 years ago, I'd like to see things change in Australia. The ready acceptance of Australians to simply dig massive amounts of coal, iron ore and other resources out of the ground and ship them, untreated, unprocessed to India, China and Japan is a travesty, in several respects....1. the mining companies in doing this are allowed to essentially pillage not just the mineral resources but also limited resources like water; 2. because minerals only get to be mined once, there needs to be a quid pro quo for this i.e. Australia needs to be developing local manufacturing and processing technologies, so that in time it will have a diverse and balanced economy and manufacturing and technology base. The development of these basic things ought to be the price of any significant mineral extraction. Australians haven't seemed to recognize and act on these imperatives, essentially giving away our abundant natural resources for short term profits. This obviously isn't a sustainable or responsible policy, despite the platitudes of the chronic mediocrities who inhabit the political class in Canberra. Perhaps recent events have finally shaken right thinking Australians out of their lethargy. Hope springs eternal!
12
I'm afraid this will leave Australia even more vulnerable to Chinese influence and control. From what I'm told by those who live there and are positioned to experience it firsthand, that influence is already considerable. There is Chinese manipulation of policies within many areas including financial, social, and political. What happens when the country is more vulnerable and desperate?
7
Never read such a load of rubbish. I live in Australia. The nation has always had devastating bushfires. What made it worse this time is that we had allowed unprecedented fuel load to build up on the forest floors. This was a result of an unwillingness to do the traditional cold burning done in the past - for green reasons. Australian Eucalyptus has evolve as an explosively inflammable tree that actively encourages fire. Produces eucalyptus oil. The buds are deep inside the trunk so are protected from fire. This is how the tree gets rid of competing vegetation. In Australia we need our forests to be in blocks with large fire breaks in between so fire does not keep spreading. Also we need to do a bit of replanting with less flammable species in some areas.
12
@Eric that's only part of the story. Record breaking temperatures and drought also create forests - even sub tropical- that are ready to burn through dryness. How can you cold burn in winter when everything is wet? The fire season now starts so early that it isn't safe to light fires in spring.
Even fire breaks did not spare forests this time because embers blow long distances and flames in fire storms leap across tree tops. Yes increased forest management is necessary but is it so hard to address the other root cause, being carbon emissions and global warming?
9
So true. Yes, for the kind of change we are talking about, we need a visionary leader. Is Scott Morrison one? Sadly, I guess not.
3
This is entirely related to energy consumption for all purposes — industry, office, farm and residential. Far too many people doing far too much. Petroleum industry lies have brainwashed us into thinking it’s all good. And regulations that are disconnected from reality allow us to continue toward the oblivion described in this well-written and intense article about Australia.
4
Humans are adaptable and able to work for change - when the leaders of their government state that change is now and we will, WILL, do what we must to adapt. Every life form is necessary. Every flower, weed, tree is necessary. Humans need all these bits of flora and fauna and water and hills to make our lives bearable. It is not enough to travel or have a meal out or go to NASCAR. Where we live and the entire planet on which we live is our home. I will never live in a yurt in Mongolia or a pied-a- terre in France or take a river cruise along the Rhine. That does not mean I should nor care. It means I should care intensely. Right now I am participating in Cornell University's Feederwatch and it is the thirty-third year for it. I am studying photos of birds and images of birds and listening to calls and songs. My binoculars are out and my bird feeders are filled. Why? 3 billions birds lost in North America. 1 in 4. Maybe I will lose to corona virus or get hit by a car. I will have gone down fighting for what I hold important. The life on this planet.
1
Bad bushfires - correct .
The rest is total rhubarb . No evidence cutting emissions will have any impact on reducing events like this in future .
The large area burnt will be safe from fires for many years to come .
6
So willful ignorance is bliss? Yet temperatures are locked in at extremes to continue bringing extreme weather events and unless we cease emitting carbon will increase indefinitely. Do you really want to see this play out like a malfunctioning oven with a broken thermostat and no off switch? This irresponsible attitude is like a disease. Enough!!!
I have lived in Sydney Australia for 70 years. In my experience the weather and bush fires are not unprecedented. The weather has in fact been quite normal.
In recent weeks there has been comment by scientists about the Indian Ocean Dipole causing cooler water temperatures in the Indian Ocean. Colder temps cause less rain. Yes, colder temps or cooling. Cooling causes less evaporation and less cloud cover and rain and this year delayed the wet season. Having less cloud cover over northern Western Australia in January is a recipe for heat waves. You can see details on the Australian Government web site:-
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/iod/
In the real world, it is a fact that if you build a timber house on a ridge above a heavily wooded area that you will be at risk during bush fire season. If you don’t manage the woodland area by removing trees and managing grasslands that run up to the perimeter of your property then you can expect a bad result during the fire season.
That you have not had a bush fire for twenty years is not a predictor of the future. It means you have 20 years of undergrowth to burn.
If you live in a community of tree huggers who fight land clearing and forestry floor management you are in real danger - far more danger that the effects of climate change.
As I write this eastern Australia has been deluged with rain filling near empty dams to near overflowing.
5
@Pedro deSwift
The "tree hugger" label gives you away. Greenies are not in power anywhere, It is a myth to suggest they are stopping fuel reduction. It is a classic rightist tactic. If you are over 70 as you say, it is time to hand over control to younger people who have another 50 years to survive on the planet. Your second line "In my experience the weather and bush fires are not unprecedented. The weather has in fact been quite normal." That is just anecdotal. In your 70 years when has a high level cricket match been cancelled before due to smoke visibility problems? When before have country people refused to shake the hand of a conservative PM?
You cite no data apart from your own age.
I think I will stick with the scientists. I am 65, live in regional NSW and have seen nothing like this. When before in Sydney in all your years have you seen the city wreathed in aromatic gum tree smoke and where people with breathing problems advised to stay indoors? Name one time. The famous Harbou Bridge was rendered invisible due to the pervasive smoke. The flooding in recent days is yet another extreme weather event. Lay persons not qualified in climate science should have the humility to listen to scientists.
12
@Pedro deSwift that myth that Greenies are against forest management! It's really a form of victim blaming.
These fires jumped many many fire breaks so it's not all about hazard reduction. Extreme temperatures also are a root cause of drying that caused subtropical rainforest to burn.
To stop temperature increasing we (the world and nation) need to stop emitting carbon. Too many want to avoid this difficult truth, but prefer to shoot ourselves in the foot.
8
@Pedro deSwift
Not to repeat the other replies to Pedro's comments, but from what I have read about the statements of the fire management authorities, the people who actually manage and fight fires, they have *not* been prevented from doing hazard reduction burns by environmentalists, but by hot dry conditions extending for much longer in the year. (they know from experience what happens when reduction burns get out of control).
The same is true for this conservative myth about hordes of arsonists. Yes, there were some, but much less than the Murdoch press and conservative politicians (and people who believe them) say. Only about 1% of the burned area is due to arson:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-11/australias-fires-reveal-arson-not-a-major-cause/11855022
This is from the Fire Services and the Police, the people who actually know.
5
Why is it when bad things happen it is blamed on climate change, but if the fire season in a different part of the wold were shortened by a lengthened rainy season, or crop yields were higher in a slightly further north region, it is completely ignored? There is a terrible epidemic of confirmation bias that contaminates the veracity of climate claims.
5
Trump has called climate change a hoax. He belittled the science by saying 2 degrees (Celsius) is nothing to worry about. He needs to understand the science and the situation or be voted out. His willful ignorance in order to get votes by promoting coal and deregulating environmental protections is going to end in catastrophe for his and our grandchildren.
6
Australia goes on most of the population live in coastal ares and the bush areas that have burnt have affected rural people mostly. Bushfires are a yearly event but with climate change they have become more severe, like storms have. Please USA dont be ignorant and still visit Australia it has a lot to offer and building tourism creates jobs and taxes to assist in attacking climate change . ( Oh I am from Australia)
4
"Where the land and wildlife are cherished like a Picasso"???
Are you kidding me? I live here and nothing could be more untrue than this statement.We are killing the reef. We massacre our national symbol, the kangaroo. We destroy the habitat of the Koala to build ugly suburbs and so on. After reading this I stopped reading the article.
5
@David well it's all relative. We have more untamed forests than America and Europe so from that point of view we did have a lot to protect until recent fires ruined large chunks of it. Not to mention many species pushed into extinction and likely many that have never been discovered or counted before.
2
@Paul Nonsense. The bush fires are out follow n the usual predictable drenching, soaking rains & the bush is ALREADY REGENERATING as it always does together with the animals. Nature doing what it always does best without any help from mankind!
Consider rebuilding based on the changing environment.
Australia can model after existing, underground towns like Coober Pedy.
America should be looking to build more earth homes and domes to withstand the rising windspeeds.
1
@D.A.Oh yes but we don't have to settle for this new distopian existence. Stop emitting carbon ,reduce the temperature and give nature it's chance to recoup what we enjoyed for so long.
1
Scientists all over the world dispassionately presented the data and the predictions decades ago; our own scientists, the same.
But here in the Great Southern Land, we have a majority of politicians who serve for themselves, not the country. We have a majority of voters who vote for themselves, not the country. And, of course, stupidity reigns here as we have dumbed down our education system to improve appearances and ensure everyone's a winner. Consequently, the sky literally has to fall before we even consider that "them uni-educated, hysterical lefty scientists" may have been telling the truth after all.
The next step, actually doing something.....well, we ain't anywhere near that yet. The cool early end to this summer ensures that we're still one major fire with lots of death and destruction away from real action.
And to think, back in the '60s and '70s, we referred to ourselves as "The Clever Country". What a joke, what a cruel joke.
10
When humans choose to live in sprawl, which practically dictates that everyone travel about in a POV (personal owned vehicle) and walking, for most, is limited to a stroll to the curb to pick up the daily postal mail, it is fair to say that we did it to ourselves. From coal-country in Pennsylvania and a handful of other states, places where a filthy rock full of dust is "mined," we are all to blame. I am reminded of the time I drove through Centralia, Pennsylvania, in the early 90s. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsgqy5FYP2c for a look at what coal has done
2
This is our true Gallipoli moment, a chance to more completely form our national identity. We are now a nation of a diverse group of immigrants, unlike 100 years back when most non-aboriginals were of British extraction. Unlike the earlier cornerstone of Ozzie mythology, which was about supporting the British empire, we have a chance to build our country on a new shared experience here on our own soil.
The bush fires have been devastating but provide us with a chance to redefine ourselves in a way more reflective of who we, and the land we live on, are today. I’m not sure if our current leadership understands this or is even capable of imagining where our future lies.
5
A few years ago a frozen mastodon was found in Siberia. It is said to be 10000 years old. It was frozen intact for that long. Several other mastodons have been found as the warming earth has exposed them. How can an elephant size animal freeze to death in the winter and not be eaten the next summer by scavengers? Something happened where it was warm up there and got cold so fast that winter never ended. Until now. There is more going on then just man with our climate. It can go to ice age in a year.
4
@Jim
Abrupt climate change is the rule rather than the exception in paleoclimatology.
Which is disturbing because we’re now tipping the climate to abrupt change and we won’t like it.
13
Do not underestimate us. The bush will grow back and so will we - what will come of this is more serious preparation. we have known for years how to mitigate the fires and from now we will do o it.
5
Our federal government is so hopelessly in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry that they are unable to think their way out of this.
A vast majority of the population are crying out for leadership on climate change but now know Morrison is not up to it.
We do need to realise that there are places in the country where people will no longer be able to live. Unihabital areas.
250 years - the first nations people must love what we've done with the place.
18
What bunk. Australia will rebound as the climate changes to cooler times. Remember, Newsweek predicted the next ice age when it was very cold in the 70's. Climate change is inexorable. It goes back to the age of the dinosaurs. Short term climate change brings out the worst in climate extremists. They always blame humans for the natural cycle of climate variations. It's the easy way out to defend the indefensible.
4
That’s called climate denial Paul. The vast, vast majority of scientists who have studied this do not agree with you and use evidence to bring forward our new reality. In our ‘strine slang the Australian way is” She’ll be right mate”, but we actually don’t think that anymore about our climate emergency and trauma of this summer.
5
@paul - oh, yeah. I remember how bad those awful climate types were back when the dinosaurs were wiped out.
Time magazine isn't a science journal. There was some concern back in the 1970s that the aerosol pollution from all the unregulated burning of coal, oil, garbage, etc. was overbalancing the warming effect of the CO2 all that burning produced.
You remember - the terrible air pollution, the killer smogs in NY, London, Los Angeles - the near invisibility of places like Pittsburgh back then?
Then we cleaned up our act in the western nations, scrubbed some of the worst pollutants from exhaust, regulated sulfur dioxide emissions from coal. And warming from the CO2 again emerged as cleaner air stopped reflecting light back to space.
The worrisome conclusion to this story is that CO2 emissions were much lower decades ago. And India and China have been repeating the large-scale pollution and aerosol emissions. Both nations now are trying to reduce the pollution, since there are over a million deaths a year in each place from bad air.
Once they also stop their aerosol emissions, don't be surprised if the cleaner air again produces a bump in heat.
Regarding defending the indefensible - I've found that with climate science having a couple hundred years of research, and the warming effect being a known thing, the -indefensible- is the deniers who wriggle around trying to avoid taking personal, or societal, responsibility.
7
Elect trump and continue to put republicans in Congress and we’ll be the next Australia . Vote blue no matter who with a special shoutout to Mike Bloomberg who is passionate about the climate issue.
15
While we can go around in circles arguing about climate change until we are blue in the face, the simple truth is that it's incumbent on all humankind to look after the planet so our children and grandchildren have a future. Irrespective of how culpable humans are (and I have no doubt we are having a negative impact), the climate has always been changing and will continue to do so. The arguments between climate deniers and climate believers are futile. Time to take a deep breath. For the sake of future generations, may governments start to take positive steps that will ensure the long-term survival of our planet.
4
@David Ahern "the climate has always been changing", not so suddenly it hasn't!
The debate is over but deniers should not be allowed to keep spewing disinformation. Listen to the scientists not to all the unqualified speculators with only a passing interest.
3
@Paul You need to do some research Paul. There's no shortage of well credentialed scientists who disagree with the hypothesis promoting the climate mantra demonising CO2 which is a miniscule, atmospheric trace gas necessary for life on this planet. Without it we'd be dead!
This bushfires are bad but they are also a normal part of the Australian wilderness. The correct response is better forest management and smarter town planning. The whole world could reduce its carbon emissions to pre-industrial levels and there will still be catastrophic bushfires every 10 years or so. That’s just the way it is.
4
Perhaps we Australian should just form a massive army and get out there with our brooms and start sweeping all the forest floor as the climate “expert” Donald Trump suggested of the California fires.
But this isn’t about forest management and there is nothing normal about this climate change (not weather). The reef is nearly gone. For good. We all did that.
5
@Moon Ray Sheer nonsense. There's nothing wrong with our magnificent coral reef off the coast of Queensland. It naturally goes through stages of bleaching & always recovers.
It's the prisoners' dilemma, playing out on a worldwide scale. If all countries play nice, we all win. But when each country decides what's in its best interests, the winning strategy is to grab as much as possible and let everyone else do the hard work.
The only way we can beat this is if leaders exhibit some moral clarity, and right now the U.S. - with Trump and evangelical Republicans calling all the shots - has none. This country is being run by a bunch of nihilists, and it sounds like Australia is, too.
11
The area burned is about 2.5 m - the average over the past 10 years was 4.8 m. The only difference this time is that it was centred predominantly in New South Wales where most of the media are. It did burn more area in NSW than ever before but not so anywhere else in Australia.
2
@Gary no ..the principal difference was that the fires started so early in the season. That is why the records were broken. If the fire season lengthens and the period available for preparation is less, then the situation is disastrous. As to hazard reduction burning, not only does it suffer from tighter time constraints, but more and more tourist businesses don't like it. The south east coast is a year round tourist area. Organising a hazard reduction burn is very difficult. Hazard reduction burns are based on acreage minimum targets. So the authorities prepare forests which raise few objections but then are't a danger neither. They do this simply to satisfy the quota. It is not situation normal
5
@colinn Absolute twaddle. If you bothered to do just a little research Colinn, you would have found that between 1996-2006 (yes, that's right a ten year period!) what was known as the Millennium drought is said by some to be the worst drought recorded since European settlement.
That ten year drought affected most of southern Australia, including its largest cities & largest agricultural region (the Murray–Darling basin).
It commenced with low rainfall conditions in late 1996 through 1997 (it's called a drought & they happen frequently Down Under, all due to natural causes, not mankind) & worsened through particularly dry years in 2001 & 2002.
By 2003 it was recognised as the worst drought on record.
Rather melodramatic.
Yes fires are bad and the big ones very bad and destructive.
These were in the populous States and not unexpected, with most starting in dry National Parks. Dry due to an extended drought caused directly by cyclic weather patterns, possibly influenced by climate change, but unproven.
Heavy rain followed, also not unexpected when the cyclic events stopped.
The biggest 2 cities Sydney and Melbourne were covered in smoke for an extended period. This has excited the populations helped by 24 hour news coverage and footage supplied by mobile phones. These fires are among the first to have almost live coverage up close by average people and neatly fit concerns about climate change.
Ultimately though, besides their size they are not unusual in the Australian context and the bush flora and fauna typically bounce back quickly.
4
@Paul So you are going to help me with my premiums next year because the insurance companies don't agree with your optimism? "heavy rains" ...what he means is torrents which have caused serious flooding. Unless we get a mild moist winter and spring which will allow us to prepare, it will be another difficult time of spring fires - not summer fires but spring fires.
2
not to pile on but...
The temperature at one research base in Antarctica reached a record-breaking 18.3 degrees Celsius (65 Fahrenheit) on Thursday, almost a full degree above the previous high set five years ago.
Argentine scientists on the Esperanza base who confirmed the reading said that wasn’t the only record broken this week. The nation’s Marambio site registered the highest temperature for the month of February since 1971. Thermometers there hit 14.1 Celsius, above the previous February 2013 reading of 13.8 Celsius.
The reports are shocking, but not surprising, said Frida Bengtsson, who is leading a expedition to the Antarctic for the environmental group Greenpeace.
“We’ve been in the Antarctic for the last month, documenting the dramatic changes this part of the world is undergoing as our planet warms,” she said in an email. “In the last month, we’ve seen penguin colonies sharply declining under the impacts of climate change in this supposedly pristine environment.”
https://time.com/5780052/antarctica-record-high-temperature/
6
There are two types of officially recognized people on this planet:
Those who believe in “Climate-Change” and the Deniers. Both types are capitalized because both have become proper nouns in our English language. So much so that people do not actually realize what they are literally saying when they utter those words. Do they mean positive-effect climate change or negative-effect climate change or do they really even know what they are talking about at all when they say the words?
Actually, there’s a third type of person who takes a different approach to this segment of our existence on this planet: The Seekers.
There are people out there who take time to do their own research & work together towards a community of understanding & positive change far from the buzz-words designed to quickly sway short attention spans to a consolidated opinion for an unspecified political goal. Those people who seek out, look for different opinions to understand multiple sides of issues. Sadly, many intelligent people do not belong to this group of individuals and this is no criticism per say, but most people just don’t have the time nor the desire to invest energy in some of these complicated areas of our lives. They simply leave the thinking up to the people in positions of authority.
Some politicians in positions of authority today desire to shut down completely the ability of people to seek knowledge outside of the prescribed pre-approved channels; that, my friends, should scare you!
3
Australia is a dry nation and water is going to run out in the not too distant future, as a lot of it comes from the great artesian basin. We are overpopulated, and following the fires more and more will move to the already overcrowded and overpriced capital cities.
2
"What many of us have witnessed this fire season feels alive and monstrous. With climate change forcing a relaxed country to stumble toward new ways of work, leisure and life, will politics follow?"
As have we in the US have also witnessed over the past decades worth of fire seasons.
The politics have not followed here but then we are the power center of all things carbon based energy production and consumption.
And now we here that plastics are being produced in increasing quantities.
"The U.S. Natural Gas Boom Is Fueling A Global Plastics Boom"
November 15, 20195:00 AM ET
Forget the island of plastic in the Pacific Ocean, today we are producing a continent of plastic that will surface a decade from now.
1
It is a fact that Australia is very passive about emission out put , actually nonexistent especially in their huge mining sector.
The double dealing and sophistry from Morrison and his Lib/Nat coalition co-conspirators is almost as alarming as the stark warning on climate change the summer has delivered.
The fact that they intend to use Kyoto protocol credits to shore up their lack of progress on emissions reduction should be a matter of national and international shame and disgrace.
At only 20% of total energy generation from renewable sources Australia still has a long long way to go. Adding insult is the fact that Australian consumers are being extorted and price gouged by the energy companies.
3
As far as I can tell, no politician outside the Greens Party is talking about shutting down Australia’s fossil fuels industry.
So the debate in this country about reducing emissions is a pantomime of ‘serious climate action’. It’s like the owner of a skid row liquor store talking about wanting to reduce his problem drinking.
Of course, an Australian climate change expert flying 15K kms to Davos to talk about the problem is, perhaps, the ultimate irony.
Here’s more on AU’s addiction to the carbon-fueled cash that, for most of us whose homes haven’t burned down or blown over, keeps us pretty comfortable in our warm, sunny land:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/08/fossil-fuel-exports-make-australia-one-of-the-worst-contributors-to-climate-crisis
2
Australia is toast unless the governmental leaders start taking global warming and climate change seriously.
3
Scott Morrison would be well advised to take the advice offered here. Now is the time for action. He could lead his party and declare a newm strong climate policy. Failing that he could allow a conscience vote on Zali Steggles excellent bill. Alternatively, he could place decisions on climate action at arm's length by setting up a Council for the Future. https://theconversation.com/a-council-for-the-future-could-break-australias-climate-paralysis-117185
1
Damien shows how easy the first actions of communicating new perspectives can be - often but not always.
Sometimes a bit of Churchill is required too.
So here goes an answer to ‘Ms. Wallworth, the filmmaker’s sentiment: What if the country’s leaders did not run from the problem of climate change, but instead harnessed the country’s desire to act?‘
Answer: At some stage we will, probably sooner than later. This is once again circa 1970 for the ’conservative‘ coalition of unlikely bedfellows.
For now we have the centre right parties partially comprised of Neville Chamberlains appeasing coal exports for burning businesses that cause the burning to boomerang. These parties are not really conservative. They are parties of the gambling industries both literal in communities and figurative in terms of the environment.
1
Recently Greta Thunberg was asked if she was more hopeful after seeing the reaction to her advocacy of action on climate change. She responded no, that emissions keep rising and that that is the only thing that matters.
The carbon cycle for the last 2 million years was doing 180-280ppm atmospheric CO2 over 10,000 years and we’ve done more change than that in 100 years.
The last time CO2 went from 180-280ppm global temperature increased by around 5 degrees C and sea level rose 130 meters. (graph of the last 400,000 years of global temperature, CO2 and sea level http://www.ces.fau.edu/nasa/images/impacts/slr-co2-temp-400000yrs.jpg )
One amplifying feedback alone out of dozens, loss of albedo or heat reflectivity from Arctic summer sea ice melt, over the last several decades has been equivalent to 25 percent of the climate forcing of anthropogenic CO2. And that will continue to increase as that ice largely disappears by mid century.
The Titanic sank because by the time the lookout called the warning the ship had too much momentum to turn. The Earth has a lot more momentum, e.g. we've already likely locked in ~6 meters of sea level rise from the marine sectors of Greenland and West Antarctica, and decade to decade warming in the near term is also locked in.
That momentum is building and the higher we let global temperatures rise the greater the risk of them going really high as amplifying feedbacks strengthen.
18
@Erik Frederiksen The titanic sank.... live went on. Such will be with climate fluctuations sadly but truly. Some will need warmer coats, some lighter. We may need to grow our peaches in Canada rather than Georgia ..but so be it.
1
We spent a smoky month in San Francisco in 2018 as a result of firestorms that raged to the north of us. Living in the city didn't protect us; smoke travels like fog and then sits where it wants. We were warned not to exercise outside, not to breath deeply because the damaging particles would stay in our lungs forever. But just walking outside to get lunch left you feeling like you'd smoked a pack of cigarettes all at once. Last summer the suburbs had rolling blackouts in an effort to forestall fires touched off by electrical utilities. But even so the fires came. Welcome to the future.
13
@Bob G. Unfortunately
This article contains much sensational hype and ignores the fact that only a tiny fraction of Australia was burned and already that is regenerating in a manner which is almost miraculous. I travel by train through some of the worst hit areas and see blackened gum trees sprouting vast green shoots, waterholes refilling and blades of grass reappearing. All you say about climate change and politics is true and needs addressing. But Australia is open for business, tourism and life goes on after this terrible trauma.
9
@Andrew Byrne
Tell that to the families of the 3 American firefighters who died in that water bombing crash,. Tiny fraction? Of course but most of Australia in desert. Huge areas of the settled part were covered by fire if you looked at the "fires near me" NSW website.
Yes we need tourism and are open for business and tourists will likely be safe but to accuse the article of being sensational is unfair and with respect not an accurate statement in itself.
7
Well put Andrew. Bush fires are a natural phenomena here and the regrowth is quick because after fire comes rain to help the seeds that have burst open in the heat to germinate in the rich aspen soils. Most Australians simply get on with life, so come and see the regrowth - it looks lovely.
All the focus is on climate change creating heat - no one ever discusses the human ability to change the climate through construction and destruction. One of the fires in the south was made worse by the logging industry planting new trees further apart than nature does therefore they were drier and not as moist as a natural forest would have been. Where I live excessive construction has caused daily wind storms and a much lower average temperature due to building shadows.
2
@Andrew Byrne How many of the billion dead animals have come back to life?
2
It's one thing to vividly describe the problem, it's another to define and agree on a solution. That's what's lacking in a lot of discussion on the fires. Australia bringing back the carbon tax or cap and trade model would help Australia limit emissions and allow Australia to lead from the front. However, this is a classic tragedy of the commons - Australia's action alone (even if it stopped exporting coal) would have negligible impact on climate change, and therefore, limited impact on reducing future fires. The US, China, Europe, and others would also have to act.
The problem no one has cracked yet is how to get seperate, self interested states to adopt policies that are individually detrimental but collectively positive and required for our future. Sadly, I don't think this is a problem our global order will allow us to solve.
Yes, Australia should change it's policies, but the rest of the world needs to follow.
7
Australia has always been a wild continent, a tough land, and to quote a famous Australian poet, a land of droughts and flooding rains. The indigenous people have for tens of thousands of years managed this vast land sustainably. But now there is a new reality, the world has changed.
History shows that Australians are a resilient and innovative people. If our leaders could see sense and grasp the challenge, we could be world leaders in adaptation to climate change. Forget Rupert, over to you, Scott Morrison!
5
@Rob Knight
True to an extent but the myth of the Aussie tough guy is just that. It is mostly posturing. We are soft and complain a lot. I concede that the fire fighters were very tough (and thank them from the bottom of my heart) but your average Aussie bloke is soft and pampered from a very easy life. That ad on TV where the fit young model asks "who made beer the boss of summer?" is more like the reality of Australians. Ever been to third world places as a non-tourist? My wife is from a developing country and her brothers are truly tough and masculine- uncomplaining, gentlemanly and tough as nails. But they work slave labor 12 hour days for 2 dollars a day. Aussies have got it easy.
4
@Bob Guthrie Well, what do you expect when current orthodoxy paints the tough resilient Aussie bloke as the poster child for "toxic masculinity", and just a heartbeat away from bashing someone. Competition? That's for Toxic Blokes only. A workplace without a woman in charge? Toxic Misogyny and Systemic Oppression. Sadly, the Aussie larrikin has been recast as a war criminal from Sarajevo.
1
It seems the biggest thing that needs to be changed are forest and wildlands management. If they don't do the things needed to stop big fires like cutting down and removing dead wood, burning out underbrush and keeping fire roads open they will continue to have big fires. These are the same poor management strategies that created large out of control fires in the western US in recent years. It's a very solvable problem but they need to focus on real concrete solutions not global warming theories.
4
@Gordon The poor forest management and excessive fuels buildup bugaboo is a misconception that the timber industry has been promoting for at least the last 50 years as a rationalization for allowing more logging. The Camp Fire that burned down Paradise, CA, burned through an area that had already been logged. The reason for most catastrophic fires is excessive heat and high winds. Read George Wuerthner among others for better discussions of this issue.
15
Who is going to pay for fire management?
People don't want to pay for public schools or fixing the dang roads let alone forest management.
The most likely solution for Americans is "privitazing" our government services.
It won't be long before we are paying private corporations with tax dollars to do the job that our government should be doing in every aspect of Americans life. People are too shortsighted.
I know the article is about Australia but every country is facing the same drastic climate issues.
Wake up America nothing is free!
A lot of us in northern California feel the same. Every fall I feel very anxious. I don’t like being in the mountains in the fall. I look at the dense foliage around nearby freeways and cringe. Communities like Montclair that are in the woods no longer look inviting they look ominous.
11
It will be interesting to monitor the aftereffects of this
catastrophe within Australian media to get a sense of
how many of those who had been indifferent to carbon and climate change now "get it" vs. how many remain skeptical and look for the types of excuses that murdoch and his enablers began to push out during the fires. How much will economic
based rationalizations distort the national political discussion about containing not only coal burning but also coal exporting?
I'll believe a true new national consensus has emerged when
concrete efforts are made - not promised - to constrain
coal exporting, coal burning, to invest in renewable energy
production, to push utilities to purchase solar power generated by residences selling it back to the grid, to
impose a carbon tax on imports and domestic uses etc. etc.
But I'll be particularly intrigued by the level of pushback
murdoch and co. encounter in their efforts to distract away
from the evident culprit. It can't just got be the environmental
activist community who is responsible for their public evisceration.
9
I wish people would just shut up about Murdoch. There is such paranoia about him controlling the world. Here’s a little secret - he doesn’t and nor does his family. Here’s a second secret - he doesn’t write any of the garbage that appears in his papers or tv stations, he is only interested in making money and his companies do that by targeting gullible people.
1
Yes it has been bad, but, the rains have come and in my part of Australia there is vegetation regrowth and some creeks are beginning to flow. People in small towns all through the fire zones are suffering firstly because of a long drought and now, through the effect of these fires, their livelihoods. What they need most is for the tourism flow to restart - it is the lifeblood of many picturesque, little historic towns. Articles, like this, paint a picture of doom and destruction and go a long way to dissuade local and international tourism. Australia is a land of drought and flooding plains, climate change may be making that more severe at times but it is still a country unlike any other and we are still a great destination for travellers.
7
@Jack C Check in with us next summer.
@Jack C
yeah...right...lets unleash an armada of A-380s and 747s.
It seems to me that if any country on earth needs a professional, large, and very well funded fire service at both state and federal level its Australia.
11
@Milliband
Indeed and since we didn’t have much aid from China, our largest trading partner, we might have to lead China from here. And because American gov’t leadership appears as environmental vandals for at least another year.
Fire not in a camp fire nor burning down a house or some acres of wild land. Fire overwhelming and unstoppable like wind within a tornado, wind and water in a hurricane, flood waters overtopping levees and submerging whole communities, or volcanoes exploding, or releasing lava, or earthquakes leveling building and destroying bridges etc. That is what happens when global climate conditions are changed by global warming. The experience is of overwhelming forces that people can only struggle to survive, beyond that ability of people to bring under control.
That is why trivializing the need to address high concentrations of carbon gases due to man’s activities is not about economic costs verses desirable weather conditions, it’s about preventing events which once triggered are unstoppable and unendurably destructive.
12
@Casual Observer Not true Casual Observer - It's business as usual Down Under.
We've had bush fires since long before European settlement in 1788 & we'll have them again. It's just nature doing what it's always done & nothing that mankind can throw at it is likely to change that any time soon.
We’ve always had fires in California, too. I grew up seeing them near our family home. Very impressive. But the fires we are experiencing now are orders of magnitude greater and more destructive because of global warming.
So Ms. Wallworth went to Davos and appealed to the oligarchy, and their response: the feel good diversion of planting a trillion trees. Not stopping the production and consumption of fossil fuels. Not making the sweeping changes in economy and culture that we must make. We'll see what Australians are really willing to do in their next series of elections. So far, most of the world does not appear to be ready to take the kind of action recommended in this article.
9
Planting trees isn’t merely a diversion. Trees offset the carbon dioxide produced by human activity. There are many different ways to skin a cat.
3
@Ben O yes planting trees is a good idea. Just not the way Trump and the oligarchs are promoting it. Any tree planting should be part of well planned ecosystem restoration projects, not just vague promises. And ecosystem restoration presupposes and end to the ongoing destruction. The Davos elites are not promising that. They're not serious. It's like what the timber companies do up in Oregon and other heavily timbered areas. They leave a thin row of trees along the highways so travellers cannot see the massive clearcuts a few yards back from the roads.
4
If you plant trees in a uniform way you actually help a fire spread - trees drop their seeds and grow in a non-uniform pattern which helps the undergrowth keep moist and gives shade to the animals living there. When you plant trees in long columns and too widely spaced, the undergrowth cannot survive and therefore there will be fewer animals.
Nature does things far better than humans can.
6
This summer is an unfolding horror story for the nation. The ineptitude of Scotty From Marketing to deal with the social, economic impact shows a government bereft of ideas on how to act effectively in the face of a national disaster. Worse this government flatly refuses to acknowledge the link between the coal industry and the global climate emergency. One has to question the logic behind this as the government is constantly gripped by infighting between the climate deniers who are still pushing for more coal fired power generation and the moderates who seek some modicum of change.
The loss of life to both to humans and animals is one of the most disturbing elements of this summer. The loss of peoples homes and livelihoods from the fires is an immense tragedy and will impact the broader economy both directly through loss of regional jobs, higher fresh food costs and shortages and higher household insurance premiums as companies seek to recoup this loses. The health implications for those affected with PTSD and city dwellers who succumbed to infections caused by the smoke are another issue which is still being played out.
And while not connected to the fires the most poignant and stark alert to the unfolding climate emergency and drought in Canberra is the total silence of the Cicadas this summer an event I have never previously encountered in my life.
Clearly this summer has demonstrated that affirmative action in dealing with the climate emergency is required now.
23
@Stephen W those experienced firefighters that were at the fire fronts are saying they've never seen anything like it. Fires causing their own weather systems, 5 states on fire at one time. Fires continuing for months. This is definitely new and not a precedent that we should welcome apathetically.
3
@Paul Not true. Do a little research & you & other's Commenting here will learn we've had many major bush fires, as bad, if not worse than this latest one, with far greater loss of life, in the past. You're all tilting at windmills withs.
Killing the coal industry will do several things:
1. It will destroy more communities than any bush fire.
2. It will raise taxes - to pay for the increase in unemployment.
3. It won’t stop bush fires.
There is no link between digging coal out of the ground and shipping it to another country with the bush fires. However there is a cyclical environment where fires happen every year and some years are worse than others depending on which bits burn every year.
This is nothing new - and Canberra has seen many fires over the decades.
Australia leadership deny science, and accelerate global warming. This decision affects Australia today; tomorrow, everywhere!
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/01/16/australia-the-fires-and-our-future/
12
M On the contrary, if you can get past the paywall, make an effort & read this https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/revive-ancient-skills-to-better-manage-bushfires/news-story/516aff5d4f39c14e2872bb5c7b724ade
for some common sense.
The true problem in Australia and the rest of the World is not the fires, floods, wind, inundation, drought or migration but the cause of these impacts of climate change. Unless the World gets real about an immediate massive reduction in carbon emissions then the current impacts of the climate change virus will only get worse. The impact is in Australia's face Now, soon the virus will be in many others' across the World.
The 99% who are being duped by the greed and self interest of the 1% that control the power and grow their economic gains need to stand up. The 1% control the fossil fuel industries and have no interest in giving up the "wealth" they still see in them. Corruption, lies and duping of the masses are all part of their tactics to retain power and create gross economic gain for themselves.
The likes of Trump and Morrison are not what the World needs. The 99%, whether Republican, Democrat or Independent need to unite against the ugly 1%. The 99% need to be cooperative, not competitive.
19
I was taken aback by the author's description of Australia as being egalitarian. Based on my personal experience l ( time spent to visit family), this is not how I would describe Australia. Sidney is the least diversified city that I have visited in the world. I read Horne's book years ago and his description of the country is spot on. As a side note, I have witnessed residents outside of Sydney shoot Kangaroos because they cross the roads and cause car accidents. This is not to say that these fires aren't devastating and I feel for those people. It was only recently that I learned that Australia's fire department is all volunteer. This is both shocking and sad.
5
@mary barter - dunno where you were in Sydney, it's a pretty big town. In the US only NYC and LA have larger populations. Some facts regarding diversity: 43% of Sydney's population were born o'seas, 38% use a language other than English, 67% have at least one parent who was born overseas.
But you're right about it not being very egalitarian, at least compared to what it was 50 years ago, but that's true of every Anglosphere country, especially the big to my Far East.
Australian urban fire department workers are paid professionals. It's the bush fire fighters, who use different skills and equipment, who are primarily volunteers. As are most surf life savers, as are most of the people who clear fallen trees, put tarps on storm damaged roofs, pull people out of floods etc etc.
2
C02 lasts 1000 years in the atmosphere.
Atmospheric temperature goes up with every increase in C02 (barring particulates from a MAJOR volcanic event).
This from Bloomberg:
"There are dozens of climate models, and for decades they’ve agreed on what it would take to heat the planet by about 3° Celsius. It’s an outcome that would be disastrous—flooded cities, agricultural failures, deadly heat—but there’s been a grim steadiness in the consensus among these complicated climate simulations.
Researchers are starting to put together answers, a task that will take months at best, and there’s not yet agreement on how to interpret the hotter results. The reason for worry is that these same models have successfully projected global warming for a half century. Their output continues to frame all major scientific, policy and private-sector climate goals and debates, including the sixth encyclopedic assessment by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change due out next year. If the same amount of climate pollution will bring faster warming than previously thought, humanity would have less time to avoid the worst impacts."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-03/climate-models-are-running-red-hot-and-scientists-don-t-know-why
7
@Kevin Sorry Kevin, it seems you can't see the forest for the trees. Read that article again in Bloomberg! The clues are right in front of you. The models are running too hot because they are flawed!
Global temperatures are not running away but well within natural fluctuations, the ice caps aren't melting catastrophically & sea level rise is following the normal pattern for many years of 1-3mm annually - nothing to get overly excited about.
Australia is 35% desert, 35% arid or semi-arid with a large percentage of marginal lands vulnerable to desertification. The amount of uninhabitable land will only grow with climate change unabated. The human population will increasingly be pushed out of previously inhabited lands. Australia because of it's location and weather patterns is especially vulnerable to the added load of unchecked climate change.
That sounds bad for Australia's future but the United States is different. Right? Wrong. The U.S. is 30% desert with another 40% vulnerable to desertification in a world of unchecked climate change. The rate at which marginal lands increase due to alterations of lands by human activities compounded by unchecked climate change will only accelerate under our current president's very public position that climate change is a hoax. The President plays the game of short terms profits in exchange for long term damage. Under his leadership the tab for his folly will be picked up by our children.
19
@richard wiesner - there is a major difference between the two - population density. 66% of of Australia's population live in the 8 capital cities. And, 85% live within 50km (30m) of the coast. The US population density is not nearly as concentrated.
If Austraia's population size and distribution was even close to that of the US the mainland would be 80% desert within a decade at most.
3
Having experienced the fires and smoke first hand, and having travelled between Melbourne, Canberra, and Bateman’s Bay on the South Coast, this story seems overly exaggerated.
9
@Michael Barnsley
I live near Batemans bay; You must have been travelling before the firestorm wiped out most of the region.
The article only tiptoes across the topic. For instance rather than the stated 'tens of millions of acres' being decimated, the actual figure is over 1,500 million acres in the state of New South Wales alone, equivalent to almost 10% of the land
surface area.
6
I have trouble understanding why we dig in the ground for energy when we have all the energy we need above our heads.
23
@Lyn Maxwell it's for money motives not energy motives. Coal is able to be exported for money in lumps whereas solar would need batteries or cables to export the electricity overseas for profit.
1
This is just a warning sign, and if Aussie don't wake up to face the inevitable harsh reality, they will not only see their living environment destroyed but their livelihood threatened.
The end is near and it's time to act, adopt and change. don't be like the Mayans....
6
This is tragic and the least surprising news ever.
5
This makes for sensationalist tabloid reading, but hardly based in science. See Bjorn Lomborg's excellent analysis: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/we-dont-have-money-to-burn-on-green-mania/news-story/44a9ad8065392ff2908667d0518ef93f
3
@Matt Andersson how can we read the article without a subscriptio? I suspect The Australian newspaper is part of Murdoch's climate denying media empire.
@Matt Andersson
nice thought but you've pointed us to an article behind an egregious pay wall...care to give us some hightlights?
@Matt Andersson bwahahahha, I wouldn't trust anything published in the Australian. That's not news, it's propaganda.
This just solves itself. Once all the excess trees and bushes are burnt off, Australia will be somewhat more desert-like, but there will also be fewer fires. Less fuel. If it is a bit hotter, there is always air-con, powered by green solar panels. Australia gets lots of sun. And they can also use that green electricity, cheaper every year, to desalinate ocean water. Humans are an innovative, adaptable species. Climate change is just a bump in the road.
I like the positive attitude r a, but this will be a very large bump. The kind that breaks axles and causes flat tires. Best chance for our future is to find a sustainable method of carbon sequestration.
This will have to wait for Trump to exit the White House.
7
@r a
"Humans are an innovative, adaptable species."
Yes, but. Maybe not in our present numbers. And it's not only climate change that's the problem. Consider for example intensive and monocultural food production using pesticides that find their way into other living systems (including us) and wipe out large bee populations. No big deal? We humans on the tiny bee to pollinate the plant life which is this source of much of our food. Add climate change to this toxic environment and, to me, it makes a joke of human invulnerability. We fare complacent when we should be more in panic mode.
15:40 EST, 2/15
12
@r a subtropical rainforest has been burnt for the first time in thousands of years . We are dependent on the cool evaporation of such forests to trigger rainfall. Many species will be driven to extinction by the fires.
Climate change is no bump in the road but is locked in to repeat the temperatures and extreme weather events that we have recently witnessed for decades to come. What's worse is that if we continue emitting carbon at current rates then temperatures will also increase constantly from year to year on top of these locked in conditions .
Whatever may be the truth, the prevailing view in Australia is that climate change is but one factor that is making a longstanding fire problem worse. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has committed to reducing carbon emissions -- but he has also said he would stick to "sensible" policies, and that there wasn't "a single policy, whether it be climate or otherwise," that can completely protect against the fires.
Morrison may be wrong. But the issue raised here concerns the mentality of the Australian people. And that mentality has not radically changed because of this year's terrible fire season.
3
Fire seasons vary widely in severity from year to year. And fires in Australia have been severe pretty much forever. The causes of wildfires are numerous and diverse. Drought is an important cause, which may or not be tied to climate change. An increase in temperature of one degree centigrade in twenty years is of next to no importance. The view that Australia's recent fires are largely about climate change is tendentious at best. Given time, climate change scientists will likely conclude that climate change is one of many causation factors and that its relative importance is pretty much impossible to measure. And when the verdict is in, the notion of a wholesale change of Australia's collective mentality will be rejected as poppycock.
1
@michjas your generalisations and speculations contradict what scientists say linking record breaking droughts, temperatures and fires with climate change, but you will wait in false hope for a different verdict while extreme weather events have not yet affected you.
@michjas Flashpoint of eucalypus oil is below 50 deg C. (eucalyptus trees are the tree in Australia's native forrest) So low infact that a lot of it is transported in diluted form to meet less stringent flammability rules. Hot day 47 degrees flashpoint 50 degC. One degree hotter 48 vs 50 ...tell me the bit about 1 degC not being important again? And then explain the sudden emergence of dry lightning to me. It is a new phenomena possibly caused by friction between layers of smoke and air. But ....naaaa nothings changed (sarcasm alert)
1
Nothing will change in Australia where Rupert Murdoch owns most of the media. Here in the US, Murdoch’s Fox News gives most of its airtime to science deniers. Science denial guarantees that oil and coal barons have no stranded assets. So what if our countries burn, Murdoch and conservatives say.
20
Jumping to conclusions again, blaming climate change, when forest mismanagement was the cause of the extent of the fires.
1
@Plank More vacuums!!
6
Having visited in 2018 many of the areas that burnt this year, it would be interesting to visit Australia in the southern spring (October) to see the new signs of life in the burned out areas.
3
@Thomas McKenna It was already burning in September ...
Until Australians throw out their right wing government, close all their coal mines and stop exporting coal for others to burn, it is difficult to sympathize. Only through the cooperation of all nations can we stop global warming. Australians can not have their cake and eat it too.
18
@TH, until we do the same thing in the USA we can't criticize others. We have a corrupt and ignorant extreme right wing here doing damage to our country everyday. Get rid of all the obstructionists and let's get to work cleaning up their mess again!
13
Economically that would be a disaster for the country - one that has lost many industries over the last decade. Sadly there are far too many people using a cyclops view of the world.
1
@Stephen W So are you saying that your short term economic prosperity supported by selling and burning coal is more important than whether mankind can continue to live on the planet? The US is no better but two wrongs do not make a right.
1
The scenes of Australia are like those of an apocalyptic horror film. It is well past time to take action. We all need to think about the environment in every decision we make. As for leaders, Morrison and other climate change deniers must go, not just in Australia, but everywhere. We have the opportunity to rid ourselves of our own Denier in Chief and elect a true environmentalist. We must do that, otherwise we are all doomed.
21
The Times' view of Australia's conservative government is the same as its view of most conservative governments -- they are out of touch with the people. The Times tells us that the conservative leadership in Australia, as in other countries with conservative leaders, has little to do with popular opinion. If my newspaper told me that the vast majority of the people consistently disagreed with their conservative governments, I would ask myself whether its reporting was tainted by liberal wishful thinking.
5
https://au.news.yahoo.com/firie-paul-parker-slammed-scott-morrison-drinks-for-free-071851272.html
https://au.news.yahoo.com/firie-paul-parker-slammed-scott-morrison-drinks-for-free-071851272.html
Yeah nah. The above events pretty much sum up the mood of the nation right now.
My in-laws have been staunchly conservative forever. They’re now annoyed by inaction and blaming the conservative government.
It’s not biased reporting. It’s just reporting.
6
What are you doing about climate change?? Buying less petrol, buying less stuff, using less plastic? Start Now! Then you can look your children in the eye when they ask you what you did about their future.
16
Finally a sensible comment - so many people blame the Government for their own behaviours.
@Stephen W
Thanks Stephen W. There is no political leadership anywhere for citizens about what they can do to help, so it really is up to each individual one of us to take action.
1
Australia turns out to be the poster child for not avoiding global warming. Somewhere had to be. Is anyone watching and responding? Unlikely.
6
What we need is leadership. What we need are politicians prepared to think beyond their own self interest but the interest of the nation and the world we occupy.
What we get is completely the reverse. This has generally been the state of politics but the new factors that have doubled down on this are the denigration of scientists and scientific knowledge, and the use of the internet as a tool for sewing misinformation and confusion. Again, politicians are complicit where they think it is advantageous to them.
Is it any wonder that the 71 yr old fellow said “I just don’t understand what these climate change people want.” When fed misinformation all our heads state spinning.
But if we are to change our economy and the way we live all people will have to be taken on the journey. From city workers to those working in coal mines. What we need is an overarching 'climate change' strategy that will deliver benefits to all. And yes, coal mines and power plants will have to close but in an orderly way and with hope for those that see their jobs disappearing.
Now there is a challenge for our governments. Sadly we have too few leaders of stature.
22
Nature becomes more of a meme than a memory as it is destroyed.
People who grew up in nature feel it, throughout their lives.
For others, it's just a story.
122
@me The most heartbreaking thing for me is that the innocent wildlife is what suffers the most for the greed and follies of humanity.
326
American Kids know more corporate logos than species that live around or near them. I am so glad I grew up a long time ago.
22
@Rich - Yeah, but please don't forget me and mine. We may not be wildlife per se but we're as exposed to the stupidities as well. What happens to those who are the greedy and willing dupes, that's their own fault and whatever malodorous consequence it brings them, they've only themselves to blame and i have no sympathy, no empathy, no -pathy for them whatsoever. I'd go to the cops and accuse them of attempted manslaughter, my slaughter, if the law would support it.
They've earned that lack of care from me by showing the same lack of consideration for others, but i understand why they are as they are. Someone in another times article's comments described it perfectly using an upton sinclair quote; "“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” I wonder if they even truly understand why they are as they are.
6
Australia’s conservative Morrison government continues to downplay the importance of climate change in the face of this apocalyptic summer simply because they are corruptly in the pocket of the coal industry lobby.
16
We do not have to give up. Fortunately technology is already here to get all of us cleaner, and save money while doing it. The cheapest power available to utilities now is PV or wind plus battery storage, at under 2 cents/kWh daytime and 3.1 cents/kWh at night, a price no coal or gas or nuclear plant can match.
Chinese manufacturing plants have found it cheaper to supply their own PV-generated power than buy the subsidized power from the government.
My own household and electric cars are powered by the PV solar system on our roof, and paid back in three years in gasoline savings alone. We now get free house and horsepower, and are quiet and clean. It was unexpected by me, a former utility engineer.
Just do it yourself, in the best practical way, the most effective way, . . but do it.
11
Not having one child is the equivalent of never driving your entire life.
5
"What many of us have witnessed this fire season feels alive and monstrous."
This closely echoes a feeling I expressed earlier this southern summer to a Swedish friend who wrote to ask how we were getting along here in Geelong, Victoria. I told him that except for several days of eye-burning, sun-obscuring smoke haze (>200km from the nearest fires in Gippsland), we were personally unaffected, but I nevertheless felt as if a monstrous presence was stalking the land, everywhere and nowhere at once. I compared it to how I felt more than a decade ago, working in a hospital in Namibia, in southern Africa. Then the beast lurking just outside one's field of vision was the synergistic plague of HIV and tuberculosis. Here and now in Australia, the beast is climate change.
340
@Aaron Walton Yes. Keep writing.
17
@Aaron Walton For China, the beast is the corona virus, Covid-19.
The year is still young. Somehow I feel there might be more beast in 2020. Hope it is wrong.
13
Missing from this article is that local right-wing TV, largely owned by Rupert Murdoch, has been reporting that these fires are caused by arson, not climate change. Murdoch misinformation is echoed by conservative politicians. And large segments of Australian voters accept these falsehoods as "fact."
Australia is where Murdoch invented his technique of dividing society with media bubbles or silos. From Australia, he brought it to Great Britain, and then to the United States.
I would cheer if things changed in Australia. But I am not holding my breath.
961
@stephen beck
No Rupert still dominates much of the media here- not just The Australian but most local outlets like the Adelaide Advertiser. He is still a major player here. Apologies from Australia for the catastrophic damage Fox has done to the USA where he has been a big player in attacking your democracy through supporting Trump.
I disagree with Stephen in the above comment. Murdoch outlets have for years downplayed climate change in all this.. perhaps a little less this year because the calamity was so much in our face in an obvious inescapable difficult to breathe way.
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@Bob Guthrie
Apologies to Stephen whom I agree with. I was disagreeing with Simon.
23
@Simon You underestimate the role the Murdoch empire is playing in Australian (and American) politics. Their media enterprises are only one of the ways they influence public policy. They also manipulate Australian (and American) politics directly. Lachlan Murdoch is responsible for the conservative party replacing its leader with Scott Morrison. Murdoch engineered this replacement because Morrison's predecessor was perceived as getting soft on the government's refusal to do anything constructive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and replace fossil fuels with renewal energy sources. This story was told in detail by NY Times in early 2019.
100
When major fires sweep through, they do more than maintain an ecology. They can change it. However, there is still a new ecology.
What is it here? What will emerge? It clearly won't be just more of what burned. That is gone. That won't regrow just the same. The new climate won't allow it.
However, that means that the major fires won't recur either. They happen, then the ecology changes to something else. Then the same fire can't happen.
I'm not saying the new ecology is better or worse, acceptable or unacceptable. I'm just saying something new arrived with such major fires. Those trees and growth are gone now. They can't just regrow for decades of no-fire.
That also means that the smoke is a one time thing. It burned. There was smoke. Then what burned is gone, and the fire and smoke are gone too.
Climate change is real. But it means that the climate changes. It does not mean the old climate comes back each year, and changes again each year. It just changed. One and done.
3
@Mark Thomason In Ireland olive trees are now thriving and egrets are nesting along the shores. Olive trees are Mediterranean, Egrets from Egypt Pakistan etc.
Neither were here in my childhood. The signs are clear
14
@Mark Thomason -- for some reason I think there is value in humanity trying to minimize the creation of desert and savannah where there had been forest.
The smoke of bush fires would likely be replaced by the smoke of frequent grassland fires - it is not a one-time thing. Or there wouldn't be enough to burn. How many people will be able to live in a land where things do not grow unaided?
1
The sign is that no one thought to grow olives in Ireland before now. It has a perfect climate for olives - I was raised on the other side of the Irish Sea in a farming community where many crops were grown that might not have been “the norm” however that is how a farmer survives.
2
“The first thing the government needs to do is run the economy,”
Sigh. With his country being consumed by infernos all he cares about is the economy. If he was in danger of starving this would be understandable but he ain't. What's he worried about? Not being able to afford a newer car? A bigger TV?
Yes he got on board with the rhetoric relayed to him by the reporter. But when a right-wing politician tells him that any actual action will harm the economy will he be steadfast? Or will he crumble?
13
@Jack Toner This fellow Oaklander agrees with you. The Economist did one of their comprehensive special reports about Australia about a year ago. It said that Australians have one of the lowest tax rates in the developed world and their wages are among the highest. I spent a month in Australia in April 2019. I didn't see any evidence of the extreme poverty that we see here in Oakland every day. And they don't have the extreme income equality that we have. They really have nothing to complain about.
7
It's ignorance, Jack. Our educations in science do not keep up with emotional appeals from politicians, businessmen, hucksters and others with more selfish objectives.
Having earned an MS in this field in 1982, I fear we have already gone past the tipping point, with the outgassing of the permafrost, which we cannot stop.
But we must try, . . all of us individually.
3
The planet has been warming in fits and starts since the ice began melting at the end of the last ice age. (DNA analysis shows I am descended from residents of Doggerland, an area of land, now submerged beneath the southern North Sea, that once connected Britain to mainland Europe.)
A study titled "Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises” stablished that abrupt climate changes, as well as gradual climate changes, are natural phenomena that occur with or without human activity. The New York Times noted, “Large, abrupt climate changes have affected hemispheric to global regions repeatedly, as shown by numerous paleoclimate records,” the report said, and added that “changes of up to 16 degrees Celsius and a factor of 2 in precipitation have occurred in some places in periods as short as decades to years.” The term “paleoclimate” refers to climate changes that occurred long before humans evolved.
Reducing carbon emissions is a worthy goal. It may slow climate change, but it will not stop climate change. We need to focus on strategies to adapt to an ever-changing climate.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/opinion/sunday/science-climate-change.html
3
@William Case Kind of a fallacy here Bill. Yes, there obviously is non-anthropogenic climate change but it happens over long periods of geologic time. Fossil fuel burning atmospheric carbon induced climate change is happening over a much shorter period of time, less than a century. We have a global society that's finely tuned to the climate we have. Disrupting that is not necessarily a good thing.
5
@William Case
One small problem with a focus on adaptation, from NASA's former lead climate scientists James Hansen in 2013.
“Burning all fossil fuels, we conclude, would make most of the planet uninhabitable by humans, thus calling into question strategies that emphasize adaptation to climate change.”
It's not easy to adapt to no food or water, and that's the situation we're on track for for much of the human population.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsta.2012.0294
4
@Cicero
The study says the opposite. It cited numerous episodes if rapid regional and global climate changes as well as long-term climate change.
More than a few comments on here full of hate towards Europeans and Western society. We are imperfect, but should we return to the ways of yore, with streets full of animal waste, untreated water, no sewage systems, no utilities? There is no question Global Warming needs action now, but all this anti-Western and anti-European sentiment, which is too prevelant, needs to stop, as it does not help, other than to engender hate.
10
@Washington Reader You are totally correct and sensible but these knee ultra left lunatics will not listen to reason I am 64 years old shudder what the world will be like in the future
2
@Washington Reader - you know what else would be helpful? An end to the preposterous notion that replacing dirty, polluting fuels that also are changing our climate in dangerous ways is somehow equivalent to plunging us back into a dirty, dangerous past.
I buy my electricity from a source that buys all the power they sell from windfarms. My lights light (and they're LEDs, so I save a ton of money vs. the older incandescents). My computer and internet work.
I'll be redoing my kitchen soon, since the appliances that were here when I bought are nearing their useful end. I'm going to replace the fridge with a more efficient one, but the food will stay cold. The dishwasher will be one of the new very efficient ones, and I'm now convinced it is less wasteful than handwashing everything. And it will be quiet so I'll run it at night, avoiding peak hours and the extra generation capacity peak use imposes.
I'm going to replace the gas oven and stove with electric, so I'll be cooking with windpower instead of a powerful greenhouse gas. The food will cook.
YOU go back to a dirty dangerous past if you want. But it isn't what society needs to do. We need to clean up our act. Germans use far less energy than we do here, yet their standard of living is very nice.
3
@Washington Reader A straw man argument if I've ever heard one. The choices aren't between doing nothing and reverting to medieval times. It's between ignoring the problem / denying there even is a problem (Trump and the vast majority of the Republican party) and making a solid effort to start addressing the problem.
4
The very fact that the lede was more comprehensive than any I've read at the NYT speaks to the riches of the article itself. This is journalism as it should be...tough, specific, illuminating, and, that rarest of things, helpful.
Australia is the perfect petri dish to examine both denial and the ravages of climate crisis (not change, crisis) for the very reasons limned here. Its government has been exceptionally lax and even indifferent to the coming storm which is now ravaging its shores.
That famous tendency to shrug and smile is being put to the test. Several years ago, when these fires were still seen as seasonally routine even though there were signs that they were turning dire, the New Yorker had an article about the dozens killed when they refused to evacuate. The detail that gutted me was that one house had several dead adults, all piled on top of each other covering a new born baby, also dead. I think that season became a game-changer for many, but unfortunately not for those in power.
It's very clear that the deniers who want to silence us are the problem. Stating that boldly is part of the solution. It's time, globally, we simply ignored them and carried on with the business of survival. For decades they have been, not a tin can, but a boulder tied to the hope for survival.
Australia's famously unique history offers the hope that this gritty country, one composed of those exiled from another, can muster the heart, energy and skill to tackle it. They must.
4
These devastating fires have demonstrated that climate change is upon us. The authors describe well the seismic changes that need to happen and that reasonable people can get behind. We do not have time to wait for the "leaders" for they are held captive by money and greed.
4
Drivel, he needs to get out of Sydney more often, like most Australians, they know next to nothing about the country or its animals. The only operative function since humans arrived is what's in it for us? The current Federal government issued oil drilling permits at the height of the bushfires, & the NSW government just allowed the completely unsustainable cotton growing non industry, to capture & use the runoff rainwater, to the detriment of major agricultural areas & the other inhabitants along the Murray-Darling. Naturally the cotton growers are big friends of, & donors to, the ruling conservatives. The country has always overgrazed the land, over used its water & it's timber. Australia is currently the worlds largest coal exporter & hence a considerable party to the climate catastrophe. Their response has been to forge ahead with coal mining & natch, to deny climate change. Could the longest drought in recorded history be connected to global warming, or the fires, in the worlds driest country? Of course not, left wing rubbish. The result is massive desertification, the worlds greatest coral reef in terminal decline, its largest river, aforementioned Murray-Darling, essentially running dry. A very small fraction of Australians do indeed love the country & what it contains, but they are constantly marginalized & vilified by the exploiters. The continued support of coal exports & upgrading of coal fired electricity plants during the fires tells you all you need to know.
21
It’s insane isn’t it?
One must really wonder if humans are the most insane species to ever live. We knowingly destroy our future. What other species does or has done this?
We decided we existed above nature and look what it had led to. The animals suffer for what we do, not Christ.
392
@Jurassic knockabout "The only operative function since humans arrived is, what's in it for us?" Although Australia's aboriginal peoples were infinitely more respectful of the land and its animals, than the Europeans who brought themselves and livestock over relatively recently. It is agonizing to see how wildlife has been so fecklessly destroyed since then.
7
@Lulie In my opinion, the belief in a God Father in Heaven and a Savior Christ who will return and bring the good to heaven is part of the disconnect. It is separate from the here and now of this beautiful material world, a disconnect from the great mother Earth that feeds us all.
Unless we get back to earth-based knowledge and away from disconnected religious beliefs and patriarchy, in my opinion, we're doomed.
6
In 2013 I had the good fortune to be in a forum with a dedicated, well-informed, well-meaning Congressperson with no reporters or cameras. I asked, Will there ever be a Federal response to climate change? ...The answer was, “No. It would take an unmistakable, unimaginable catastrophe for us to act on what we know is true.”
It’s coming to the USA. I just wonder what and when - and No, we aren’t going to do anything as lovely Australia and our friends the Australians burn and suffer.
4
Japan is building massive coal fired electric power plants to replace its disgraced nuclear energy industry. Where do you think Japan is going to buy the megatons of coal to burn? If you said from Australia give yourself a cookie. The Australian coal barons are at the forefront of destroying our planet and the good people from Down Under are helpless to stop them.
14
By supporting and using coal for energy sources these poor souls are wiping out their society. It is sad they can’t see the relationship . My prayers go out to them.
4
I lived in Canberra in the late 1980's and Australians showed themselves to be an inherently forward-thinking society (and making great music). The role of the negative and relentless influence of the Murdoch media empire cannot be understated in the distortion of democracy that has lead to the physical and mental ruin of Australia. The same can be said about the Murdoch influence in the United States. I said it then and I say it now, the Murdoch empire is evil and needs to be destroyed.
13
Steve, the Murdoch media was very much alive in Australia in the late 80s. The difference is we had a stable Labor government, and this was before the internet era.
1
I have a three-year-old grandson and a nephew who is about 12. Both will grow up in a world ravaged by climate change. The father of the nephew voted for Trump, a man who denies climate change is happening and believes that it is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. I am not holding my breath for Australia nor for the USofA.
11
"With officials in New South Wales announcing that heavy rain had helped them finally extinguish or control all the fires that have raged this Australian summer, the country seems to be reflecting and wondering what comes next."
Floods are coming next.
Wake up Earthlings of the human species. This is everyone's problem. What are you doing to remedy this crisis? Drive less, fly less, eat less meat and dairy, buy less. In a word: simplify. In another word: vote. As if your life depended on it. Because it does.
11
For a year after California’s many large wildfires, seeing the same Apocalyptic picture day after day across the pages of the LA Times of a burned out Malibu estate I had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that my neighborhood not far away in Pasadena was still just fine. We often seem to forget what’s still right, granted the headline here this morning was of yet another drought after last year’s record deluge. All this talk of Apocalypse is probably more destructive psychologically than it actually physically happening. Nice of us to do God’s dirty work for him.
1
The End of Australia as we know it, I think not!!! This has been going on for decades!
Brush fires, hail storm, even the Christchurch earthquake is not cause for doom and gloom.
3
@ George Alright sir, perhaps fires have been occurring for decades. Have they become less in destruction ? Has the drought improved over the decades, is there more water in the rivers, are the storms and the runoff after fires less over these same decades ?
2
To put it in terms that perhaps many of the climate deniers here in the States (such as Trump and many of his supporters) are likely to understand: The climate deniers are like Noah’s neighbors looking at the boat he is loading with animals and and saying he is crazy. Well, folks, the rains have started. Are you going to get on board?
5
Just like in California for some reason they decided not to control underbrush or allow controlled burning. Add in some deranged arsonists and you get this. It’s not man made climate change, it’s man made dumbassery created by “so called” environmentalists.
1
@ Joseph. Just like Trump, it is never my fault, it is always someone else.
2
@JOSEPH
I am sure you believe your evidence is impeccable. However, living here in California and knowing people who are long time state fire fighters, the evidence they provide directly contradicts what you have said here. Controlled burns on underbrush do take place, when and where it is safe to do so. Unfortunately, those times are becoming much rarer in the era of climate change. The majority of the major fires in my part of the state have been caused by high winds (caused, in part by climate change) combined with lack of inspection of power lines, resulting in poor maintenance by a private company (PG&E), which allowed sizable sparks to fly during high wind conditions, following dry summers (which are not a good time for a controlled burn around here).
The fact that PG&E is in financial trouble, which has led to their not doing the maintenance, is mostly due to the poor inspection and maintenance they did on a natural gas pipeline in San Bruno, which erupted into flame, mostly destroying a sizable chunk of a neighborhood. This resulted in sizable fines and payments required by lawsuits against the company. An I am fairly sure, you would sue such a company if your home and some of your family were destroyed in a fire like the San Bruno pipeline fire.
So, the "dumbassery" was not created by "environmentalists", but by corporate greed.
p.s. - Burying electrical lines is not a good alternative. The region is not flat and prone to earthquakes...
4
@JOSEPH - read the following article in its entirety. Lightning is principle cause, not arson, except in one state.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-11/australias-fires-reveal-arson-not-a-major-cause/11855022
Do you suppose years of extreme drought, drying the ground and the plants, might have had an impact on allowing moist, tropical forest to burn? Do you suppose record-breaking heat might have raise the temperature of fuels?
Quote from Dec 19, 2019: "The nation endured its hottest-ever day on Tuesday, but that record was smashed again on Wednesday - which saw an average maximum of 41.9C (107.4F)."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50837025
The article also says: "Nullarbor, also in southern Australia, reached the scorching temperature of 49.9C."
I'll do the conversion for you. That temperature is 122°F.
This isn't normal, this isn't arson, this isn't failure to rake their forests.
5
Unfortunately, the one on one personal experience of altering climate change seems to be the only thing that might change people's minds. As the world continues to be devoured, inept politicians and ignorant people are willing to allow what is increasingly obvious continue to be ignored during this shrinking window of time which is exposing the future of our planet. Scientists have said for years that Australia is ground zero for climate change, but their will to not be proactive is astonishing. Sadly it's really not a whole lot different anywhere else in the world. Being the first to admit the reality of climate change is the hardest and so far no country has stepped forward. Amazingly I still don't think Australia has what it takes to become the first no matter what this article might hope for.
2
I feel lucky that I am old.
I will probably die before the end of earth comes because of climate change and overpopulation. There are limits to growth and how much abuse the earth can take before exploding.
7
"The world refuses to address it", they are incapable of addressing it, they have no idea how to fix it so why bother. The only entity that will fix it and has promised to do so is our Creator. He made the Earth he alone has all the answers to address this and all the problems plaguing humankind. Im done supporting people as rulers, enough of it all. Soon it will all come to an end including all of the devastation of this planet.
So now travel to Australia is off the bucket list. I feel sad like I did 15 years ago when I learned from the Times that it was too late to visit Alaska due to climate change. And just last week, I had to cross out Manila and California because the Times report on rising sea levels. Guess my traveling days are over with the rapidly expanding Times travel black list.
@Rick
For as much as we wish it to be otherwise, if one's vacation plans involve getting on a jet it is probably best to find an alternative.
The good news is that for most people there are plenty of alternatives.
We are all the perpetrators and the victims of climate change. What cannot be tolerated are climate change deniers. They deny the science and the evidence of it. Vote them all out of office no matter in which country they reside. Save our planet.
9
Mate, you reap what you sow. Australia has extracted enormous amounts of coal and continues to do so. What do you think will happen to a confined space (earth’s atmosphere) when you continually add heat-absorbing molecules? Moreover, what do you think will happen to vulnerable environments? Pull your denying heads out of the Australian sand beaches and change your ways.
3
Is it time for Trump to confront Australia that they need to rake their forests, that it's their own fault?
3
"For months on end, driving through these areas, where tourism, agriculture, retirement and bohemian living all meet for flat whites at the local cafe, has meant checking reports for closed roads and wondering if the thick clouds of smoke in the distance mean immediate danger."
Okay, I give up. What on earth are "flat whites"?
@KT
"A flat white is a coffee drink consisting of espresso with microfoam (steamed milk with small, fine bubbles and a glossy or velvety consistency). It is comparable to a latte, but smaller in volume and with less microfoam, therefore having a higher proportion of coffee to milk, and milk that is more velvety in consistency – allowing the espresso to dominate the flavour, while being supported by the milk."
Isn't Wikipedia wonderful?
3
A 2008 study found that in Australia about 85% of fires were triggered by human activity - this includes arson, but also carelessness or recklessness.
According to Australia's National Centre for Research in Bushfire and Arson, 13% of bushfires every year are deliberate and 37% are suspicious.
In the US state of California, 95% of wildfires are started by people - 7% of those by arson - according to Cal Fire, the state's fire service.
(SOURCE: BBC.COM)
-----------------------------------
Looks like the Climate adherents are running out of ideas and want to blame everything on Climate Change.
Forest Fires can contribute to Climate change because burning wood releases trapped CO2, not the other way around.
Lightning Storms are major phenomenon in Australia and account for about 15% of all fires.
It will be useful if the Extinction Rebels propagated facts rather then fanciful myths.
@PiSonny -- gee, unless droughts actually moisten the ground and make plants less likely to burn, and unless temperatures well above 100 actually cool down fuels and make it harder to ignite them, I'd say that facts show that every trigger of a single fire is going to keep getting more likely over time.
That is because of the simple rule of thumb that's upheld by observation. Dry areas will tend to increased temperatures and increased risk of longer droughts. Australia is already the driest continent.
Please notice that you accidentally propagated a fact when you noted that fires contribute CO2. That's the gas that is causing most of the heating of the planet right now. But the bulk of the CO2 every single year is not from fires, or volcanoes or from people opening a can of soda. It's from fossil fuel use. Along with all the other types of pollution fossil addiction inflicts on us, it also is the principal cause of climate change.
4
Murdoch is responsible for so much since he started his propaganda projects. Why people believe his “news sources” I will never understand. Is it bc it is easier to deny than deal w reality? Now, Australia has no choice and it may be too late.
3
It is time to start taking names.
I will not let the Deniers forget what they have done to us.
4
Less people=Less climate change
The 3rd rail no one will talk about.
2
We are now reconsidering summer plans in Tahoe after dealing with years of fires. Tragic.
For many centuries, our climate has relied on the steady zonal flow, west to east, of our jet streams to distribute warmth from the equatorial region to the rest of the planet. In just the last five years this reliable distribution has gone completely haywire due to the warming of the planet. The steady zonal flow is no more, and like the egg dropped on the floor, there is no putting it back together again.
The jet has weakened sufficiently so that when it meets a low or front it will split forcing it to go either north or south - anywhere but east. This disruption has even caused the jet to reverse it's direction and head west. This westward movement, once rare, is now an everyday event.
It's one thing to quote articles about change. It's another thing to see these changes right in front of you.
Should you wish to view this sorrowful event, go here: https://climatereanalyzer.org/wx/DailySummary/#t2max
Click on Jetstream Wind Speed and then click on the globe to move around west to east. Instead of a nice steady wave you will see the jet streams stopping in their tracks and doubling back. Because the streams are weakened they are forced to act in ways unheard only a short five years ago. So what do we have? Chaos. And what will we continue to have? You got it.
3
No worries, mate. Everything will soon be forgotten with a few beers and Murdoch propaganda on TV.
6
Governments and establishment media - in Australia and in democracies elsewhere - tend to tell stupid, weak people what they want to hear. The underlying assumption/perception is that such people rule and must be pandered to and protected from threats to their delusional self images. That perception of society by its rulers may be correct or not, I don't know. But if it doesn't change soon, there is significant risk that the species is doomed, perhaps soon enough to be clearly seen from the end of my grandchildren's lives. That risk is not being managed intelligently.
Trump will scold the Australians for not sweeping the forest floor.
4
The End of Australia as We Know It...
Odd. I don’t feel fine....
2
Hubis + myopia = sayonara, homo sapiens.
Tho' our demise will be slow (in human terms, an eye-blink in planetary terms), painful and nasty, it won't matter a whit to the ongoing process of Creation. Energy is transformable but immutable.
"The Tree People are not aware of our presence. They will not miss us when we're gone."
The Aussies have their own version of our Republican party and they are just as doomed as us. Them, the UK and the USA make quite a team.
4
Australia has the biggest coal mine in the world and nobody in the Australian government is going to shut down that money maker. My friend said to me about global warming , "it's just a part of earth's natural cycle". He's a businessman and I am an engineer. Two different mentalities. A businessman is about making money while an engineer is about solving problems. The twain shall never meet. His attitude makes me shudder. It's blind and stupid but he is still my friend.
5
I have a music video here that says it all, called Planet on Fire. Yes, it is cathartic to express my frustration and dismay at this climate crisis, but -- may it inspire people to action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLitKWkqop4
The primary cause of the fires in Australia this year was not climate change but forest management policies.
"The green agenda is exacerbating Australia's wildfire problem"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/04/green-agenda-exacerbating-australias-wildfire-problem/
primary cause? I know I shouldn't respond to posts trying to trigger progressives but really ....the greens policies are reported incorrectly in conservative press and besides there are very few locations where greens are actually in power. If there wasn't enough backburning done it's probably because it's only safe in winter, costs money or a reles heavily on volunteers
1
The failure of Aussie political leadership on climate change can be directly attributed to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp control of news media, and their iron grip on political life.
Same story in the USA and the UK.
It’s also worth pointing out the 2nd largest shareholder of News Corp is/was a Saudi “royal” prince. Do the math.
The greatest challenge on climate change, and indeed any functional democracy, is the wide scale dissemination of fake news, through conventional propaganda outlets like News Corp, and more modern social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter that have been co-opted by foreign psych-ops warfare units such as Russia, China, North Korea and Isis.
5
Right-wingers worldwide have learned that when considering overwhelming issues like global warming, ignorance is bliss. The idea among the practitioners of Fox-like propaganda is to keep the masses ignorant and distracted with shiny conspiracy theories. Ongoing natural disasters are fodder for the propaganda machinery. Submergence of major coastal cities will be the same and/or will be blamed on Nancy Pelosi and the vile Democratic assault on the Antarctic ice sheet with thousands of hair dryers. Don’t worry. Be happy.
2
I suggest to the good people of Australia that if their government continues to support policies that are actually, literally, killing them, they take the necessary steps to replace the government
4
If Australians can just hold out a bit longer before their continent becomes unlivable, Antarctica will open up for human habitation. Perhaps we could allow Australians first dibs on the settlement of Antarctica. It'll be just like Norway down there.
1
Australia will produce climate.refugees soon, I hope the world remembers that before we.admit them to our countries, we will house them first in offshore islands behind barb wire while we process their applications,
what goes around comes around
4
Wait, Australia is still a country? I thought it was a remote mining outpost for China.
9
“A country rooted in egalitarianism” - Australia is one of the few countries that can match the U.S. in the wanton genocide of the original inhabitants. Aussies may fancy themselves as egalitarian, but the word you’re looking for is “delusional.”
6
This article is very reminiscent of that great 1959 movie “On the Beach”, where the effects of the holocaust finally come to Australia - but in the 21st century version, it comes to them first. And in both cases, it’s man made! There is no Gregory Peck or Tony Perkins coming to save the land down under: instead we have Donald Trump, and his oil billionaire sponsors. And those in power in Australia are beholden to the same poisoned sources.
4
Stop buying American and Chinese stuff until we start driving smaller cars and dump the coal power. Our two nations are the world's main vendors of stuff. Stop buying that stuff, we'll cave.
3
Who else thought of the fatalism of Nevil Shute's "On The Beach"?
It will probably last until the pols and coal magnates and press lords, and the comelier of their toadies, escape to their boltholes across the Tasman, or British Columbia, leaving a ruined land to rebuilt itself.
What's sad is that my comment on this article is only the second one. This is just more evidence that we in the U.S. are comfortably numb regarding climate change.
1
The original inhabitants thrived for 40,000 years. It took white Europeans 200 to burn the place to the ground.
4
We have had record fires in recent years in the boreal forest covering the entire subarctic in Canada. They are also having them in Siberia. When, not if, those return and burn for months on end, the result will be globally catastrophic in terms of the same thing that has hit Australia. Only it will be bigger. So what does our government and its corporate masters in Canada and Russia want to do? Build more pipelines, mine more oil sands, frack for more gas. Its a world on the verge of committing suicide. And for 'leadership' in many places we have nothing better than ignorant and obstinate mob bosses.
5
Planet Earth would have been better off if America, its predatory capitalism and pseudo-democracy had never been born.
2
@FilmMD Yes, we're aware of what New Yorkers think of America.
We all know it always gets back to bribery and the vile oil companies make it a point to bribe every single politician regardless of the party or country, again we all know this but our media is too chicken just to write it down in plain English.
Australia suffers the same fate as America due to naïveté. Trade with China is suicide. The greatest military expansion of a spy-driven ruthless dictatorship which hates Americans and Australians is paid for by Americans and Australians. Wake up. You can be sure the Chinese who now run Australia will not spend money to save a foreign land’s climate
3
When it comes to climate change, the "convicts" are still running the place in Australia. Here in the U.S. when it comes to climate change we actually have neo-Nazi nominally in charge, a white racist who has based his political career on enabling fossil fuel barons, be they foreign or domestic. Most people reading this know the science of climate change. Instead of just describing what is happening in Australia and California regarding the fires, give us a comparison of the political leadership, who support continued use of fossil fuels in the face of these disasters. Your convicts versus our fascists: what are the similarities and deliberate look-the-other-way denials of the science. Even for readers used to seeing this, the look the other way of our Republicans in the Senate over overtly criminal activity by Trump was startling. Siding with Exxon-Russian climate change denial from the beginning was a big part of this.
2
Just got back from 7 weeks in Australia. Everybody take a knee. The Aussies are all over this. They debate just as vigorously but with more local knowledge. They’ve got it.
75
@Angus Scully Afraid I don't find your empty assertion to be reassuring. You say they've got "it". What are they going to do about "it"?
21
@Angus Scully
I also just returned from a month in Tasmania and Victoria- and you’re wrong.
Everyone should not take a knee.
Australia is the largest exporter of coal in the entire world. 37.8% comes from them alone.
We are all linked to this.
We outsiders may not be helpful in doling out our opinions, this is true. - Because Australia does have a very unique climate that we don’t quite understand, and they have a 30 year history of looking at the problem they are in. And they don’t need people telling them how foolish they are. Money and greed will create fools anywhere.
Ask yourself if you knew that most homes outside of the city have rainwater collection tanks- and that this is their only source of water (drinking, bathing, toilet)? Some have 2-3 tanks and if there’s no rain they have to pay thousands to have them refilled.
Parts of the continent have been under perpetual drought for 30 years, other areas on a 7 yr. drought and others a 4 yr drought. There is no part of Australia that doesn’t have some sort of drought.
They do controlled burns of overgrowth during certain times of the year. They need to do this during cooler temperatures and wetter conditions so as to control how the fire spreads.
these fire departments say the window of time to do this is getting smaller and smaller because of the increase in temperature and changes in season behavior.
This is a whole world problem. Please start making energy conservation a part of your daily life!
47
@Jack Toner, well unlike here at least it's being openly and seriously discussed. Here the right wing policymakers dismiss climate change altogether as fake news. Shame on them all for this and for so much more damage they continue to do.
12
Scientists and the Inuits from North America, first notice the earth’s axis changed around the time of the Chilean earthquake in 2010. Yet I here nothing about how this change in the earth’s axis has also impacted the weather patterns around the world. More study needs to be considered on this, not just fossil fuels. There are several videos on You Tube that shows the Inuit people describing how their Arctic world has changed due to the change in the earth’s axis.
2
@All American Joe And the alleged scientists? Sounds to me like utter nonsense. The idea that astronomers wouldn't notice this when they are able to pinpoint the exact positions of stars is ridiculous.
Sone 1899 the axis has shifted by 34 feet. Can the Inuit detect this? I really don't see how they could. A shift of 90 degrees would equate to very roughly 6,000 miles, so a shift of 34 feet would very roughly amount to .0001%. Or one in a million. No one can detect that without using instruments.
And, of course, some right-wingers want to use this claim about the Inuit to refute concern about greenhouse gas emission.
1
@All American Joe. Okay another theory on a cause of climate change: an earthquake shifted the earth’s axis. So Joe even if this is true, is there a way that we can shift back this earth axis ? Or would it not be prudent to mitigate the ways we inhabitants of the earth have been increasing the output of CO2 and other gases that are also contributing to the problem.
2
Thanks for the provocative article Damien. As an ex-pat Aussie living in California, it disturbs me to see places I vacationed at while growing up devastated by the effects of climate change. I also realize that California and other US states are living on borrowed time. Australia on the other hand is in a unique position to become a leader in taking necessary albeit drastic action. As a large country with a small population, I believe it can act a lot more decisively on this mega problem than say a country like the US. In 1966 Australia almost overnight converted to the metric system reaping the benefits that this sensible system offers. The US, due to its size and complex infrastructure put the idea into the “too hard” basket.
Following the horrific Port Arthur massacre in 1996, Australia as a nation under a conservative prime minister, enacted sensible gun control measures which have help prevent mass shootings ever since. This took only a matter of months to debate and enact.
Australians with their generally laid back attitudes have shown that they can act decisively when the need is urgent.
5
Climate change is real, and it can bring chaos. But discussions about “what to do” usually try to over extend an unwarranted determinism to everything that might be attributed to climate change. We need to get to negative carbon emissions. How many of you are willing to give up driving, especially in Southern California where I live?
The way we recover from disaster, fire being a familiar here and Australia, needs to be addressed. We need different kinds of buildings, water use, plant use and transportation. We need to consider what types of growth foster more needless consumption and what kinds foster healthier local ecology. Humans have always been rapacious consumers of land and animals. There are better and healthier ways of living that do not limit freedom, but in fact extend it. Find and champion those solutions and stop trying to find someone else in Western society to blame. Doing so is analogous to pretending that there is no benefit to being white historically speaking. We have all benefited from fossil fuels and rampant growth. Now we need to find a new way and new ways to build the consensus the author seeks.
@Pomeister So we shouldn't blame anyone even though there is a well organized and very well funded campaign against doing anything about the problem?
You write "Humans have always been rapacious consumers of land and animals". But many human groups have learned, perhaps the hard way, to live sustainably. Our modern, western society has many pluses but it is a more rapacious consumer than any before it.
And those who are on top today do not want to change, with a few notable exceptions.
I get what you're saying, that demonizing those who have bought into the lying propaganda won't get them to respond positively. But I do believe we have to call out the propagandizers.
1
Recently from David Griggs, former head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Science Working Group Secretariat, in a conversation with four Australian climate scientists frankly discussing what it is like to live with their knowledge and where they are relocating their families to to minimize coming impacts:
“I think Australia is the most vulnerable developed country in the world to climate change. . . . I think we are heading to a future with considerably greater warming than 2 degrees [centigrade].
What that means for Australians is that a lot of people will suffer, a lot of people will die.”
Greta Thunberg has gotten a lot of flak, but her simple message, "listen to the scientists" is a sound one.
Particularly sound in a country so vulnerable as Australia to the coming changes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIy0t5P0CUQ&feature=youtu.be&t=211
13
In the last election the pro Fossil Fuel Government was heavily subsidised by Coal interests and the Murdoch Media. Murdoch who owns the vast majority of rural newspapers and media interests in Urban areas is a strong supporter of Australia's Coal and Natural Gas Industry and virulent opponent to Climate Action. There are strong movements at hand presently encouraging Climate Aware people to boycott Murdoch publications and their advertising base. The fact that there are people in rural areas, despite recent events, who still deny Climate Science, illustrate how deep Murdoch's influence goes.
30
I hate to be pessimistic, but I just don’t see anything changing. The oil, gas and coal industries are huge and powerful with an enormous amount of influence over governments. The growing economy will always be the priority. In addition, no one wants to lower their standard of living. We want stuff. Natural disasters will have to be far worse and more frequent before the world will wake up. By then, it will be too late.
17
@Kb I wonder. When it comes to standard of living, I wonder how many people have lost work hours due to the several months of smoke haze blanketting our major cities. I know regional economies have lost many millions of dollars as our peak tourist season was shut down.
So far for our government it is denial business as usual, with more moderate party members not making a peep.
Whether the general population moves on from anger at our government as the year goes on, we will see.
People have to learn through experience. Climate warnings have been out there for 40 years.
Investment and accountability needs to be directed at industry and government to quickly bring green tech from university theoretical labs to the market place
8
Instead of blaming institutions and people, we should be looking for solutions. In the United States, the entire electrical consumption of the country can be provided by 200,000 wind turbines, each of which would produce 3 MW of electricity and would cost approximately $3 million per unit. This cost would approximately equal the military budget for a single year. If there were a network of wind turbine generators around the world, there would always be wind present somewhere. Also, creative ways to store the energy when the wind is not present, including pumping water uphill into hydroelectric dams, or generating hydrogen have been developed. It is probably too late to prevent irreversible climate change, but we surely can slow it down.
20
@LAM Many institutions and people would fiercely oppose your wind turbine proposal. Would you fight them? Could you fight them without blaming them? If no one fought them they would prevail.
When my husband and i first had the opportunity to visit 'Oz', we questioned our carbon footprint and how we could legitimise it. Greta has made us conscious! We decided that instead of staying just for a week, that we would add ten more days to learn more about this country. We were the 'tourism trade' that the government welcomes.
What we learned from interacting with the Aussies and the Aboriginal cultures is that they are care deeply about their land and the citizens. They were not just complaining about the inaction of the government and the leaders, they were amazing in their fundraising; restaurants asked if you would consider adding a dollar to your bill to go to 'bush fire relief'. The Australian Open led by tennis titans like John McEnroe donated and encouraged other players to donate to 'bush fire relief'. What a brilliant nationwide effort! In Melbourne, the tour guides spoke proudly of the aboriginal contribution that made their art so unique, of the Ian Potter Foundation which was everywhere in it's support of the many events both in the city of Melbourne but in areas outside of the city.
We can learn so much from their pro-activism—they will hold Morrison's feet to the fire (no pun intended) but this article highlights how the citizens are going towards innovation in order to not to have to keep having the fear of what global warming will do in the future. They never out off tomorrow what they can do today.
9
This article would really have benefited from an explanation of Australian politics and how it lead to a climate change denier getting elected. I was under the impression that Australia was a parliamentary democracy. If that were the case a simple majority of Ozzies should be able to elect a new prime minister fairly quickly.
Do a majority of Ozzies now care about climate change? Or do they have a government structure that enables a minority to control the government as we do in the U.S.?
11
@Paul They want to buy stuff, just like so many Americans. So calling on them to sacrifice creates an opening for right-wing liars to say no, that's not necessary and since folks want stuff...
1
There is much to be learned from what is happening in Australia, as this is the future we are all facing. The most important steps Australian's can take include removing PM Morrison--this would send shockwaves around the world that a conservative country has woke to the reality that they are being misled by their leaders and the Murdoch-owned press. The same dynamic exists here in the U.S. as we face unprecedented fires in CA, unprecedented die-offs in our coastal waters, rising seas and ever more powerful hurricanes.
The other major shift Australians could make is a more compassionate aproach to their immigration and refugee policies. In the coming decades, the number of "climate refugees" will increase exponentially. Countries will need to collaborate more closely in developing humane policies to share resettlement of the most vulnerable cases as well as creating more sustainable conditions in places they are trying to flee.
Without global cooperation to both combat the root causes of climate change and mitigate it's impacts on people, we are heading for a dystopian future--the cruelty of which we are seeing forecast by the current policies of Trump and Morrison.
11
As an American the penultimate sentence reminds me of what we have lost and gives me hope that Australia can successfully navigate these issues. “ Mr. Gallagher listened without interrupting.”
7
Implicit in this article, and others like it reacting to the changes we’ve wrought due to our consumption of fossil fuels, is that there’s still time to stop climate change.
Climate change is already here, has been for a long time and it has morphed into runaway climate disruption.
There is no stopping the multitude of global, natural positive feedback loops that are cataclysmic - we’ve already lit the fuse.
How do you cool the ocean, the repository of 90% of the heat our greenhouse gas emissions has caused the Earth to retain from the Sun?
How do you stop the Arctic from releasing plumes of CO2, CH4 & N2O from thawing permafrost?
How do you stop the WAIS or Greenland’s ice sheet from further melting?
How do you stop the insect decline/apocalypse?
How do you stop the acidification of the world’s oceans?
When one reads openly, honestly, broadly and deeply of the observations and conclusions legions of scientists have yielded and determined, the only fact-based conclusion one can reach is humanity will, like most of the biosphere before it, exterminate itself from the face of this once beautiful Earth as a direct result of our collective greed and willful ignorance.
All that’s left is the timing and the crying and before that, acceptance.
17
@Kevin Greene
You are 100% correct. However the end will be far enough away to allow you to do something about Ms McMorris in the interim.
2
I forwarded this to a couple that I met in Greenland last August.
I am looking forward to their comments. They were indirectly affected by the fires in that they had terrible air quality and were suffering from the smoke.
1
Much like 18 is the minimum age for voting - younger than that society believes the person is too young and thus unprepared for the civic duty of voting (ready to drive and die in a war, though), perhaps society society should set a maximum voting age. I propose 50 years old. Above that age, the person no longer thinks about societies future, but only their personal retirement and, therefore, is biased against changes necessary for the future of society.
3
@BWCA
It’s not age. Pay attention to what people are saying.
When Republicans talk about voting, they only talk about the benefits they hope to get for themselves.
When you listen to Democrats talk about voting, they talk about how their votes affect others.
1
@BWCA
Not every senior citizen is as cartoonishly myopic as Giuliani and Barr.
Land and wildlife have never been cherished like a Picasso. This is a romantic and false characterization of a country that has voted for mining and fossil fuel interests consistently.
9
Australia will not change and will not end as we know it. It will prepare better for future wild fires and try to do everything possible to prevent a recurrence of future wild fires. Politics will have to learn from the lessons of the devastation that took place in the Australian summer of 2019-2020.
2
@Girish Kotwal : Do you really think that the politicians will learn from this ??? No way.
I’ve never been there, but have long had a fascination with the History, the cultures, the people. Australia DOES punch above its weight, and is a tremendous ally in bad times. Now, let’s be their ALLY. This is analogous to the California wildfires burning all year, and 100 or 1000 times “ the usual “ area burning. FOREVER.
I do know one very important thing : a Government that denies Climate Science and Change is NOT healthy for Children and other living things. It’s the first thing that must Recycled.
6
At some point, we realized it was more expensive to hunt the few remaining whales for their oil, and we found something else to light our homes.
Ditto for horse-drawn freight wagons. Yay trains, yay truck-trailor combos! Yay highway system!
Ditto for autos. We went from horseless carriages to 5 mpg 50's heavy beasts to hybrids and electric cars.
My point? I have no idea why republicans must hate on the idea of changing our ways again. The situation becomes too expensive to maintain, someone comes up with a better way, and although a few dead-enders complain, progress happens.
There's a lot of money to be made in the 'new frontier' of energy, but somehow, republicans now hate hate hate the idea that someone's going to topple our version of the whaling fleet. ExxonMobile has had a good run, but they don't get to own innovation.
Weird how progress is now a bad word for the right. They were sure anxious when it was the opening of the West! Now, even if there's opportunity, it's the wrong people who are going to profit or something.
Meanwhile, the entire fleet goes down in flames while the right blames scientists.
13
Let's not forget that Australia voted in a conservative climate-change denying Prime Minister just last year.
11
From some years ago I remember an estimate that Australia had sustainable water supplies for possibly 8 million people. With a population over 20 million and a changing climate to boot, one wonders about inevitable disaster.
But wait, there's more -- in fact, an entire planet with the same problem. Where does one go when the whole planet burns?
Cue Midnight Oil.
8
Indiginous native Australians and station owners across the country understand very well, that it was the rabid greenie activists who worked tirelessly to forbid controlled burns, who own primary responsibility for this particular mess.
Anyone who has a basic understanding of forest management in semi-arid areas knows that it is important to ensure that lowstand fuel levels do not get out of control.
Drought is a periodic phenomenon in Australia and "the disaster of climate change" has little to do with this particular series of severe burn events.
It's the tree huggers, who doomed their own favorite life forms.
This is incorrect. The NSW Fire Services has stated, supported by other experts, that "Greenies" are not the problem. The problem is the difficulty in carrying out hazard reduction burns and clearance safely. This is due to the shrinking window of time in which to do it when it's safe. The shrinking window is due to several years which have been repeatedly hotter and drier which also meant plants became very dry making things even more difficult, that is, the problem is a noticable change in climate.
Cattle farmers want to run their cattle through national parks, not out of ANY desire to help reducing fuel, but to feed cattle for free. The issue with just letting cattle graze on such land is firstly, this would not be properly targeted, just a free for all. Secondly, their hooves damage the land/topsoil and not to mention they'd be competing with natives. Hazard reduction needs to be specifically targeted and done safely.
1
"If you’re American, imagine Cape Cod, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the Sierra Nevadas and California’s Pacific Coast, all rolled into one — and burned."
Most of us only visit one of those regularly, depending on where we live. For us it was the California coast. We watch the fires take off every year now like you. They far exceed the regular fires of my childhood. Now the smoke and sunsets hit us states away. :(
3
What if countries that are being affected by global climate change modify their visa rules to reward good global citizens, who take climate change seriously and adopt policies that reduce their national carbon footprint, and to punish bad global citizens, who claim that climate change is a hoax, for example? They could charge people from bad countries more to visit.
"Leadership is the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations." from The Leadership Challenge b y James Kouzes
On climate change, inequality, education, healthcare, and more, the world needs more leaders who tap into our shared aspirations to create a better world for all.
13
@JBC
Yes, just one or two of such leaders would help. Alas, we live in a world of leadership failure.
2
As I mentioned before in a previous commentary, Australia, like the American West has had a long fire history that is now exacerbated by climate change. Where Europeans got it wrong when both continents were settled was to ignore Indigenous fire practices, and opt for fire prevention policies that were and are hopelessly out of sync with the landscape and climate. As someone who has recently witnessed the destruction of Paradise, California, I can tell you that you never forget the trauma, devastation, and havoc that wildfires can wreak. Both in Australia and in the US, as elsewhere, we have had our reckonings, and there is much work ahead of us in both attitude and action to deal with fires and other catastrophes, some of which could be preventable. Climate denial and business as usual are no longer acceptable in dealing with these realities.
41
Sadly, Australians brought this destruction down upon themselves. Their massive coal exports feed the emission monsters in Asia that contribute heavily to climate change. So they are witnessing the sudden and violent conversion of their landscape to desert. We’re doing the same in Southern California with our outsized dependence on driving long distances for every aspect of life, so we have become another emission monster and are witnessing a similar wrenching conversion of our landscape to desert. We live in a very thin skin of air on the surface of the earth and need to do a better job of managing what gets put into it - and that ultimately means banning the burning of fossil fuels or suffering the consequences of the desertification it causes.
48
@Bill ya know Bill, you, like I- should probably move out of the desert that is CA. But we aren't gonna do that, are we? So lay off the Aussies; they'll adapt and overcome and if necessary engineer the heck out of the problem like CA does.
1
@MC Thanks MC. I know it’s not much consolation, but I don’t think many would realise that renewable energy in Australia, is growing at a per capita rate of ten times more than the world average and nearly three times faster than Germany, the next country in line. Yes, our political leaders (both major parties) haven’t wanted to bite the bullet and comprehensively plan for and deal with climate change as the emergency it is, but as individuals, particularly in the state of South Australia, we’ve been ahead of the game in water saving measures in the home and garden, recycling, attaching solar panels to our homes and businesses and even getting rid of plastic bags in supermarkets years before the eastern states (who cried like babies - sorry babies, when they had to adapt to the imposition of bringing their own reusable bags when shopping). Stopping all single use plastics is next on the list to being eliminated. These are some of the things individuals have embraced over many years here and I have no doubt that after this year’s catastrophic weather events and bushfires, our pollies will be forced into taking substantial action. We as individuals can only do so much. It’s not just our country that needs to do so much more. It would be good if everyone who lives a good life in a first world country, took responsibility for their part. Sitting in your ivory tower and blaming some for bringing ‘this destruction’ upon themselves does little, Bill, to help solve the problem.
2
Overhunting and fishing, habitat loss, pollution and now global warming. None of these happen in a vacuum but there are synergies among them which make the whole vastly greater than the sum of the parts.
The paleoclimate record indicates that disruptions in long term carbon cycles roughly coincided with several mass extinctions. The worst, the end-Permian event, turned Earth into basically a lifeless rock for millions of years.
The climate change we’ve made so far is small compared to natural variability (+5 degrees C coming out of glaciations) but we could make change as big as any natural change and a whole lot faster.
And we’re pushing the system in multiple ways.
24
The natural variability of 5 C happens over 10s of millions of years. We humans are causing these changes in less than 100 years. Natural climate change and human caused climate change cannot be compared.
3
'The End of Australia as We Know It' is for sure a flashy, eye catching headline, but bush fires have not ended 'Australia as we know it' at all. This old, rugged, been there, seen it all, done that antipodean continent has survived climate extremes before. The fires, as tragic, awful and damaging as they were, are part of what makes Australia Australia...and they will be back.
Australia has just been deluged with record-breaking post-bushfire rainfalls which has set in motion an explosion of growth bringing drought relief to parts of the nation that have not seen rain, literally, for years.
There's a marvelous poem, My Country, composed over a century ago by Dorothea Mackellar who wrote:
"I love a sunburnt country/A land of sweeping plains, /Of ragged mountain ranges, /Of droughts and flooding rains." She pulls no punches in describing early 20th century life in the land downunder - and it's worth revisiting the poem to give perspective on what we've just been through.
I am no climate-change denier - I know we need to make huge, urgent and global changes in how we power our lives, households and industries. Nor do I think any Australian Government has yet approached climate issues in any meaningful way...as they must and hopefully will, but characterizing Australia as having ended due to these fires is somewhat of an exaggeration.
11
@Tom, So maybe the headline is a bit of an exaggeration. But we are seeing so many signs of environmental degradation--from species extinction to climate change--that we have to know we are in the early stages of ecological collapse. I suggest that it is better to become alarmed early than to wait until the devastation overwhelms our ability to recover.
26
@Tom An exaggeration, maybe, maybe not...time will tell.
We humans are so adaptable and our ability to normalize is amazing. Those of us alive today exists as a result of these traits. Yet a convincing argument can be made that like so many other creatures we are approaching an evolutionary bottle neck. (The Astro biologists have some interesting thinking on this)
It’s been said that only a new story can replace an old one. I wonder who will write that poem? I haven’t heard it yet and I suspect we are running out of time, or possibly already have.
8
@Tom
I think the point is "as we know it".
The land mass will be there. People maybe so too.
But species extinction is real. And so is the scarcity of clean water and air.
8
The principles of Permaculture, a science and a movement largely attributable to Australians, have enormous potential to address climate change. But first, humanity needs to disavow the notion that technological fixes are the primary answer.
Nature intrinsically manifests the ultimate technologies - which are catastrophically ignored and marginalized in our collective technocratic mindset.
17
Only a few countries, most of them in Europe, are taking significant steps to meet emission targets. The rest of the world is doing far too little, or nothing. The interesting question is when will a majority of the general population in these do little or nothing countries, the voters, refuse to elect any leader or political party unless they have an effective climate action plan. One would think Australia would be at that point, but I guess we will see.
A truly effective climate action plan would require huge sacrifices by many people, write off and replacement of massive infrastructure, vehicles, change in personal habits, change in economic activity, massive expense. I live in Canada, I don't see how this country could do it. I doubt that Australia could either.
27
@gbc1
All urban dwellers could decide to be car free today. Tomorrow at the latest. Once that happens we can begin to change the urban landscape- regreen it. We don’t need politicians to lead us; we can make the change.
4
The politicians have not let us down. The economists have not let us down. The scientists have let us down. They have failed to come up with a clean energy source that can replace fossil fuels. Solar and wind cannot do the job. They help, but not enough can be deployed to power the world. Nuclear fision has a chance but not totally clean. Nuclear fusion (the one that powers the sun) would be ideal but scientist have not been able to make enough progress. Perhaps if we put more scientists to work on solving the energy production and storage problem instead of scientists working on climate change doomsday predictions, we can make progress. Climate change scientists have an easy job. Point at a problem that someone else needs to fix.
5
@3Rs Sorry, but it does not make sense to shoot the messenger. Scientists around the world are frustrated and depressed over the inaction on the part of the rest of society. It is up to the government and private industry to fund the "work on solving energy production." To imagine that scientists can somehow produce the answers without the support of the rest of us is simply magical thinking.
202
@3Rs We cannot expect scientists to do the job on their own. They need the rest of us to help by lowering our carbon footprints, doing things like buying more economical cars and using them less, and by having fewer children (the developed world is doing this; the rest needs to catch up quickly). The economists need to figure out how to keep the economy healthy when there are fewer people consuming less. The construction industry needs to figure out how to make better insulated homes that cost less too. And the government needs to help all of those things happen.
The scientists cannot deliver a silver bullet that will fix it. It's all hands on deck or the ship goes down.
72
@3Rs
Interesting read on the last 20-40 years of climate science and conservative/reactionary commentary. More work on all of the above are needed. Most climate scientists accept the basic science and are either working on adaptation or refining models to pin down regional impacts and trying to get at the even more worrying influences of unexpected feedbacks that we can speculate about but not yet quantify. i.e. There is a significant probability that the climate future we are headed for is much worse than the relatively conservative future predicted by the UN reports.
35
Until the power of the Murdoch press and it's "holy mission" to deny climate change science is broken, real progress will have to overcome the constant narrative of false information, spin and propaganda that Newscorp puts out. Any who speak up and try to point out that Climate Change is real and a threat are mercilessly pilloried and if possible hounded out of their position. The previous Australian conservative Prime Minister (Malcom Turnbull) lost his position to a internal coup organised and supported by the right wing press because he proposed taking (moderate) action on climate change and acknowledged it's reality. Their attack dogs are a impediment to Australian society and public discourse - and policy discussion. It's just that Murdoch controls over half the Australian media landscape, and in many towns he owns the only newspaper, so his views are taken as unchallenged fact. Still in my personnel experience, even conservatives I know admit that something is happening, it's just that they're not the ones who are setting the conservative agenda. We now have a climate purity test in the right wing.
122
@casbott Murdoch pollutes the civic dialog in the UK and the US as well, and how! Just look at Fox "News", etc.
10
@casbott Yes, just watch Sky News from Australia. It makes Fox News seem liberal. You would think the fires in Australia would be a wake-up call to everybody. but even in Canada (Alberta in particular) it just isn't sinking in.
6
@casbott The right wing complains about "political correctness" from the left, but they suffer from a truly crippling ailment: ideological correctness.
Ideological correctness filters out and flags as false any belief, report, or objective fact that contradicts right wing policy. In the case of climate change, conservatives understand that it is a problem requiring solutions that contradict their ideology. Being "ideologically correct," then, requires them to dismiss objective scientific evidence of climate change as untrue "liberal bias."
These same conservatives use the fruits of scientific thinking every day of their lives - they use computers, drive cars, etc., never questioning their reality. But ideological correctness allows them to pick and choose to believe in only those scientifically proven things that support their conservative worldview.
I believe many conservatives do believe in climate change. But many also willfully suppress that belief in the interests of being "ideologically correct" and avoiding censure from peers. That's not mentally healthy. Unfortunately, many attempt to deal with their own stressful, heretical unbelief by denying climate change all the more vociferously, trying desperately to convince themselves and their group that they're "loyal."
I'm sure many conservatives also fear the humiliation and social censure of admitting they were wrong. We should forgive quickly when people make that admission rather than attack them.
10
"What if the country’s leaders did not run from the problem of climate change, but instead harnessed the country’s desire to act?" If only.
Martin Seligman and collaborators defined hopeless inaction as "learned helplessness" - unquestioned thoughts that, "that's the way it is. There's nothing I or anyone could do."
Such inertia defines human politics in Australia, the US, and Canada. Canada is cold. Here in Nova Scotia, children shiver in meagerly-heated, uninsulated homes as temperatures drop below -20 C. Provincial and federal leaders' response? "That's the way it is. There is nothing government could do to keep children warm." Canada has vast geothermal resources. Yet there are no geothermal electric power facilities. Political leaders will not imagine acting to find a route to survive.
30 years on, Martin Seligman reframed "learned optimism" as a psychological escape from malaise and lassitude. Must we wait another 30 years before a "conservative" and "liberal" epiphany that, to desire a solution one must first imagine hope that a solution is possible? Let's "hope" a life-sustaining world still exists on that day when, and if countries' leaders awake from self-taught helplessness.
34
@Dr Brian Reid : "Here in Nova Scotia, children shiver in meagerly-heated, uninsulated homes"
The Canadian government could help insulate those homes too.
It was the discovery of coal that allowed civilization to move northward, and this allowed the industrial revolution to move Northward to place like Germany. Until then, the land could not support enough population density because the people needed to burn wood to stay warm in the winter.
That train has left the station. Many people live in cold places now, and we need to figure out how to keep them warm during the winter with less energy. Super insulated homes help a lot, but they are expensive to build and they command premium prices. A government-sponsored insulation program would go a long way. Conservatives would howl that it is socialist; maybe they are as much a problem as "learned helplessness".
10
"Taught" helplessness plays a part in preserving the profit margin. That's why it has so many defenders.
6
Is it too late? I don’t think it was learned helplessness it was willful suppression of the truth to continue the oil industry’s domination financially across the world.
1
In this article, we read the following quote: “What was feared and what was warned is no longer in our future, a topic for debate — it is here.”
That vital quote, addressing the infernal fires of Australia fits perfectly the political wild fires of authoritarianism now burning up the United States as we've known it.
The dreaded breakdown of our institutions, trust, and political traditions has already made landfall like a hurricane.
And like the Australians in their incendiary aftermath now face a changed world, we too now face a changed America, in the aftermath of a tectonic political shift now choking our cherished and familiar daily lives.
The question of "what if" has been answered and is in the past. The immediate question now for Australians about climate change, and for us about autocracy unleashed, is the same: What are we going to do about it?
Continuing to live in our inactive optimism about the sturdiness and permanence of American democracy is accepting a slow suicide.
Our faith in "American Exceptionalism", and our pride in having the oldest Constitution in the world are now insufficient protections without our new and massive organized civic action.
oz.
42
It sounds like a few very rich oil and coal barons with the support of the political power are going to burn up this beautiful country until they have to move their yachts somewhere else. Very sad.
52
@Carlo45
And who uses all this coal and oil? Us. We can stop anytime we want. It is a cop out to blame an industry that simply supplies us with what we want. We need to stop having more kids than the planet can support and dial our lifestyle back to something sustainable. Most people have done neither.
1
The governments subsidize the oil industry it’s a complete market and infrastructure domination.
3
@AT
The trouble is that those coal and oil billionaires aren't merely innocent businessmen selling a product people "want." They're actively working to make sure infrastructure and systems depend on it. Here's a good article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/climate/coal-adani-india-australia.html
3
Please stop painting Australia as some "Paradise Lost." It was colonized by Europeans and they are fully responsible for the mess it's in now. So, let's put the blame where it belongs and demand that they put it back--but that's not going to happen so let's all wring our hands and repeat the same nonsense mantra over and over and hope that the problem gets fixed. The ONLY way this mess is going to get fixed is when humanity is cleared off the face of the earth. Then the earth can start over again and make sure that no other creature ever emerges that has an opposable thumb. I for one am praying for an absolute and unstoppable pandemic that will end humanity and the earth's pain that we are causing.
11
One was bred in the horrific animal markets in China. Where wolf puppies and pangolins and countless other endangered and threatened species are sold to eat to the upper class.
These markets and the practices of using animal parts for chi is completely backwards. Here is nature coming back w it’s chi.
The only thing good about this virus is those in humane and cruel markets are stopped now. Let’s make it forever a crime. Now perhaps elephants - rhinos - and so many others can recover. W China more and more in Africa the fate of wildlife is extinction.
The virus is saving the wild animals.
3
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." Anaïs Nin
Fear of ferocious nature is the old story.
Better to write "fear of ferocious mindlessness." The Golden Calf crowd on Wall Street has discovered our true nature is buying stuff we don't need, even if it kills us and our larger self Mother Earth, all the plants and animals with us.
Smoke from forest fires here in Seattle a couple years ago, and I keep my N95's with me ever since a talisman and to keep waking up from this trance.
Our hearts are open to changing fast. Just look at all the immigrants willing to leave everything behind everywhere around the world.
But the predator class has created a monster that distracts us from saving ourselves. Just look at oil and gas predator ships Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell etc...they have learned to wrap themselves in the PR machine of good intentions making donations or investing in solar only to increase investments in fossil fuels that are killing us. And we subsidize them in the billions here in the US. We even pay for their waste stream in sea and skies, and our "recycling" plastic -- waste disposal is $580 billion int'l business. Garbage bills are just another hidden tax like our military defending big oil.
Our future is created by tending to neighbors, serving others, and stewarding our larger self on Mother Earth. Tis simple and difficult like meditation or prayer. Create inner peace first, and find your own path to a greener more just world.
26
After 9/11 in the U.S. (September 11th)... there were lots of big changes, and then they invaded Iraq.
But I always wondered if maybe the best solution would have been to just super-reinforce the cockpit doors of commercial airplanes.
That is to say, one imagines all these big changes that need to be made, but maybe smaller, more practical, changes would be the best, and quite enough. How much good would 1 kilometer perimeters, or 2 kilometer perimeters, devoid of vegetation, devoid of combustible stuff... around residential areas do ?
Maybe even concrete walls around neighborhoods, to keep the heat away ?
Maybe my suggestions are not good ones, for one reason or another. But maybe the people that know about this stuff could come up with some better ideas that would help a lot.
2
@David Martin with regard to clearing combustible materials around neighborhoods, that doesn't really work. Airborne burning embers, or firebrands, can travel up to several miles and burn a house or building. An ember the size of a dime can catch on a door or window screen, or a notch in a roof, and destroy the place. So the materials used in construction are what is important to repel fire.
8
It is equally both mind-boggling and terrifying to understand that certain politicians, especially in America, can hear about stories like this and still fail to admit that, to say the least, a large chunk of human culture needs to change for the sake of both the planet’s and humanity’s well-being.
18
"Mr. Cannon-Brookes said Australia could seize the moment and become a leader in climate innovation."
This is exactly where the US is failing. We can lead the world in innovation that addresses climate change. Instead we have a president and his Republican enablers who encourage the fossil fuel industry and deny the reality of the climate crisis.
19
They are
Rolling back pollution regulations for waterways. Dumping will be allowed in the USA.
I think they want Armageddon.
Two things:
One thing I think of is what an Aussie business colleague once noted to me was along the lines of, “No worries, mate. When things get bad America will come and fix it.” Of course this was long before Trump was pretending to run the country.
Second is that to most of the world, Oz is a bucket list destination. It’s so far away that not much matters. People in most of the world won’t care about a changing climate until there are multiple disasters over several years, that can be directly attributed to a warming planet.
4
@Noley
It might be far away to you; but for those of us who live here Indonesia is our nearest neighbour. 260 million people live there and they matter.
1
There are.
I used admire a lot the great Aussie Greg Norman and people like that - and kind of aspire to be someone like that in some way. A notable. He was always that guy, charming and positive, worked hard at his game and business with the "its gonna be all right mate" positive attitude. You'd like to have a beer with him. He's got his multiple millions, multiple estates and yachts, all a man could ever want. But he is also a creature of nature and will take his fall and die like we all do. Is that a good life lived? If the planet dies because too many people like him took far more than their share, you'd have to question why and what a good life is really all about.
18
All westerners , Americans in particular,use more than our share: we take planes to wherever we want to go, drive our cars as far and as fast as we want, heat and cool large houses and. Consume, consume as marketed created “needs” dictate. Live more simply in sustainable ways...shrug is the response. We need vision and models for such.
9
“He's got his multiple millions, multiple estates and yachts, all a man could ever want.”
All a man should never want.
2
@Jim Absolutely fantastic response. If only it had made Nyt pic.
Australians ignore climate change for decades: their entire economy is based on coal, they’ve ignored the pleas to save the Great Barrier Reef, and despite having so much sunshine haven’t become a nation fueled by solar power.... and now they want the rest of the world to bail them out? Time to do some hard time folks, maybe start by not spending $5,000,000 on fireworks for NYE during the worst fires in your history!
10
It's a terrible way to learn about climate change but Australians are paying the price of a government that denied it, just as we will pay the price of Republican climate denial in this country.
25
Australia is the 'canary in the coal mine' and if we as dwellers of Earth do not pay attention will suffer the known consequences.
This is not 'rocket science'.
28
Both to limit and to adapt to climate change, nations should stabilize and ideally reduce their populations.
Talk about “fundamental change “ that ignores human numbers is just talk.
Visit the website of The Overpopulation Project for more information.
8
The problem, always unacknowledged, is always the same. From the “housing crises” in California, to the caravans trying to get past the southern border, to the Australian fires, to the ever increasing co2 levels, to the oceans filling with plastic and a million species going extinct. Too many people. 7.8 billion and an extra 82 million/year. If we don’t fix that, we won’t fix anything.
10
AT, I don’t believe we will ever fix it. The massive number of human beings on the planet will probably eventually be curtailed, but by nature, not by us.
2
@Jim
You’re probably right. The shame is, if we reduced our family size not only would the environment benefit, but most of the remaining people would live far better lives. It would also involve far less sacrifice and technological backflips to get us where we need to be than anything proposed. As it is, we will likely drag the whole planet and most species down with us. All to just produce ever more humans, many of whom don’t live long or productive lives.
2
I am concerned for the non-humans in Australia and the rest of the world. Humans are now getting what we deserve. The ecology is more important than the economy. We must adapt to a non-fossil fuel world or die. We must adapt to non-sustainable agriculture or die. We must cease breeding indiscriminately or....
9
Though we live at the antipodes of Australia, we also feel climate change closing in on America in this hemisphere. When climate warming is called a hoax and a sham by our president, we can see and feel the undeniable changes in our country. The new normal is firestorms in California and floods in the Midwest and oceans too warm to sustain fish and sea life and eroding our over-built Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Who can forget and then ignore the viral meme of our time, of a burnt little Koala bear grabbing for a plastic water bottle from a human, with his hands and drinking the precious water in a burnt country? The reality of our planet's changes -- unbreathable air and undrinkable water -- has become our new global normal. Thanks to Damien Cave and Matthew Abbott for their great words and photos on "The End of Australia As We Know It".
415
@Nan Socolow
Too bad he doesn’t read. This piece makes The hoax, as he calls it, real.
hoax. HA!
All of the republicans have their heads buried way to deep in the pockets of fossil fuel to get enough light to see this article even if they did read.
14
@Nan Socolow - Remember the movie 'independence day' and the remark of the invaders being locust-like beings who invade a planet, strip its resources, and move on? I wonder how many then got irony. One locust like species fighting to survive another locust like species, only we've got no place to move to once we've use up ours. The rest of the universe can only hope we learn before we're able to start traveling. If we survive long enough to achieve the ability.
13
@Nan Socolow I read all the Upfield books-- about Bony. Well nobody there has read them I guess? Those huge sheep stations with millions of animals were often in states of drought. Has the water table sunk down low now below what it was in the 30's and 40's? In those days they'd "sink another bore." Or Lake Eyre would fill up. In this country, there's a kind of unregulated irrigation that flings water into the air over miles and now the water table is down forever, they say. Has that happened there?
3
For past as prologue, re-read the Grapes of Wrath. That is what happens when man ignores nature and keeps destroying the environment upon which life depends. Anyone who has driven from Miles City to Amarillo and seen the counties that have been losing population since the 1920s has seen what happens when man ignores nature's limits. Only this time there is no California to flee to.
21
“Only this time there is no California to flee to.”
Jeff Bezos (and a few others) think that people are going to flee to space colonies!
So let’s just continue merrily on our way, breeding profusely and consuming voraciously. Space will save us!
1
The political parallels between Australia and the U.S. are jarring - and illustrate exactly the problem in grappling with climate change.
Both are democratic societies where voters could, in theory, alter their political leadership to start addressing the greatest existential threat to humanity since the Ice Age.
But didn't Australians just elect a conservative government of climate change deniars? A surprising but clear policy decision by the voters.
Much like the UK - I will never see the place in the same light again - emphatically handing a lout like Boris Johnson a blank check to complete Brexit.
When voters have a choice, much as my fellow Americans will have this fall in our presidential election, they should get no sympathy from anyone for the consequences of their decisions.
If you want to begin grappling with the daunting effects of climate change, turn the climate deniars out of office.
58
Murdoch run news in both countries, propaganda is working.
7
@Publius You correctly lament the election of climate change deniers. The problem is, that the other side(s) have policies that nobody wants. As long as people like Jeremy Corbin or Bernie Sanders are put up for election nothing will change. We need sanity, not so-called revolution.
@Publius "But didn't Australians just elect a conservative government of climate change deniars? A surprising but clear policy decision by the voters."
Not so! Climare Change was then somewhat down the list of concerns of voters (it is now at the top of the list after the bushfires).
Voters were swayed not only by the untrue scare stories by the LNP government about their Labor Party opponents proposing higher taxes, pensioner taxes, and death taxes, (all untrue). They were also subjected to a bombardment of TV and social media ads by someone not yet mentioned here: Queensland coal magnate Clive Palmer. Palmer spent $60 million on ads mainly attacking the opposition Labor Party, because he could see how a Labor win could adversely affect his coal mining operations.
The LNP victory at the last elections was only to a minor degree about rejecting climatechange action.
We’re cancelling our trip to AU later this year. Not out of fear of the fires but out of protest for their government’s continued expansion of coal mining/exports.
17
@bersh001 You are to be commended.
But we have to question the concept of blythely flying all the way to Australia and back in the first place - given what we know about CO2 emissions from aircraft.
We are all guilty.
3
@bersh001 Thank you. We did this. We need to fix it.
1
I see Australia as the canary in the climate change coal mine. As a multiple-time fire evacuee from Los Angeles, who sponsored a climate migration dinner for friends who also escaped multiple fires in the wee hours of morning at times dodging flames on the clogged roadways, I’m looking to move. I recognize climate change is here. We must change now. Deal with this new forewarned reality. I can’t imagine living through one more mega fire and choking on smoke. I wish everyone of us to change dramatically how we live and do so sustainably for the planet, and vote for a president who will prioritize climate change day one, and somehow, somewhere, breathe easy.
50
A couple of decades ago as a member of faculty governance I had lunch with Stephen Schneider, at the time a leading climatologist. He had generally been positive about humanities potential for curbing climate change. I pushed for his view of the worst case. Twenty years ago he suggested that if we didn't act we could initiate feed forward processes that might leave the planet with a lot fewer humans than we have today. He thought the worst case could be the collapse of civilization. He didn't believe that would happen because he thought we humans would act to curb the worst effects of climate change. We did not act twenty years ago. Now, it is time for humanity to act as the window for effective action is closing. It will take time to have an affect but population reduction is very important. In our USA elections it is important to elect politicians that will take action to assure our children and grandchildren will have a future. We can not afford a President who is a climate change denier. Here are a few examples of actions: stop tax reductions for having children and instead give reductions for zero or one child families. Heavy taxes on industries that pollute. Reduce spending on wars and spend on climate change initiatives. Electric autos, etc., etc.
119
@hd
You are correct. Look at the articles in the times today or any day. They all describe a country and planet being over run and destroyed by human over population. But look again at the articles. That is the one subject that is never mentioned. Nothing will be fixed until we acknowledge the underlying problem.
16
Most numerous families are poor or pay little taxes. Taxing them will not be as effective. China had the one child policy. It was effective but you have to deal with repressive government actions like forced abortions. The US is reaching replacement birth rate already, and that would be enough.
2
@hd My wife and I are in our late 60’s and chose not to have children. For years, at tax time, I have joked and complained about us not receiving a “deduction” for keeping our numbers, and subsequent impact on world resources, to a minimum.
23
Australia's "conservative government is still playing down the role of climate change" but it is not because they don't believe in science. Deniers know full well that it is actually an established fact -- they just don't want to alter their lifestyles or impinge upon their profits by making the economic and social changes necessary to combat it. The one per cent believe that they have the money and the resources to enable them to avoid the consequences of the inevitable flooding of the coast lines, the massive droughts, the raging fires, the planet-wide extinctions and the like, and that these will primarily be the problems of the "little" people like us.
They are right about one thing, however: with less than 12 years to turn things around, it cannot be done without massive changes in the way we live and govern ourselves. The goals of the Paris climate round are not enough to get the job done, and we are not even close to meeting those. Bernie's Green New Deal is the only proposal realistic enough to realize that massive economic displacement will inevitably occur if we are to avoid disaster, and to plan for it. Incremental moderates yearn for the return of a more comforting status quo that no candidate or party can give them -- it is gone for good. The issue is whether revolutionary change will come from the authoritarian right or the populist left. It certainly isn't coming from the center, which is collapsing all around us and is long past saving.
127
Two very different articles in one, but I’m not critical. The first was so depressing, I thought this is doing nothing to stop me from seeing denial as the strongest force in nature. But perhaps the physical and existential realities are bringing the day closer when I’ll be wrong.
In contrast, the second story offering a vision for Australia, and overcoming a skeptic to it, was powerful in a different way.
Damien combines a developing new “You just can’t deny it anymore” mindset with an inspiring way out of a difficult bind. You can’t ask for much more.
If Aussies pick up on his idea to revamp their country to the age of climate change, experimenting and finding ways to make the various adjustments in so many areas of life and work, I suspect the rest of us, once we go further through our versions of climate change impact, will be apt students.
Nice touches are that he doesn’t neglect the critters and invokes the sustainability (or unsustainability) concept. He invokes “imagination,” “rethinking,” “reordering,” and damages to peoples’ “psyches.” These are uncommon.
He has quotes about “massive changes,” whereas conventional wisdom usually accepts only small societal changes as feasible. He does not avoid cultural shifts.
He ends that even with leadership, Australia will still need help, which can help overcome the excuse for inaction that it does no good if any country does it alone. They had better not be alone. But they (and us) better not wait too long on the politics.
39
@Matt Polsky
There were quite enough Aussies already long before this article with enough imagination of their own who didn't and don't need to be told now how to develop a new mindset. Enough of them fought back in the seventies to successfully save the Tasmanian wilderness for example and many are out there now still trying to stop the Adani coal mine in Queensland.
More to the point maybe how best to dilute the propaganda of the Rupert Murdoch media empire and it's effect on elections - something the US also has a serious problem with and so far still lacks a solution to as well.
1
I look to Australia and see the future of the American West, where I live.
Should I move now when I can still sell my home? I have a job that I like and would be sad to leave. Where do I go? Where will have the necessary water? Around the Great Lakes are supposed to be water secure. But the lake waters are rising too. And there will be ticks.
We are all living in Dystopia. Some are just still in denial.
69
@Innisfree Rich Californians are already buying land around the Salish Sea, and New Zealand.
1
@Innisfree I would definitely sell my house, because you have wood products in it, and move to an underground bunker. Tap into the groundwater. Get a solar panel and walk to the grocery store. Do it today! We're counting on you.
More signs that we, humans, as a species, in spite of all our technology and intelligence, are failing. We are failing at self-control, just like an alcoholic keeps going to the grocery, although his liver is already heavy and painful, much like his future. Mother nature will have the last word. She will rein us in. But never mind for now. Let’s bury our heads in the sand once more.
51
“Mother nature will have the last word. She will rein us in.”
Indeed she will. It won’t be pretty but we will have brought it on ourselves by refusing to rein in our breeding and consumption.
4
Have Australians made the connection yet between what happened to them (and will happen again) and fossil fuels? i hope so for their children's sake.
13
@Tfranzman
And don't forget coal.
Australian coal companies supply Japan with 61% of that country's coal. With Japan planning to fire up 22 new coal powered plants in the next five years, hopefully Australian coal companies will see the light and cut back or stop those imports.
4
@Tfranzman
We are not dumb. Some of our leaders are.
Sound familiar?
Tjilpi, an Australian.
3
@Tfranzman
Some have. Some - notably, the PM Trump-sycophant Scott Morrison who went on vacation to Hawaii during the disaster- refuse to see the connection
3
Climate change and its myriad of ways that it effects the weather from droughts, wild fire and floods has been clearly been demonstrated. The rising seas pounding against the shore and destroying beaches. Crop land immersed in flood water. Australia suffered cataclysmic fires and smoke. The smoke from far off fires cause major health problems. Planting a trillion trees that Trump has latched onto without other major efforts to reduce hydrocarbons are worthless. This is a major damaging issue to Trump who has spent his first 3 years as president ridiculing climate change and ending regulations to act against it.
51
@c harris
Except that it’s not damaging him much, if at all. And clearly not at all with his base. They’re too worried about immigrants who may take the jobs they turn up their noses at.
2
Eucalyptus trees - like roman candles. Volatile, lay down heavy flammable ground cove. Explosive as the burn. Spread embers. Clean them out. They will sprout again from surviving stumps. Replant with other kinds of trees. The volatility of eucalyptus oil long known. Sad. But well isolated plantings for koala population part of the answer. NZ Forestry people may well already have a plan for recovery. Sans eucalyptus.
11
@Gordon Jones Mr. Jones, if you are suggesting that Australia should eliminate eucalyptus trees, I should tell you that they are native to Australia. Most of the trees there are eucalypts of one kind or another. Eliminating them would be about as practical as eliminating oak, maple, spruce and pine from the east coast of the United States.
13
@Gordon Jones Wow. So the Eucalyptus, the aincient Ozzie trees, are the problem?
Why now? Why are these trees a problem now?
Are all the Eucalypti in California causing the fires there?
Oh wait...there ere no Eucalyptus there.
Are these trees causing Miami to have these endless king tides? Maybe they are causing the permafrost to melt too?
@Edward
Totally wrong. There are thousands of acres of eucalyptus trees in CA, first brought by Australians in 1850 during the Gold Rush. And yes, they are definitely exacerbating the wild fire problems in CA for the reasons Gordon Jones described.
See https://www.independent.com/2011/01/15/how-eucalyptus-came-california/
1
If Australia truly ‘punches above its weight,’ I hope its voters will elect leadership which will show the world decisive action in confronting climate change head on. Here in the SF Bay Area of Calif where I live we had ‘the world’s worst air’ for many days over the time when the wildfires were raging about 100 miles northeast of us. Dozens of people have died, thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed, and millions of acres were burned. Our local elected officials called for action but nothing significant has been done up to now. Trump and a majority of the members of Congress are still in denial about the role which fossil fuels play in causing climate change. What will it take for Americans to vote these ‘leaders’ out of office?!?
52
@richard Last Thing I knew, Democrats have run the Bay Area for decades....
If we have a fair election.
1
"Fueled by climate change and the world’s refusal to address it"
What about Australia's refusal to address it and electing pro fossil fuel politicians.
Your country spawned Rupert Murdoch and provided him with his initial wealth and power that he has brandished to destabilize politics and climate globally through media driven propaganda.
My country is more responsible, per capita, for environmental degradation than possibly even Australia so I'm not blaming Australia for sending us Murdoch, but I'm not focusing on the world to try to correct it either.
Australians have to fix their political leadership, and we have to fix ours. That's the main thing we can do- not just learn to live with the consequences, but to try to reverse them.
Fossil fuels and the human population boom they've helped create (along with hyper-consumption) are the dual but directly related forces we have to come to terms with, but we can only vote for and against the politicians in our own countries along with boycotting products that poison our planet or support media that poisons our minds.
37
"Fueled by climate change and the world’s refusal to address it"
What about Australia's refusal to address it and electing pro fossil fuel politicians.
Your country spawned Rupert Murdoch and provided him with his initial wealth and power that he has brandished to destabilize politics and climate globally through media driven propaganda.
My country is more responsible, per capita, for environmental degradation than possibly even Australia so I'm not blaming Australia for sending us Murdoch, but I'm not focusing on the world to try to correct it either.
Australians have to fix their political leadership, and we have to fix ours. That's the main thing we can do- not just learn to live with the consequences, but to try to reverse them.
Fossil fuels and the human population boom they've helped create (along with hyper-consumption) are the dual but directly related forces we have to come to terms with, but we can only vote for and against the politicians in our own countries along with boycotting products that poison our planet or support media that poisons our minds.
4
Australia is a wealthy country that is also the number one producer of greenhouse gases per capita (even more than Americans and Canadians). If any country has the wherewithal to radically change and deal with that necessary change in a way that is sustainable, Australia is probably it. But it will require the removal of "conservative" governments and a willingness of the state to take a much more active role in regulating, redistributing resources, and controlling emissions. This need for an activist state to deal effectively with climate change is exactly why so many "conservatives" around the world (but particularly in the US) have made the delusion that CC is not happening and/or is not caused by humans a fundamental part of their ideology. Changing that kind of self-serving, ideologically-motivated delusion will be hard. I see in Australia the possible future of Canada. While the countries are very different, there are also lots of similarities. Canada has seen massive changes caused by CC. Yet we continue to try to pump dirty oil out of the ground, our "conservative" parties and provinces labour in willful delusion about CC, and the federal govt seems prepared to do far too little for the sake of politics. Too many Canadians are willing to do nothing or maintain the status quo. But we have a lot of forest to burn - two years ago, large parts of BC burned - and that may become our new normal if we don't face reality.
36
This is an existential moment for Australia--choose life and leave the coal and gas underground and embrace wind and sun energy or choose capitalism based on fossil fuel and die.
Capitalism or life?
Even with Australia embracing sustainable energy, the damage will last and they will have to adjust to fire dangers just like the situation in parts of California today. However, using technology and public funds, the Australians can do so and have a good life.
16
So this has happened once and now everyone has to change their way of life? I know they have been thru a lot but it might be a good idea to take the opportunity this winter to calm down a bit and think through these changes before they implement them. Hysteria is never good.
1
@Thomas Aquinas
Classic denialism Thomas. We do not have anybody as hysterical as your ranting unhinged president that's for sure. With respect I honestly thought at first your comment was an ironic satire. Actually I still think it might be. Please tell me you were just kidding Thomas. I take it you are not the Italian theologian.
1
@Thomas Aquinas
How many times does a continent need to burn before it is no longer "hysteria?"
3
"Fueled by climate change and the world’s refusal to address it"
What about Australia's refusal to address it and electing pro fossil fuel politicians.
Your country spawned Rupert Murdoch and provided him with his initial wealth and power that he has brandished to destabilize politics and climate globally through media driven propaganda.
My country is more responsible, per capita, for environmental degradation than possibly even Australia, so I'm not blaming Australia for sending us Murdoch, but I'm not focusing on the world to try to correct it either.
Australians have to fix their political leadership, and we have to fix ours. That's the main thing we can do- not just learn to live with the consequences, but to try to reverse them.
Fossil fuels and the human population boom they've helped create (along with hyper-consumption) are the dual but directly related forces we have to come to terms with, but we can only vote for and against the politicians in our own countries along with boycotting products that poison our planet or support media that poisons our minds.
Reduce fossil fuel consumption, reduce human population and learn to share our planet with all its creatures.
6
At a time when global cooperation is more necessary than ever for our very survival, the countries that could lead the world to cooperate have become isolationist.
I lay a lot of the blame for that on the current brutal attitude toward refugees, doors shut tight in the face of desperate, talented, good people looking to work hard for a better life.
The saddest example is, of course, The United States of America.
13
@Maria
The climate deniers were in full force decades before the present migration/refugee crises.
The 1939 fire season was much worse. There was no CO2 issue in 1939. And it did not mean "The End of Australia."
In this era of agenda-driven news stories, Google is your best friend.
6
@Erik - False equivalence. The reality is that what used to be "once in a century" events are becoming biannual events. One can't look to the past and say the problems of today are just the same. In 1939 there were about 2 billion people on earth, now there are about 7.5 billion. All of whom are using WAY more fossil fuel energy than we did in 1939. As for Google being your best friend, oh, yes, the internet is the font of all truth, isn't it?
50
@Erik
You've been mislead.
The devastating 1939 fires by several accounts are estimated to have resulted in around 2 million hectares of burnt out land.
The current 2019-2020 fires however have resulted in a burnt out area close to 10 times larger than the 1939 fires. (estimated at just under 19 M hectares as of mid February).
10
It is not the end of Australia—it is a continuation of fire seasons that have always plagued the Country. Fires in the low CO2 era regularly burned millions of acres. Blaming this on climate change is not helpful—it will prevent Australia from implementing a useful solution.
8
@ehillesum
It’s a good thing there’s lots of sand in Australia - enough to bury all those heads in it. But Michigan? Not so much. Wake up and face facts.
2
@ehillesum
You folks go and find one outlier data point and claim victory. When n=1 you need to find more data.
2
Take heart Australia. The fires will eventually go away. The are no fires in the Sahara.
19
This is what happens when countries like Australia, the U.S., and Brazil elect climate change skeptics and science deniers. This is what happens when the leaders of countries like Australia, the U.S., and Brazil promote fossil fuels to line the pockets of rapacious industries without any concern about the destruction they cause. These countries and others like China, India, and even now Japan, refuse to accept the fact that they are turning our home into a filthy oven. Until voters wake up it will only get worse.
21
One salient fact, despite the damage to the environment of Australia and to the national psyche the people there continue to elect climate deniers and the news they read is dominated by the Murdoch newspapers.
There is a machismo, misogynist culture down under that is intolerant of women in politics and fearful of seeming soft and giving in. Whether it is to climate change or the role of women in modern life the male dominated cultural and political life is very reactionary.
These cataclysmic fires are more likely to not cause change but to strengthen resistance to change.
For the sake of Australia and the planet I hope that I am wrong.
12
@Edward B. Blau
Have you heard of Julia Gilliard, our first female Prime Minister?
Is DJT really a woman???
2
@Tjilpi No I had not heard of her. But I have read of the repeatedly and gross misogynist public comments from Australian male legislators that were directed at female legislators.
I am not sure which Australia the writer is inhabiting, but it surely isn't the same one I am in. And there I was telling people overseas that for once, during the bushfires, the media couldn't exaggerate the extent of the devastation. But as the bushfires are finally, thankfully, coming under control, the hyperbole has once again exceeded the reality. Oh, the media. Reality is only enough when it is extreme. If it's not, make it up. Yawn, hand me another beer, and throw another 'shrimp' (that is a prawn here in OZ) on the barbie please.
6
@MCK451
So what you’re saying is that the bushfires were beyond exaggeration because they were so bad but now that they are finally under control, everything is ok and there is no cause for worry? You won’t need a Barbie to cook those shrimp on pretty soon.
2
Whatever Prime Minister Morrison and the federal Government may think climate change is now the paramount issue here in Australia.
12
Nicely nuanced article. Cave traverses the usual tropes associated with 'Australia', i.e. 'egalitarianism' and assumed laidback predisposition - with more than a hint of incredulity.
He's right to be skeptical.
In reality, what we call 'Australia' was constructed as a perverse method of brutal discipling submission to capitalist expansion. Australians - for all their self-delusions of anti-hero laconic indifference to authority - continue to submit like snivelling toerags to ruling class hierarchy. Indeed, the 'methodists' live on in the presence of the putrid Murdoch family who have polluted social discourse in Australia for a number of generations. Having successfully adapted the tabloid method from Rothermere, they conquered America - and now we're all Foxed.
Australia is a harbinger for climate catastrophe, and that will be fully realized by the collapse of a workable federal parliamentarianism. A polity totally corrupted by Murdoch insinuation, distortion, obfuscation, lies & deceit.
36
I agree that Australians submit very willingly to authority. In my 6 months in NSW, I could fathom that not one car on the highways exceeded the speed limit. I as talking motorcycles with a local there about how most street bikes easily reach 60mph in second gear. We both agreed that owning a motorcycle in Australia would just be a exercise in frustration.
Waking up and facing reality can be hard.
6
These so called ashen moonscapes as you over dramatically called them, have already started regrowing, green shoots everywhere.
@Paul Z
Sure hope the entire towns burned to the ground have, too. And maybe with luck, those green shoots will grow up to be mature trees in the next couple of decades, assuming, as does not seem likely, that they won’t be sooner destroyed by fire or drought.
8
@Paul Z It takes twenty years to grow a tree to full adulthood. Hardwood trees take longer. Conifers grow fast but don't do well in warmer climates, which we'll all be living under with increasing "Hundred Year Droughts", or storms, heat waves or hurricanes, etc., that now occur every few years.
3
@Billyboy I can assure you entire towns did not burn down. And even thou mature trees burnt most are still alive with green shoots are on them as the rains have returned.
if Australians cannot summon the will to change after their experiences of the last few months there is no future for mankind.
4
In the case of Australian fires, one needs to examine the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) system. This involves ocean temperatures at the western end of the Indian Ocean compared to the eastern end of the Indian Ocean vis a vis the the clockwise trade wind patterns that correspond to these ocean temperatures. Currently, the IOD is in its positive phase, where the western ocean 'pole' (off the coast of East Africa) is significantly warmer than the eastern 'pole' (off the coast of Australia). During this phase, the warm water evaporates and yields heavy rainfall in Eastern Africa. This rainfall in 2019 was so extensive that it caused life threatening floods in East Africa which forced hundreds of thousands of people to relocate. This tragic flooding received scant attention in the American media. Contrary to the normal climate of East Africa, the rains continued into January. This produced conditions which led to the current locust plague that is devastating East African agricultre. Conversely, the IOD has produced extreme drought conditions in Australia and has lengthened the so called 'fire season.' Some climate experts have stated that the negative effects of the IOD use to happen about every 17 years, but they now predict that the African flooding and Australian fires will occur every 5-6 years! It is important study the IOD system. Educators and journalists need to learn about this and disseminate the information to the public at large.
26
Until we experienced this first hand it’s just nearly impossible to understand the dread that a truly warmed world will bring to our lives. Use your imagination, look around you outside, think about the world with less food, less water, less safety… Then look at all the people and wonder what will they do?
12
I can’t believe we are still having this should I/shouldn’t I debate, global warming is here do something about it or move on.
8
The author make a a good point at the end of the article. How to get politicians and the people to lay down their defensive arms and work together for their own sake?
6
No worries, ultimately climate change will have Mother Nature taking care of the primary contributing factor... human overpopulation. Sadly, it won't discriminate among species though.
15
I keep remembering a line in a book on evolution concerning Nature's command to all living things: "change or vanish"
8
I'd like to believe this fire season's events will jolt the country into action. But I fear the "she'll be right mate" attitude that has always underpinned the national consciousness, reinforcing a belief that Aussies are tough enough to triumph over whatever nature throws their way, will prevail.
9
No mention of enacting brush clearing and management strategies that used to be practiced by the Aboriginals? Why do the only proposed solutions involve burning less fossil fuels (which obviously should be done)? We need to realize it will take both aspects to effectively reduce fire danger in Australia.
7
Actually, 'implementing brush clearing and management strategies that used to be practiced by the Aboriginals' is the official policy of the Greens. Though they've had a hard time getting that message out since they are busy being the punching bag of the Murdoch press, who are on a mission to push the climate science denialism agenda at all cost, and not only prop up the conservative government, but ensure that the leader of it tows the denialist line - which is why Malcom Turnbull had to go…
26
The prevention, mitigation and fighting of wildfires is highly technical.
Fuel reduction strategies of many and varied design are each fraught with different risks.
But when you’re faced with a firestorm or a megafire (that’s when several fires combine) there is very little that can be done to prevent or reduce it in advance. The best our superhero Firies can hope for is to protect homes and, if we are lucky, rare and/or natural features and wildlife.
And pray for huge downpours of rain to quench it all.
And that’s when we start responding to flooding and our relocating topsoils.
The wide brown land of raging fires and flooding rains,
8
Americans have also been subjected to El Presidente Grande informing us that California's fires could have been prevented by better forest maintenance, like those tidy Scandinavians practice.
I used to live in the Sierra Nevada and visit my old friends and Giant Sequoias annually. For the past several years the Sierra as well as conifer forests up the entire western coast of North America have been ravaged by the Pine Bark Beetle, a climate change created plague. Over one third of all the trees in those forests are dead. You can visually see the swaths of red and yellow dried up carcasses shot through every forest.
I check with the Forest Service on my visits, and they confirm the damage and remind me that doing control burns, the long-standing means of clearing dense underbrush, becomes dangerous when one third of all the trees are dried up tinder, waiting for a spark.
9
Thank you for a well written article, the only thing missing is any information on the fate of the aboriginal peoples of Australia during this fire storm.
It is not only a wake up call for Australia but for the world. The $64,000.00 question has to be...is the world listening?
Anyone who is 60 or 70 years old and has lived in the same area all their lives can easily see the changes in their local climate over the last 50 or 60 years. The sad thing is the people who study these patterns have been telling us this for the past 90 years, yet we have chosen to ignore their collective knowledge and advice.
Instead we have listened to our politicians who are not career scientists, but are very good at throwing stones at ideas and realities they don't want to address.
Our big concern should be is have we missed the bus? I'm sure many in Australia are fearful that they have.
61
“50 or 60 years?”
I’ve seen changes in 3 or 4 years. The backyard is more damp. There is moss where there was never moss before. If this dampness continues in the northeast and we don’t have a proper winter there will be nothing standing between us and West Nile carrying mosquitos and Lyme disease carrying ticks.
51
@Dan in Ohio : The big concern should be, what do we do now?
7
@Dan in Ohio , Half of the Indigenous population of New South Wales live in the outer western Sydney Suburbs, between Parramatta and Penrith. There are concentrations in Melbourne and Brisbane too.
Ironically, the arid Steppe where a lot of Indigenous people live was untouched by bushfires.
The world can hope that Australia will show climate leadership as a result of their conscience raising fire experience.
One route to salvage its pariah status as far as climate is for Australia to lead, by example, a group of nations that are medium level carbon emitters but are usually not held accountable to the extent of the large emitters, US, China and India.
Australia is one of 13 countries that individually emit less than 4% of the global emissions. For most it is 1-2% each, and they are in the insane practice of using the illogical argument that “what we do won’t make a difference”. This group have high emissions per capita and includes Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, South Korea, some EU countries.
In lock step with the US and other fossil fuel entrenched industrial countries, Australia (and Saudi Arabia, Japan, Brazil) sabotaged the recent UN talks to establish more ambitious standards on countries’ emissions (COP 26 Madrid). This was in each case self-serving and shameful.
Although individually these countries emissions are low, combined they contribute 25% to the global CO2 emissions.
Most have very strong economies and could easily reduce their emissions with ambitious clean energy policies. It will only happen with stand out political leadership which we don’t see yet in any of this group, unfortunately the opposite in many.
30
@Margaret P.
I am with you here.
Our responsability is linked to our personal carbon (or carbon-equivalence, to be more precise) footprint.
AUS has a very high per capita carbon footprint, only topped by some Arabian Emirates and the like. [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita?tab=chart&country=JPN+USA+GBR+CHN+IND+DEU+ITA+FRA+AUS]
So the first step is to become clear about your own carbon footprint. Then make decisions about how to lower it - on a personal, community, company and country scale.
9
Australia always has had ferocious brushfires.
Dating back to 1851, in the state of Victoria alone, 12 million acres were burnt and a million sheep and 12 people killed. In the 1938-1939 brushfire season, fires occurred for a whole summer of extreme heat, and ash fell as far away as New Zealand. It was calculated that three-quarters of the State of Victoria was directly or indirectly affected by the disaster.
In 1974, 290 million acres burned which is equivalent to the combined total area of France, Spain, and Portugal.
Brush fires are endemic to Australia. Global warming will undoubtedly impact the situation for the worse but it has not created it.
The recent impact seen, as in the California fires, is due the increasing population and its dispersal further into areas formerly not developed because of the hazards they offered.
16
@GerardM -
Charles Darwin wrote in 1835 about Australia showing signs of fire everywhere. So yes, it's a continent of fire, to use poetic language.
Having said that, and that's not so poetic, there are quantitative differences to be made: the frequency and size of fires are to be considered, and they are going up. At some point, this gradual development becomes a new quality, which is discernable only from a more rearward point of view, looking at longer time intervals.
I guess, the next 2 to 5 summers will be more normal, vegetation will recover to a certain extent and even fauna may. But drought is a thug waiting behind the next corner, waiting to beat you up.
12
@GerardM
This is the refrain we always hear from climate change skeptics whatever part of the world is being impacted...”weather has always changed”.
There is scientific consensus around the globe that the climate is being drastically altered by human activity and we are very close to or have already arrived at irreversible and life altering change to global weather.
To dismiss the evidence is simply dangerous denial.
We know we are in trouble when the financial world takes notice. A recent article in The Center for American Progress “Climate change is a systemic risk to the financial sector”
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2019/11/21/477190/climate-change-threatens-stability-financial-system/
If anything should unite all political parties the global threat of climate change should.
2
@GerardM
I have lived here for 65 years and there has never been anything like this before. We have always had fires but this was apocalypse now. It had nothing to do in terms of causation with more people being in the area. It cannot be compared to California because of our ubiquity of eucalypts which have copious bark and inflammable resin. The link to California is climate change.
Your argument would be like downplaying the holocaust because Europe has always had anti-semitic pogroms.
While I am here I would like to thank the American firefighters who gave their lives not far from where I write. Condolences to the families.
12
Every single one of the people in the photo of that beach, as well as anyone else that came close to the wildfires, is going to be irreparably changed. If we're not going to have generations of people damaged by stress disorders -- in other words, bearing with them a terrible, grinding anxiety every single day, and responding in line with it -- then we have to figure out how to help them. That means, among other things, figuring out how to live our lives differently.
I say this as a person who went through the Irma and Maria superstorms and the aftermath. There are real consequences to climate change, and they include the mental well-being of the people who are enduring it. Eventually, that will be all of us.
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@Hypatia
Excellent point. We already have a dramatic rise in PTSD here in Australia.This an expensive problem but more importantly a humanitarian one. Kangaroo Island is one of the most beautiful places on Earth (incidentally it has the same longitude and latitude mentioned in Gulliver's Travels); was devastated this summer and thousands of Koalas burned alive; but just economically it has been really bad for tourism. Please come and visit though as the island needs you now. But the animal lovers who had to rescue burned koalas did suffer the tremendous stress and distress that you highlight. That you for pointing out the mental health cost- it is very real and not something people often think of.
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@Bob Guthrie. I love your country! I've visited there 15 times and will not stop now. I feel that the people will press for change that the government will have to listen to. If any country's people can be a world leader for climate change, it is Australians with its Aboriginal nations in the vanguard.
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Lived in Australia forty yrs. It is the country of the future but we now need our politicians to wake up: stop mining coal, establish major fire fighting services, build many major infrastructure projects.
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Does anyone really believe that if Australia shut down its entire coal industry, the chances of having another terrible fire season would be reduced?
You know when it will be reduced? When China no longer uses coal. But sadly, not only is China building many more coal plants in China, they are building them in Viet Nam, Pakistan, Africa, India and lots of other places. Why? Because the citizens of those countries want what we take for granted - reliable electricity, air conditioning, refrigeration, etc.
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@Erik This is not true. While China is exporting much of its coal-industry, it is shutting down and mothballing a lot of its domestic consumption of coal. Most importantly, China is investing far more in building and developing renewable energy than any other country. The Chinese take climate change seriously, despite their inconsistencies. They accept that it is a global problem. I think that the evidence is they will do far more to contribute to its management in a positive way than many Western states.
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@Erik, To your first point - it is absolutely certain that terrible fire seasons will recurr if global fossil fuel emissions continue and ever more CO2 accumulates (now growing 2 1/2 times faster than in the 1960s). Its is also a safe bet that if Australia clings obstinately to feeble emissions reduction goals, it will encourage others to be laggards. Australia needs to realise that its coal exports - thermal especially - are a major part of the problem. And when the world's largest coal exporter winds down, this will increase the price of seaborne coal and accelerate its decline.
On your second point, yes, China in particular needs to up its game. But many of the coal plants you refer to will never be built and others will be retired early. India has burnt less coal for power this year than last, despte increasing its overall generation through solar and hydro. East Africa is leading the way on distributed micogrids. The path out of poverty needs electricity, absolutely, but to imagine this requires Australian coal is both false and economically unsound for Australia, beyond a short time frame that is rapidly shrinking.
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@Erik, quit being part of the problem, become part of the solution, that's the whole point of this article. We as a people of this earth can't continue as we have in the past.
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We talk the talk but we wont walk the walk. The simple fact is the collective population is not prepared to to lower its standard of living, that leaving coal and other hydro-carbons in the ground will entail. Australia has had ample opportunity over the last 15 years but in all cases it has voted out any Government that tried to enact a meaningful carbon abatement policy.
We reap what we sow.
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@Russell ,Perth.
That is true Russell. Many of the places incinerated on the east coast depend heavily on tourism including where people had to shelter at the beach. Their standard of living has been lowered by the fire. Eco tourism and unspoiled natural beauty may well be more wealth producing in the end than coal. I believe the biggest source of new tourism here is from China. If you are learning Mandarin going to Kangaroo Island is a good place to practise. When I went there a few years back most of the people there were Chinese tourists- way more Chinese than locals.
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@Russell ,Perth. Yes and why is that. I would point to a mediaand big business owned prime minister who is nothing more than a mouthpiece for their continued bad policies at the expense of the people of Australia.
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@Russell ,Perth. Since you are correct and we can’t change the world we should focus on mitigating the problem.
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While these fires have been unprecedented in scale many areas have escaped bushfires so far this season- Tasmania, all of northern Australia and large areas between the burnt areas.
The scary part is where this fires were. Coastal areas that normally get more rain, more green grass and because of that green grass, fires are very rare in these areas. Add to that not just one of these coastal plain areas went up but a string of large fires right up the east coast.
It's not just that, I can list about 20 different ways my natural world has changed significantly from when I was a kid and I'm 55.
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@Craig Murray And it burned areas of rainforest which have never before seen bushfires.
That's how dry it was.
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Having visited Australia, my impression is its culture is grounded in admirable tenacity to thrive in a harsh environment. That said, it's critical we recognize that climate change events, like these blazes, are not only Australia's problem but all peoples'. We are all stakeholders in this effort to maintain livability on this planet. We all breathe the air, drink the water, and nourish ourselves with the fruits of this earth - as do our children. Leaving a depleted husk as a legacy is not an option.
A network of mutual consideration, decision making, and action is needed the likes of mobilizing forces to prevail over a common enemy. Who will step into the leadership vacuum to create support systems with a vision for a sustainable future? No doubt, the US has its head stuck in the sand. Will Australia lead the way?
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@Sophistia...I hope so. There is an enormous opportunity for Australia to lead the way. We have an abundance of renewable carbon-neutral energy sources; a thirst for progressing technologies in this area; and businesses champing at the bit waiting for ‘signals’ from the Government so the shift to renewables can begin in earnest.
Meanwhile no meaningful policy/structural change can progress while our major political parties are ‘wedded’ to the coal industry lobby, and the easy/lazy sell of continuing coal mining for the electorates currently dependent on coal for employment. Atop that we have the propoganda of climate change denial on the likes of Sky News ( I’m looking at you Rupert Murdoch).
Let’s hope beyond hope the tragedy and devastation of this Summer will be the catalyst for major change (including a worthy exit plan for coal miners).
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@Sophistia unfortunately our elected government will not lead the way.
It is even now arguing for coal subsidies, prioritising gas power generation over renewable power, upgrading the politician's car fleet with new ice cars, not electric, encouraging offshore oil exploration, and I shows no leadership in the agricultural and construction sectors.
Time will tell whether community action will make a difference.
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"More specifically, she said, the economy needs to change, not just moving away from fossil fuels, a major export,..."
The amount of coal Australia exports (mostly to China) is a tiny pimple in the vast scheme of things when it comes to CO2 emissions. And if Australia were to ban the exporting of coal, China would import it from another country.
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@Erik --your coal export data are wrong. Australia exports close to 40% of world coal exports and top exporter-- top 5 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of coal during 2018 are
Australia: US$47 billion (37.8% of total coal exports)
Indonesia: $20.6 billion (16.6%)
Russia: $17 billion (13.7%)
United States: $12.2 billion (9.8%) http://www.worldstopexports.com/coal-exports-country/
Notice that U.S. is #5 exporter. The world needs to leave all the coal in the ground, and then move onto
leaving all the natural gas and petroleum underground.
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@Erik That does not prevent Australia from building new economic opportunities through solar power wind power, hydro electricity, desalination, electric car making and infrastructure. Australia has green energy sources in abundance. This is where something like a Green New Deal is a stimulus for economic growth. It has to be seen as an opportunity not a problem. Anti left bigotry is what is holding it up and vested interests in fossil fuels. The right needs to change its attitude. And hey Science is backing the left here. Future generations are pro environment. It is crusty old greedy men who only have a few years lef whot are getting the way of obviously needed urgent changes in thinking.
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@john You give yourself away when you state we should leave all natural gas and petroleum in the ground. You honestly think that we can power the American economy and heat and cool our buildings, and then charge 150 million electric cars, with mostly wind and solar? Sorry, but anyone who states this cannot be taken seriously, especially know that they don't work when there is no wind or no sun.
And as for Australian coal exports, what percentage of those exports represent the total amount of coal produced every year? That is the real issue.
7
I have been saying in reader comments for many years that Australia is only liveable on a thin coastal band, and that has been in flames now for several agonising months. Add that Europe, for its limited landmass, is now overpopulated, Canada is liveable on only 1/3 of its magnificent territory, the rest is simply too arctic. The USA needs to preserve its remaining wildernesses. We need to start seriously discussing our global population limitations.
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Over-population is an elitist western myth. The truth is, developed countries all over the world face the same problem, stagnant or slow growing economies, quickly aging workforces, and below-replacement birthrates. All of these factors combine to produce record budget deficits, austerity policies, and falling living standards. Slowing economic growth hinders the transition to the renewable energy economy. The most healthy developed economies have one thing in common, friendly and generous immigration policies.
So, if you are worried that the populations of Africa and Asia will add another billion people each over the next few decades, console yourself in the knowledge that it's only with increased trade, knowledge and technology transfer, and movement of people, that will produce greater prosperity, living standards, and sustainable outcomes for the planet.
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Am I to infer from your comment that overpopulation of the Earth by humans does not exist? If so, is it presently underpopulated? Or at a desirable equilibrium population? If either of these, am I to infer that redistribution of the ‘billion more people in Africa and the billion more people in Asia’- to where, may I ask - is the solution to an overpopulation which only exists in an elite myth? Or is it that all we as Earthlings have to do is grow and grow and grow and grow our economies until we all have renewable energy, at which point it will be clear that the Earth is not overpopulated? Or will ( to use an example) Uganda with a population of 100 million people in 2050 ( present population @ 45 million) not be overpopulated as long as the nature of our economies changes?
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@Nick
All of that, and the education and liberation of women, too. Education of women correlates strongly with smaller families. Education leans toward social autonomy and the realization that they don’t have to bear six or eight or ten children, and everyone benefits.
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