January 4, 2020

"Its glorious Great Barrier Reef is dying, its world-heritage rain forests are burning, its giant kelp forests have largely vanished, numerous towns have run out of water or are about to..."

"... and now the vast continent is burning on a scale never before seen. The images of the fires are a cross between 'Mad Max' and 'On the Beach': thousands driven onto beaches in a dull orange haze, crowded tableaux of people and animals almost medieval in their strange muteness — half-Bruegel, half-Bosch, ringed by fire, survivors’ faces hidden behind masks and swimming goggles. Day turns to night as smoke extinguishes all light in the horrifying minutes before the red glow announces the imminence of the inferno. Flames leaping 200 feet into the air. Fire tornadoes. Terrified children at the helm of dinghies, piloting away from the flames, refugees in their own country.... As Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, once observed, the collapse of the Soviet Union began with the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in 1986. In the wake of that catastrophe, 'the system as we knew it became untenable,' he wrote in 2006. Could it be that the immense, still-unfolding tragedy of the Australian fires may yet prove to be the Chernobyl of climate crisis?"

From "Australia Is Committing Climate Suicide/As record fires rage, the country’s leaders seem intent on sending it to its doom" by the novelist Richard Flanagan (NYT).

112 comments:

rhhardin said...

They're clearing out the flammable underbrush. Next year will be better.

#forestManagement

rehajm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dude1394 said...

I think I've read that the barrier reef dying is bs.

rehajm said...

Severe weather is not getting more severe or more frequent, so the consensus science says. Computer models are guessing it might in the future, but its just a guess...

rhhardin said...

Eucalyptus trees are very flammable, though. You get one Koala bear that smokes and it's all over.

rehajm said...

You get one Koala bear that smokes and it's all over.

The bigger risk is wombats smoking weed.

Original Mike said...

I bet it's the Drop Bears.

narciso said...


https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/tim-blair/asylum-seekers-and-their-motives/news-story/1ac1b9135509c7d3a2ac4dab176fdc9f

narciso said...

tim blair has a whole thick file on Richard flanigan, going back at least a decade,

DavidUW said...

What a joke.
Yes, australia is done.

chickelit said...

What I'm getting on my browser when I click Althouse's link:

Susan E. Rice
The Dire Consequences of Trump’s Suleimani Decision
2 hours ago
REGISTER TO READ

The Editorial Board
The Evidence on Ukraine Is Only Getting Worse for Donald Trump
55 minutes ago
REGISTER TO READ

Jonathan Stevenson
American Foreign Policy Is Broken. Suleimani’s Killing Proves It.
7 hours ago
REGISTER TO READ

_____________________
Three screeds I wouldn't pay a dime to read. Who buys this shit? Seriously

chickelit said...

rhhardin said...Eucalyptus trees are very flammable, though. You get one Koala bear that smokes and it's all over.

Eucalyptus wood burns very slow and hot, like coal. Leaves very little ash.

narciso said...

it's not yet, that's why flanigan is 'gnashing his teeth' but the Gramscian road crew has done their work, ah susan rice, architect of the iran deal, the Libyan gringolade,

that's why they narrow it to 10 items a month,

Skeptical Voter said...

Bring back that 1975 "We are entering an new ice age and will freeze to death" issue of Time Magazine and drop it on the fires. All that melting ice will put the fires out.

Darrell said...

Greta Thunberg said up against the wall, motherfucker!

It will be bloody, but OK.

George said...

Australia is burning because, for decades, the authorities have neglected their obligation to reduce the fuel loads of our highly inflammable forested areas coupled with the propensity for people to increasingly settle in densely forested areas in their suicidal rush to get back to nature. Planned hazard reduction programs will limit fire intensities as well as the dangers to communities.

Following every major bushfire there is an inquiry which highlights the significant failures of government to carry out hazard reduction, the active involvement of the relevant authorities in blocking up access to potential fire areas by not maintaining and even blocking fire trails in a misguided approach to allowing the wilderness areas flourish (they flourish until a superfire comes through and destroys all of their ecological values).

From its earliest inhabitants Australia practised "firestick management" it is now a thing of the past.

As for the Barrier reef - it is in fine shape. Read
https://ipa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Ridd-P-Chapter-1-from-Climate-Change-The-Facts-2017-IPA.pdf
From one of Australia's leading reef researchers who is being castigated by a number of grant seeking and scientifically dishonest institutions.

Darrell said...

The fire was started by an arsonist. Hardly Mother Nature.

Sebastian said...

"by the novelist Richard Flanagan"

The obvious go-to source for the NYT.

Anyway, did he discuss Indian Ocean temperatures?

chickelit said...

Susan E. Rice "The Dire Consequences of Trump’s Suleimani Decision"

Will she be paid to go on the Sunday talk shows to sell her "End of History" prophecies?

Browndog said...

I wouldn't doubt if these fires are being intentionally set by eco-terrorists.

Remember how the left flipped out over the rain forests burning this summer? Of course you do.

Yea, they set them.

chuck said...

I'm laughing. Not at the fires, at the NY Times.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

I don't know about Australia's reef but the Caribbean reefs are very stressed. Cozumel closed their most popular reef this winter.

There is a disease or bacteria or something going on. They are calling the white blight.

Sargassum us another huge problem on the Caribbean.

Again no one knows for sure what is going on, but there is real damage down there.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
George Putnam said...

I didn't know that Gorbachev believed that the "collapse of the Soviet Union began with the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in 1986" so it was interesting to learn that. On the other hand, the author seems to believe that forest fires of this magnitude are unprecedented and are likely caused by governments he doesn't like. Well, check out the 1987 Black Dragon Fire in China:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Daxing%27anling_Wildfire

Concerning the current Australian fires, the NYT says (Jan. 2) "about 15 million acres have been blackened over the past four months." The Wikipedia article at the above link says the Black Dragon Fire "destroyed 18 million acres of forest, including one sixth of China's entire timber reserves."

n.n said...

Another opinion on the Great Barrier Reef. Life and death are evolutionary, but overall the Reef remains viable.

tim maguire said...

Unknown said...I think I've read that the barrier reef dying is bs.

Me too--there was a die off a few years back, but scientists never figured out why and the reef is recovering.

Australia is like California--fires are normal and this season was no different. And, also like CA, it's mostly desert and a lot of towns have been borrowing against the future by taking more out of the aquifer than the rains can put back in. It was inevitable that the wells would run dry eventually.

I don't know about the kelp but given that he's 0-3 on the other signs of the apocalypse, I'm betting he's worng here too.

n.n said...

Hijacking Australian 2019 Bushfire Tragedies to Fearmonger Climate Change

Nature is infamously Green: reduce, reuse, recycle, and unpredictable. The loss of flora and fauna is unfortunate. Humans are advised to follow best practices.

madAsHell said...

There's a strange symbiotic relationship between newspapers, and climate change.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gahrie said...

I thought extinction and evolution were natural phenomena?

n.n said...

Water consumption, especially in high-density populations, is a problem. We need to improve anthropogenic greening choices and agricultural methods. Finally, there is an opportunity to go Green, and clear the beaches (or claim offshore space) in order to exploit the intermittent energy production of wind turbines and photovoltaic panels to desalinate the water. Green technology is well suited for low availability, mission uncritical applications, albeit with a notorious blight factor.

JackWayne said...

The Australian PM is getting it good and hard for trying to have man-made global warming both ways. Fuck the wussy Aussie.

rehajm said...

Event attribution studies are easy to do and super media friendly. They are also highly dependent on assumptions and models

danoso said...

I recall visiting the outback years ago. They were battling fires - imagine that. The chief cause was the introduction of Rhodesian buffel grass, which greens up nicely with little water. No more reddish outback is what they were shooting for. Problem is buffel grass dies quickly, and burns extremely hot. So much for planning.

Big Mike said...

I don't know about Australia's reef but the Caribbean reefs are very stressed. Cozumel closed their most popular reef this winter.

There is a disease or bacteria or something going on. They are calling the white blight.


The problem is apparently due to an ingredient in popular sun screens. The more popular the reef the more it is stressed by snorkeling tourists wearing sun blocker.

The fire in Australia that forced people to flee to a beach has been blamed on arson.

traditionalguy said...

We seem to be at the tipping point that it is too late to change the Climate Monster before it kills us.

Of course the solutions that are demanded have ZERO effect on Climate. But they do have 100% effect on political power. So we can go Gulag Prisoners for fun right before we all die.

mccullough said...

The Progressive God is Angry.

He’s burning Australia.

I feel bad for mentally unstable people. But I don’t follow their advice.

mccullough said...

We passed the tipping point awhile ago, according to the predictions made 10 years before awhile ago.

Don’t pay attention to people who reset the End of the World Clock after it strikes midnight and nothing happens.

If these people were even remotely serious, they’d be suicide bombers outside China’s Coal Plants.

They lack the courage of their conviction. This Climate Change Stuff is just religion or hobby for Progressives. Their leaders are just making money off it.

Kevin said...

The left is always begging for global catastrophe.

Don’t let their crocodile tears fool you.

It’s the shortest path to their preferred world order.

rehajm said...

Going to be awkward when Biden puts his big money campaign bundlers in jail.

Yancey Ward said...

What fucking horseshit. Australia is burning for the exact same reason California has been burning- the suppression of natural fires for literally decades in an arid environment. Eventually, you lose control of the fires and you get exactly this- a raging inferno that can't be controlled.

readering said...

Let's revisit at end of Australia's fire season.

sinz52 said...

There is no evidence that will convince folks here that anthropogenic climate change is real. Not even if they live long enough to see Cape Canaveral awash. James Inhofe did a superb job of selling environmental Laetrile to them years ago.

That said, this isn't our first environmental problem. We faced smoggy skies and burning rivers. We made changes. Various levels of government ended up mandating catalytic converters on cars and scrubbers on smokestacks. Over the opposition of industry in many cases.

So there's no reason to panic. I am confident that as the climate change problem worsens, America will do what is necessary once more.

Over the opposition of most of the folks here.

Maillard Reactionary said...

Australia will do fine. Richard Flanagan, maybe not.

mccullough said...

Sinz52,

The point of no return passed awhile ago. It’s too late.

Your optimism is just religious belief at this point. The Experts said in the 80s that Climate Change will be irreversible if C02 emissions weren’t reduced by 2000.

That was 20 years ago.



mccullough said...

1988: The World will end in 12 years if you don’t give me all your money right now to fix it.

mccullough said...

Let’s throw AOC into a volcano as a sacrifice to stave off Climate Change.

She was born after The Prediction.

She was 11 when The Point of No Return was reached. Fucking Millennials. Think they invented Sex, Drugs, and Climate Change.

Michael K said...

The chief cause was the introduction of Rhodesian buffel grass, which greens up nicely with little water.

That is a problem in Arizona as it burns easily and spreads to cactus areas.

The Great Barrier Reef died 25 years ago in the first hysteria. Amazing it's dying again.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"I'm striking from school to protest inaction on climate change – you should too"

"I should be in skeuul, on the other side of the oshean!!" --Gretard

****

we're cooking up some all-beef, charcoal-broiled Thunbergers in her honor

Dude1394 said...

Sinz52....your condescension notwithstanding most of the people here completely agree with you. That we will science our way out of any of these issues that have not nearly been proven.

We will do things on a small scale but no way in hell will anyone trust the UN or any other body of men/women/it to control as much as they want to control. Just read the Green New Deal and you see it is barely about climate change, it's about socialism.

Germany can get rid of everything and go back to wood as far as I'm concerned, stupid is as stupid does, but having someone like Great or ALGore be the leaders ( when they've proven again and again they don't know what they are talking about ) is ridiculous.

Yancey Ward said...

Fires in the forests and grasslands of Australia used to be very common and self limiting- no one was there to put them out. Now people put them out routinely. It was only a matter of time before a fire like this happened, and it has exactly jack shit to do with climate change, and everything to do with human mismanagement of the lands. Building housing in a forest in an environment like this is just about the stupidest thing you can do- either don't build, cut the fucking forest back, or manage the fuel situation much better than is being done. Forest management just about everywhere only consists of putting out fires any longer- we would be better off without it at all if that is all they actually do.

Michael K said...

Blogger sinz52 said...

There is no evidence that will convince folks here that anthropogenic climate change is real.


That';s because there is no evidence that has not been corrupted by the people, like Michael Mann. who are living off it.

Michael K said...

Fires in the forests and grasslands of Australia used to be very common and self limiting-

Neville Shute wrote a number of novels of Australia after he moved there about 1950. Several of his novel are about the forest fires.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Going to be awkward when Biden puts his big money campaign bundlers in jail.

First let's throw Tom Steyer in prison then I know they are serious. He made his money on coal and gas.

Automatic_Wing said...

Eh. People have always been vexed by the weather.

Yancey Ward said...

I grew up in eastern Kentucky in the Appalachians. Every 3-5 years the area would suffer a drought from Summer until late Fall and in the hills forest fires would start and burn up one side of the mountains and down the other. Other than the air quality, there was no real danger since practically no one was daft enough to build housing on the hillsides- the valley floors were completely deforested. Additionally, outside the Jefferson National Forest, no one tried to put the fires out either. I never really appreciated what normal fires do to such forests until I tried off trail hiking in the Smokies a few years ago- where I grew up, you could take any trek you liked up onto the mountains- the terrain was rocky, but not cluttered up with deadwood- everywhere was easily passable. I couldn't do that in the Smokies- you could only attempt it with a large machete, and probably would tire yourself out after about 30 minutes.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

Forecasted attribution of the human influence on Hurricane Florence

Recently, the “hindcast attribution method” (13), described in Methods, was introduced to make attribution statements about present-day tropical cyclones and other severe storms, similar to the “pseudo–global warming” approach for the projection of future climate extremes (14, 15). This attribution methodology has been used to identify the current and future human influence, if any, on the wind speed and precipitation of 15 historical tropical cyclones, including Hurricanes Katrina, Maria, and Irma (16), and has been referred to as a “storyline” approach to attribution (17).

The IPCC stipulates that the systems and processes are chaotic, which limits confidence intervals of forecasts and hindcasts. The global characterization is a computational, not observed quality or quantity. There are countervailing forcings and processes in the system that are incompletely or insufficiently characterized, and computationally unwieldy. The effects are evolutionary, not progressive. Finally, some good news, extreme events are not more common, disasters are mitigated (with some notable exceptions) through best practices, and the polar bears are healthy and growing with a diet of seals. Vegan, not in Nature.

Spiros said...

Natural disasters contribute to legitimacy crises of governments. The 1979 Chicago Blizzard got Jane Byrne elected mayor over Richard J. Daley's hand picked successor. This week, in Australia, firefighters are heckling and yelling obscenities at the Prime Minister.

Because global warming will increase the risks of natural disasters, global warming will increase anti-government political activities. More revolutions, riots, guerrilla warfare and intrastate conflict. And more GD refugees. Let's do something about this!!!!

Rory said...

When reports come in from far away, ask how well the media did with stories that happened around your town. That's how accurate the far away stories are.

n.n said...

Eh. People have always been vexed by the weather.

It's too hot, too cold, always change, which is a first-order forcing of anthropogenic [sociopolitical] climate change, sometimes catastrophic.

Gahrie said...

My answer to Mr. Flanagan.

n.n said...

It has been hotter, fires have burnt larger areas

The historical evidence, however, indicates fires have burnt very large areas before, and it has been hotter.

Some of the catastrophe has been compounded by our refusal to prepare appropriately, as is the case with the current bushfire emergency here in Australia. Expert Dr Christine Finlay explains the importance of properly managing the ever increasing fire loads in an article in today’s The Australian. While there is an increase in the area of national park with Eucalyptus forests, there has been a reduction in the area of hazard reduction burning.

The situation is perhaps also made worse by fiddling with the historical temperature record. This will affect the capacity of those modelling bushfire behaviour to obtain an accurate forecast.


JoNova: Aussie ABC Disappearing Evidence They Helped Climate Activists Campaign Against Controlled Burns

50 shades of California. Wind turbines, too. A Green blight.

chickelit said...

@Gahrie: What a dismal, mal-enthused scientist Paul Ehrlich was.

MadisonMan said...

Is the author even aware of how much of the Global CO2 output Australia belches? He writes as if they are a big player. (Hint: They're not).

Marcus Bressler said...

That the "Great Barrier Reef is dying" is as much a scam as current climate change screams. It has bounced back (amazing, eh?) but The Left and its environmental Nazis love to perpetuate that myth as they do with many others.

THEOLDMAN

One of the idiots on Imgur suggested, tongue in cheek, that if the Aussies "raked" their forest floor, none of this would have happened. There is more truth to that then his little head thinks

Birkel said...

Haven't read the comments.
The Great Barrier Reef is doing better than experts previously alleged.

Earnest Prole said...

The Australian continent had catastrophic fires many millions of years before we arrived on this planet, and it will be having catastrophic fires many millions of years after we depart.

gspencer said...

Add to the list all the murderous Muslims invading the place.

Clyde said...

Novelists: Doing the jobs that New York Times "journalists" won't do!

Clyde said...

chickelit said...
What I'm getting on my browser when I click Althouse's link:

Susan E. Rice
The Dire Consequences of Trump’s Suleimani Decision
2 hours ago
REGISTER TO READ


Susan F***ing Rice?! The Obama apparatchik who told us that the Benghazi attack was caused by some stupid video? THAT Susan F***ing Rice?! Tell her to go back to the burrow she slunk out of and stop trying to insult our intelligence... AGAIN!

Owen said...

So many excellent comments here on the climate hysteria. I just want to link a piece from Watts Up With That (where I sometimes browse) that, this very day, was talking about the GBR and the abject failure of key measurement work by those who are loudest in claiming the GBR is dead. Apparently a key tool to measure reef health is to take "cores" (like a tree) that show annual growth rings. This was done some decades ago at which time scientists claimed thet the GBR growth went to hell abruptly in 1990. And now it seems their methodology was crap and when errors are corrected the signal isn't there. So you'd expect follow-on measurements to see what's been going on since? Crickets. We're flying blind, but being shouted to by the grant-wangling hysterics.

Such really bad science here. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/01/02/no-data-on-coral-growth-rates-for-15-years/

gilbar said...

The images of the fires are a cross between 'Mad Max' and 'On the Beach'

i assume they mean, they're a cross... for people that have Never Seen EITHER movie?

Temujin said...

I'm going to go out on a limb here and state that the Great Barrier Reef will be alive and abundant in 20 years. Australia will be around until at least 2030. Just a guess, but I'm feeling pretty good about it.


MikeR said...

Haven't followed the story so I don't know if Australia's climate problems are as serious as they claim. But _if_ they are, and _if_ human-created climate change is the main cause: Australia still can't do anything about it at all. That climate change doesn't come from Australia's CO2, it comes from China's CO2. And it's a slow process that will keep building for decades no matter what you decide to do today.
So the main correct solution, no matter what else you decide to do, is find better ways to adapt. That is true no matter what you hold about climate science.

Drago said...

sinz52: "There is no evidence that will convince folks here that anthropogenic climate change is real. Not even if they live long enough to see Cape Canaveral awash. James Inhofe did a superb job of selling environmental Laetrile to them years ago."

LOL

You can begin by explaining why predictions in the 1980's that we had only till 2000 to "fix" the climate were wrong.

After you've explained that you can explain why predictions made in the 1990's that we only had until 2010 to "fix" the climate were wrong.

After you've explained that you can explain why predictions made in the 2000's that we only had until 2020 to "fix" the climate were wrong.

Nake sure your explanations explain the Mann "hockey stick" hoax, the East Anglia-CRU "hide the decline" emails, the coordinated attack on scientists who presented concerns about the methodologies and the refusal of "researchers" to provide their raw data and data scrubbing methodologies.

Until you do that you can shove your "get the marxist international govt in place thru the back door" tactic where the sun dont shine.

Tommy Duncan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tommy Duncan said...

Blogger Tommy Duncan said...

We can all do our part to help repair the earth. Americans should stop mowing their yards. Within a few years dense and diverse underbrush will spring forth and begin gobbling up CO2. Mother Gaia will recognize the healing and peace will reign among all species.

Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons is available on Amazon through the Althouse Portal (seriously).

Automatic_Wing said...

Novelists: Doing the jobs that New York Times "journalists" won't do!

I love that they need to hire novelists, who make up stories for a living, to scare people with their purple prose Creative Writing flourishes about something that's #TotallyRealYouGuys!

Martin said...

Wow, I am convinced!!! All I needed to make me see the light was for yet another C-list artistic type with no relevant knowledge or expertise to offer the ump-teen thousandth such heartfelt and ignorant screed in the NYT!!

Ambrose said...

Have real estate prices in Australia collapsed? Why not? Markets work.

Bruce Hayden said...

“On the other hand, the author seems to believe that forest fires of this magnitude are unprecedented and are likely caused by governments he doesn't like. Well, check out the 1987 Black Dragon Fire in China:”

I think that it was 1901, but there was a fire that ran to within 5 miles of where we live in NW MT. One of the only buildings still standing I tge town 5 miles down river is now the ranch house of my partner’s ex’s ranch. Talked to a guy last summer who was working as a volunteer for the Forest Service in his retirement. He told of his grandmother and her mother sitting in the river for several hours, as the fire burned through. He was told by them that the fire started on the WA coast, then burned all across that state, across the ID Panhandle, and another almost 50 miles into MT. Probably 400 or so miles.

My point is that there were monster fires in the past. They just didn’t kill very many, because most of that distance, across three states, was pretty empty of white people. Now, a fire that runs 10 miles is considered a major danger.

Skeptical Voter said...

I've got an Australian friend who lives in Canberra; he says the smoke is pretty bad, and the heat is intense. OTOH I can recall living in San Diego in the early 70s when a brush fire burned through 60 miles of backcountry. And there have been a few more recently that ran for forty miles or more. You let the brush grow--and guess what? It burns.

alanc709 said...

Brushfires should be banned, they release a lot of carbon into the atmosphere.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Jesus, no one remembers the Australian fires of the '80's? Oh, and the Reef was in imminent peril then, too.

Original Mike said...

"I've got an Australian friend who lives in Canberra; he says the smoke is pretty bad, and the heat is intense."

I'm going to Sydney in April. Hoping it's all over by then. Kinda glad I'm not going to the annual star party in Coonabarabran this year (it's in March).

WR said...

What about fires closer to home? From Wikipedia:
Estimated deaths-around 1500 people.
1,200,000 acres burned.
October 8, 1871.
Peshtigo Wisconsin.

Paul said...

If C02 was the problem then surely there are ways to make machines to scrub the C02 from the atmosphere, right? Subs do it all the time. I can see a nuke reactor powering a scrubber in the Midwest.. maybe one in China, and one in Russia.

Now surely that would not be hard to do! Or, of course, plant more trees. I hear the ones that absorb most C02 are Trees namely Common Horse-chestnut, Black Walnut, American Sweetgum, Ponderosa Pine, Red Pine, White Pine, London Plane, Hispaniolan Pine, Douglas Fir, Scarlet Oak, Red Oak, Virginia Live Oak and Bald Cypress.

Why wasn't this done in the Obama presidency... he had EIGHT YEARS!!!!!

Openidname said...

"George said...

"Australia is burning because, for decades, the authorities have neglected their obligation to reduce the fuel loads of our highly inflammable forested areas coupled with the propensity for people to increasingly settle in densely forested areas in their suicidal rush to get back to nature. Planned hazard reduction programs will limit fire intensities as well as the dangers to communities.

"Following every major bushfire there is an inquiry which highlights the significant failures of government to carry out hazard reduction . . . ."

All equally true of California. Just change "bushfire" to "brushfire."

Kirk Parker said...

mccullough @ 5:57pm,

Don't you need a virgin for that?

Kirk Parker said...


Drago,

sinz52 is absolutely, totally, correct
...
...
IF
...
...
...
...you stop after the first four words: "there is no evidence."

Kirk Parker said...

After that he goes off the rails a little. Oh, oh, okay... A lot!

walter said...

Every generation needs a Harold Camping in some form.
Desk plants will save us.

Seeing Red said...

Natural disasters contribute to legitimacy crises of governments. The 1979 Chicago Blizzard got Jane Byrne elected mayor over Richard J. Daley's hand picked successor.

Bilandik. Lolol I remember those ads.

Jayne’s at an El stop in the cold and snow and Bilandic’s warm and toasty by a fireplace while Chicago is digging out.

Self-enforced error that was.

Jon Burack said...

Such nonsense, so predictable. My brother does environmental work all over the world. He emailed my on this as follows:

I’ve been delving into this subject, the mass media being particularly vacant on the actual causes of this year's catastrophe. The Aussies are the poster child illustration of malpractice and disinformation with respect to climate change explanations and ecological fanaticism getting in the way of fire management policy. It’s clear that heat waves, droughts, windstorms and all that are not trending up in Australia, and that the problem is people getting to close to the bush, a la California urban-wildland fringe, plus studied reductions in what there they call "fuel reduction burning (FRB)." In that dry, bushy, windy country FRB is essential to control, along with better support for fire fighting equipment, personnel, etc. The FRB reductions are driven by money issues, as they are in the USA, and by ecological craziness that wants to protect species from man-made burns, resulting of course, in even greater widespread ecocide when the big fires break out.

In short, they have to (1) develop better regulations to keep people from infringing on unburnt forest and bushland, and (2) begin to raise the level of support for large-scale fire reduction burning, i.e., controlled burning that some parts of the USA do well, and others such as California, have slacked off on.

JPS said...

Jon Burack,

Very interesting - thanks.

Paul:

"If CO2 was the problem then surely there are ways to make machines to scrub the CO2 from the atmosphere, right? Subs do it all the time."

Oh sure. The catch is, it's very energy-intensive. In the above-surface world, you're essentially trying to un-burn the smoke from other people's energy generation.

"I can see a nuke reactor powering a scrubber in the Midwest."

But the number of nuclear reactors it would take to make a discernible difference in CO2 levels is pretty impressive. As a distinguished CO2 chemist once said, "If you're worried about CO2, quit making so much of it." Makes more sense than releasing it by the gigaton and then trying to gather it back and bury it.

lgv said...

Every negative event is not caused by climate change, i.e. CO2 increase. The article makes no attempt or reference to use any science to support the cause and effect. It just plows in from the first sentence with the assumption. Are fires statistically worse?

As to the GBR:

The crown-of-thorns starfish, a consumer of over a dinner plate’s worth of coral daily, has been responsible for 42% of the lost coral. The starfish have been known to cyclically outbreak, with this latest event beginning in 2010. The starfish play such a large role that it is estimated that over the past 30 years the reef would have actually increased in coral cover had it not been for the crown-of-thorns. The short-term strategy is for teams to control the starfish populations using various injection methods, while in the long-run the goal is to be better prepared to respond quickly to future outbreaks.

Excluding the crown-of-thorns problem, the primary cause of coral die off (mostly hard corals) is high temperatures. Climate change activists blame CO2 for the rise, but here are the facts as known since we began recording it:

https://ggweather.com/enso/oni.htm

We can see the warming and cooling. The GBR got hit hard by the extreme El Nino beginning in 2016. I remember the bleaching from the extreme El Nino of 1997-98. Lot's of bleaching. Guess what? Here is the weird part about it. The most susceptible types of coral that die off are then replaced with other species that fair better. Coral always compete with each other. I think they refer to this as evolution and survival of the fittest. Remember, coral is animal, not plant.




Karga said...

None of us wishes to mention over population...

MikeR said...

'But the number of nuclear reactors it would take to make a discernible difference in CO2 levels is pretty impressive. As a distinguished CO2 chemist once said, "If you're worried about CO2, quit making so much of it." Makes more sense than releasing it by the gigaton and then trying to gather it back and bury it.' Yes, correct. But Freeman Dyson already suggested the easiest answer: we can engineer crops or trees that sequester more CO2. It is not as well known as it should be that all the CO2 in the world passes through plants every few years. One corn field absorbs all the CO2 in the air above it within hours (I forget the correct numbers, but you get the idea).

MikeR said...

Dyson: https://www.edge.org/conversation/freeman_dyson-heretical-thoughts-about-science-and-society

chuck said...

>> But Freeman Dyson already suggested the easiest answer: we can engineer crops or trees that sequester more CO2. <<

Sounds extremely dangerous to meddle that way, lots of possible unintended consequences.

MadisonMan said...

Have real estate prices in Australia collapsed? Why not? Markets work.
When I was last there, many of the ads were in Chinese.

SGT Ted said...

How much of this is the responsibility of "green" forestry practices that forbid the clearing of fuels in their forests, just like here in CA?

SGT Ted said...

"There is no evidence that will convince folks here that anthropogenic climate change is real."

Well, actual measured evidence, as opposed to wildly inaccurate computer models and fraudulently altered temperature and sea level data, would be a good start.

Paul said...

Jon Burack,


"Oh sure. The catch is, it's very energy-intensive. In the above-surface world, you're essentially trying to un-burn the smoke from other people's energy generation."

Hence nuke reactors dedicated to powering the C02 scrubbers.

"But the number of nuclear reactors it would take to make a discernible difference in CO2 levels is pretty impressive. "

And how many? You have numbers on that? A nuke reactor can power whole cities... so I bet that will power lots of scrubbers with no drain on power now going to those cities!

Plus, as I said, plant things that absorb C02.

This could have been done 11 years ago under Obama... remember that TRILLION dollar 'stimulus'?? Well, there you go! Need to talk to Pelosi.. if she can still hear over all that impeachment talk.

But you see, it must not be a real emergency.. or it would have been done.

SGT Ted said...

"This could have been done 11 years ago under Obama... remember that TRILLION dollar 'stimulus'??"

That would only provide good paying jobs for icky sweaty working class men and not enough jobs for privileged white women in climate controlled offices doing busy work and gossiping.

TrvlinOn said...

Been diving In Cozumel since 1993. I'm in Coz right now and diving. Palancar Reef(south) showing more bleaching, but Tunich Reef (north) seems almost pristine. The southern reefs (Palancar and Columbia) were closed for a while, but are now open. Probably because this is their high season for diving. With all the big resorts towards the south end, I always wondered what they do with their wastewater. The island has a water treatment facility up north, but I doubt the south resorts are hooked to up to it. It's happening very fast, because we were last year and can see the difference. Not a good situation all around.

madAsHell said...

Rhodesian buffel grass

Rhodes was an old white guy. The country now self-identifies as Zimbabwe. I find references to old white guys that harnessed black Africans with jobs, and prosperity to be triggering. From this point forward, we will cast aside the Rhodes name drenched in Neo-colonial violence, and refer to the grass as Zimbabwean.

Please update your paradigm.

madAsHell said...

I like how Trump teaches history. "We're going to take-out a target for everyone of the 52 hostages at the US embassy in 1979."

Joe said...

The fires of 1974 were bigger.

BJM said...

SGT Ted said...
How much of this is the responsibility of "green" forestry practices that forbid the clearing of fuels in their forests, just like here in CA?

Zero, I lived in Oz for ten years and while the current fires are horrendous and I have friends who have fled their homes along the Gold Coast, bush fires are not unique or man caused. Australia has been burning off for millenia.

Oz doesn't have forests like Northern American and Europe. Most Aussies live in a narrow band along the coasts as the vast interior has very little rainfall and scrubby vegetation. The Northern Territory and Queensland coast is tropical savanna, tall grassland with occasional trees, not jungle rainforest. Much like the Africa or Argentina. Along the coast in the North rainfall can average 20+ inches annually. It regenerates very quickly.

To the south in NSW, Victoria and South Australia the brush is more like our manzanita scrub, with Acacia being the most common species. Eucalyptus have adapted to the annual burnoff and regenerate from a special root structure evolved over millennia...see Mallee. Most of the native flora is has volatile sap and regenerates quickly.

Along the coasts European settlers have imported the trees of their homelands, but other than some areas in Victoria and South Australia, where grapevines and fruit trees abound, not many species adapt. Near Canberra, there are plantations of imported Cypress Deodor,cork oak and various Eucalyptus grown for timber. the Jarrah Eucalyptus grows in Western Australia and like many of Oz species Jarrah is adapted to the scourge of the Australian bushfire by reproducing not from seed but from lignotubers; underground swellings that allow it to regenerate after fire. Jarrah one of the hardest woods known, plantation grown it is insect, water and rot resistant, much like our redwood.

Leland Stanford imported hundreds of thousands of fast growing Aussie Eucalyptus seedlings and gave them away with the caveat that he could harvest timber for his railroads. That's how Northern CA coastal farms came to use Eucalyptus for windbreaks...and why we have vast stands of non-native very flammable trees in the hills around the Bay Area.

Nichevo said...

First let's throw Tom Steyer in prison then I know they are serious. He made his money on coal and gas.


Hey! Maybe Steyer is running precisely to stay out of prison! Biden immunity! You can't investigate a Presidential candidate, you monster!