Comments | the_grynne: Update from Shanghai.

the_grynne

Update from Shanghai.

Feb 10, 2009 01:55

I live in Australia, a very big, very dry, geologically very old, and very beautiful country that's been in drought for the last decade. In terms of liquid fresh water, it's the second driest continent, after Antarctica ( Read more... )

news 09, australia

Comments 7

greycoupon February 9 2009, 15:57:21 UTC

I'm sorry this is happening. I've seen this on the news and it's awful. I hope all your family and friends are safe and unaffected.

fatema February 9 2009, 16:52:34 UTC

This is so incredibly horrible. Those arsonists definitely need to be tried as murderers, but even that won't be enough. I'm so sorry that this happening. I hope that your family and friends are safe.

(The comment has been removed)

clare328 February 10 2009, 00:17:06 UTC

In some areas. There are about 50 huge fires in Victoria at the moment, most lit by lightning strikes or chance, like the bunyip ridge one (near me), but quite a few are indeed suspected arson, the ones in churchill definitely, which kills me, because I had a friend who was killed in those fires. There are some people advocating for the electric chair, green mile style.

There alot of hurt and angry people in australia right now, and with the death toll rising - its currently at 173 - and hot weather ahead, there's not much to feel good about.

The wind change that saved my town was responsible for the deaths of more people elsewhere. You can;t even feel too thankful that the fire avoided you...

the_grynne February 10 2009, 01:06:40 UTC

I am so, so sorry. :(

so_spiffed February 10 2009, 01:32:45 UTC

Major planning is involved in pattern back burning (what they use in the NT). The entire state is divided into grids, and each are burned in a particular order. The CSIRO worked with the NT Aboriginals for 8 years to research the effects of fire on biodiversity there. The farmers in the NT are very resistant to the continued use of back burning. One of the reasons farmers are so against prescribed burning is also that carbon emissions from those fires on their land are counted as "agricultural emissions". In fact, savannah burning in the NT is the single largest source of greenhouse emissions in the Northern Territory (in some years, counting for up to half of the yearly emissions from the NT ( ... )

the_grynne February 10 2009, 01:55:19 UTC

Also, we must take into account the fact that our settlements are very much unlike the nomadic traditions of the Aboriginal people. Perhaps one of the reasons that wildfires really are that much more devastating for our type of society.

Like you said, something needs to be done, and not just on fire fighting/evacution policy, but also preventative measures. In the long run, maybe we also need to review our pattern of settlement, or get used to the idea of regular and repeated Black Saturdays.

so_spiffed February 10 2009, 11:30:59 UTC

I think I read some comments in the paper about people thinking that the authorities (god knows who they mean) shouldn't have let people build so far into isolated bushland.

EDIT: We declare the 2009 Blame Games, OPEN! *sigh*