An article regarding James Murdoch criticising News Corps reporting on climate change.
At least one person there is awake.
For anyone interested in what might be good to grow for koalas.
Generally koalas prefer several of the Eucalyptus sp to those of the separate species Corymbia. Although until around 1990 Corymbia was considered a type of Eucalyptus (we still call all of them Gum trees). Diet preferences may vary with locality, so it is always best to check with a reliable local source. Note that there are some unexpected alternatives on this list, desperation?
How wonderful to have exported some of our plants as weeds, not! Does not make up for all the weeds we have imported to Australia.
And another one in the Federal Government is also awake.
Another article linking Climate Change to the recent spate of Bushfires, Smoke pollution and this really all leads to our need to change our habits and our reaction to Climate Change:
2 Likes
Too many good points to list …
Research I’ve recently conducted with other fire experts has concluded there have been 57 formal public inquiries, reviews and royal commissions related to bushfires and fire management since 1939[…]
That is more than one inquiry every two years in the past 80 years. Do we need yet another?
and this gem
In his 1939 royal commission report, Judge Stretton observed of the Victorian Forests Commission chairman of the time, A.V. Galbraith,
if his Commission were placed beyond the reach of the sort of political authority to which he and his Department has for some time past been subjected, he would be of greater value to the State.
His meaning is clear: good fire and land management needs to be done with long-term perspective, not a short-term political focus.
… like so many things, foiled by short-term political focus … who’d have thought? Perhaps caption this?
3 Likes
“I’m doing my bit.”
“Climate change? What climate change?”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with you. Pity our assistance and money is not.”
"I hear that the weather is lovely in Hawaii at this time of the year.
3 Likes
“Look, nothing in the hand! And nothing up the sleeve.”
3 Likes
And perhaps “Nothing worthwhile in the Head”?
Something from that reminds me of the “Numbers Station” movie and the couple of dollars value of material that can be extracted from a human body comment made in it.
4 Likes
Another article regarding Sir David Attenborough calling for action on climate change.
Gloucester is not alone. If anyone still thinks this is someone else’s problem, then think again.
Some remote communities have already run out of water and been abandoned. Their residents evacuated to larger population centres. Not all of those larger centres will survive the changing climate.
Australia already has internal refugees. Those refugee flows will increase. Large towns and cities, many of which are suffering population pressures, will need to absorb even more people.
Drought has reduced supply and increased costs of food. We can expect both effects to increase dramatically in the near future.
2 Likes
An interesting article regarding climate change.
1 Like
NSW announces some serious penalties for persons discarding lighted cigarettes from vehicles.
Every year the median strip on the highway in the Woree area catches on fire from discarded cigarettes thrown from vehicles with the Fire Brigade having to park on the highway to extinguish the fires.
Fortunately the fires only create smoke hazards unlike the potential disasters in the bushfire risk zones.
1 Like
This week’s 1 in 100 year climate event in Australia.
Climate change? What climate change?
2 Likes
A very depressing article regarding the situation that some of our surviving wildlife that have survived the bushfire crisis is currently facing.
This reality is also in stark contrast to the disgusting WWF TV ads spruiking for donations on TV which have been updated to try to take advantage of the current Australian bushfire disaster.
Their heart-pulling, money-grabbing TV ads used to start with claims that “the bulldozers are recklessly tearing down trees” whilst showing an excavator pushing a tree over whilst claiming that the little koalas have nowhere to go, but have now changed to mainly show images of bushfires instead of their previous claims of planting trees for koalas, but still with the promise of a “cuddly koala” for “donors”.
Far better to give donations to Aussie organisations who are actually doing something useful instead of funding more toy koalas from China.
1 Like
This lack of bushland and thus food was always the bigger issue for the animals left behind. Perhaps for those killed by the fire they may have had the easier death, a terrible thing to express but nonetheless probably true for most. It will take quite some time for the bushland to recover to provide sufficient growth for both shelter and food. The problem of the clearing that has to date been the major cause of problems is that it removed corridors for movement of animals, it removed/removes sanctuary habitat where animals could move to while the damaged bush recovered, it removed bushland that particular species relied on so that only small pockets remained thus already putting pressure on wildlife by reducing their numbers such that when a large emergency occurs eg fires the struggling numbers are reduced to even smaller levels leading to what some call functional extinction in the wild. This means that when breeding the gene pool is too small to safely replace the population without interbreeding issues, that enough are even available to breed in that area, and that there is enough area and food to support the new generations. Both the fire and the land clearing have a lot to “answer for” in this current situation. Who created the problem? We as a population did.
4 Likes
It looks like it is going to be a very long and winding road.
3 Likes
At the same time there are significant pressures on those native animals that have survived from completion of feral animals. Many feral are more mobile and adept at surviving fire conditions.
Unloved domestic cats and dogs, (calling these feral is too kind as they are only there by the hand of neglect).
Wild horses, camels, donkeys, pigs, buffalo, dogs, cats, cane toads and a long list of insects. Not to mention the carp that seem to survive the worst of conditions in the remnant waterholes and streams.
Same response as to who is responsible.
Don’t forget the potholes and flooded creek crossings prone to wash aways.
3 Likes
Conservatives and Denialists whine about the cost of taking action on global warming. Strangely, they ignore the costs of the warming itself.
2 Likes
It’s getting towards that situation for some rural property owners too, but not just because water is running low. Some roads in Tamworth Regional Council’s area are so bad that water carriers are refusing to cart water along them, which is denying farms in those areas of emergency water supplies. We had a delivery last week and our road is approaching that condition with the truck driver complaining about our road, with a headlight shaken loose by the corrugations, and damaged tyres from the sharp rocks. The tyres cost him $900 each to replace… and a couple of days ago I noticed a headlight beside the road in one of the worst sections of corrugations- looking rather similar to the loose one from the water truck.
Large numbers of trucks travelling along dirt roads with loads of cattle shipping out, or hay coming in is really hammering the roads to a diabolically bad condition.
2 Likes
A nuanced perspective from the coalface (so to speak).
2 Likes
