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Why were all those trees there in Australia?

I am horribly fascinated by the emotions which the Australian and international media appear to be whipping up in pursuit of alleged arsonists who are accused of setting many of the fires which have so damaged that country. Who would do such a thing?

This morning, however, I stumbled across an equally interesting piece on the superb wattsupwiththat.com. In it, contributors suggest that real blame lies with the government and Australian greens who made it near-impossible, on pain of fines, to create firebreaks and controlled fires in Australia through the years of drought.

Are the Australian courts and government now about to change their minds or pursue themselves? Dream on.

The policy, as I recall, was linked to an idea to make Australia a 'carbon sink' initiated around the time of the Kyoto process, by offering land and trees in Australia in return for increased emissions of carbon dioxide to states like Japan.

I believe in behaving responsibly and within limits. I do not feel that this needs me to adopt a green religion. English-speaking officials without science degrees throughout the world obviously disagree.

If you go outside your door this morning and find that your bloated local government won't collect rubbish and sort it despite high taxes; that they encourage rats and hide behind recycling; that your taxes are paying for a vast recycling fraud; that obvious dangers of fires weren't prepared for, or that roads aren't passable, or that you're being forced to adopt light bulbs that give people headaches with dangerous gases in them; or that no one is paying any attention to how bad global cooling could be, or that serious newspapers can't help desperate green spins on any story, or that billions are being wasted on misconceived and unscientific prejudices--

just remember. There will be a reckoning with these people.

UPDATE: Miranda Devine, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, makes the same point here (many thanks to Mary from Australia for the tip).

Comments

Anonymous said…
On the side of the global warming theorists it has been extremely hot in Australia this summer. Last week Western Sydney experienced the hottest day on record (44C) and the peak was higher in more remote parts of NSW. Geelong, in Victoria recorded a temperature 3C higher than ever before which is a massive hike. But of course nothing is so simple. Tuesday was the coolest Feb. day for seventeen years.Today, we have sweaters on and the rain is deluging. I'd love to move some of this precipitation over to the fire stricken areas.
I don't have any answers but the weather is certainly pretty crazy.

As for blaming the greenies I think that's a little unfair.The conditions that enabled this fire to become so ferocious are unprecedented. We attended a friend's wedding in Melbourne last year and the earth was scorched back then. We've lived in Melbourne and I was shocked to see it looking so different.It used to be green.

The arsonists cannot escape their blame if indeed they are responsible. On the news this morning the police suggested that we should take a step back. Evidently, people are pointing fingers at others because they don't like them or think they have guilty looking faces.More disturbingly, there was a identikit picture of a suspect of decidedly Middle Eastern appearance...I know, why don't we just blame the muslims?
11:10 pm
Martin Meenagh said…
Oh no, not that...I admit that I was venting a little. Thanks for your typically sane comment, Mary. There are three things I'd say;

firstly, we have no records of Australia during a period of significant cyclical heat, or how it reacts, because Australian temperatures were not recorded during the medieval and Roman warm periods.

Secondly, there does seem to be a good deal of warming in the southern hemisphere and cooling in the north--a more extreme sort of seasonality than we have been used too. I've seen explanations that seem coherent based on mechanisms involving the sun, the pacific decadal oscillation, and underground volcanism in antarctica. I've heard CO2 explanations--but the mechanism can't work.

Thirdly, I really hope some moral panic about arson isn't about to develop. As I said in the post, I am just stunned anyone could set fires like these, and though terrorism isn't impossible, no-one has claimed any responsibility so the logic has to be that anyone who did set a fire was in some individual form demented.

But I was struck by the fact that there was, in a continent prone to burning, and as in California (read Mike Davis' books, you'd love them), there were laws in place to keep dry wood within two metres of homes. The political class of the western world, and especially the English speaking part, is unusually mendacious and debased at the minute.

I suppose some impulse in me saw how, even without thinking, these people would prefer a witchhunt to a change of mind.

Keep on commenting my friend, don't let my fatuity get in the way!
11:23 pm
Anonymous said…
You should look at Miranda Devine's article from the Sydney Morning Herald. She is completely on your side although she has caused a storm of disgruntled comment in this morning's letters/opinion page. I should send a link but I don't know how to.
3:52 am
Martin Meenagh said…
Hi Mary

This is the link, I think;

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/green-ideas-must-take-blame-for-deaths-20090211-84mk.html

What you do is, go to the relevant article to which you wish to link or which you wish to share, select the text in the e-mail address bar, and (usually) click your mouse over it by pressing the right-hand button. If you then choose 'copy' when offered options, you can save the text you've highlighted and paste it wherever you wish.

Thank you very much for the comment. I have updated the blog post and acknowledged your contribution!

All the best, Martin
6:51 am
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