Re:'Megafire' in Australia Engulfs 1.5M Acres
by monkeycantype on Friday January 10, 2020 @05:00PM
(#22016082)
I'm reading that last question as irony, experience suggests others will read it as an un-ironic rhetorical question.
So while recognising, what I believe is you're ironic phrasing, I'm addressing what I think will be the un-ironic reading others will take, you good with that.
Yes fire is a normal part of Australian ecosystems,
and it is unknown whether this spread with Eucalyptus trees or whether Eucalyptus trees spread with humans using fire.
Partisan politics has made it very difficult for many Australians to look directly at these topics. So while fire, is a terrifying but not unexpected feature of living in Australia, the scale of this year's fires are a unique horror that I believe will push enough Australians to engage with that difficulty.
I think we are going to see fast significant shifts in political discussion from this, that both the emotive calls to action, and populist denials or diminishment will we perceived as a distraction from direct sober engagement of an existential threat.
( As I first typed this I accidentally capitalised that as Australian Ecosystems, because I once worked for a company by that name that did environmental work, including controlled burning)
So while recognising, what I believe is you're ironic phrasing, I'm addressing what I think will be the un-ironic reading others will take, you good with that.
Yes fire is a normal part of Australian ecosystems, and it is unknown whether this spread with Eucalyptus trees or whether Eucalyptus trees spread with humans using fire.
But :
The Australian climate is getting hotter:
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/month/aus/summary.shtm...
'The national December mean temperature, 3.21 °C above average, surpassed the previous December record set in 2018 by more than a full degree.'
British conquest and subsequent settlement has ended traditional indigenous fire practices in most part of the country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire-stick_farming
Which means that the fuel load are not reduced by smaller cooler burns below levels that would feed a catastrophic fires.
https://www.science.org.au/curious/earth-environment/bushfir...
Partisan politics has made it very difficult for many Australians to look directly at these topics. So while fire, is a terrifying but not unexpected feature of living in Australia, the scale of this year's fires are a unique horror that I believe will push enough Australians to engage with that difficulty.
I think we are going to see fast significant shifts in political discussion from this, that both the emotive calls to action, and populist denials or diminishment will we perceived as a distraction from direct sober engagement of an existential threat.
( As I first typed this I accidentally capitalised that as Australian Ecosystems, because I once worked for a company by that name that did environmental work, including controlled burning)