Hi all, I was going to add a couple of links and convert this back to a normal topic, if any other Mods want to, feel free, otherwise I will do so in a day two.
I think I need to respond to some of Philip's comments.
Firstly this is a CAD forum, so my comments need to be understood within the context that I am trying to accurately explain matters in one sentence, that truthfully require a complete essay to explain properly. Also I am trying to convey information to people who have little understanding of the context, for example to people who have never been to Australia and/or live in cities. Time has also changed things a lot here in Australia, as well as other places around the world.
I am well aware of the history of the fires in Vic and elsewhere, I mostly was trying to keep my comments to a post rather than an essay.
Our volunteer bushfire brigades system has improved beyond all recognition over my lifetime. In the state of NSW I have seen it grow from practically non-existent to what it is now. Our bushfire fighters are currently volunteers but their bravery, skills, training and equipment likely exceed what foreigner's might expect of a volunteer service. The organisation employs full time management and infrastructure staff. The organisation is co-ordinated on a state wide basis with some inter state co-operation. There is always room for improvement and we do constantly examine what has happened and what can be improved. I well and truly understand that there is much to learn from and improve relating these current fires.
In many ways we were more self-reliant, where (in the Aussie bush) and when, I grew up. Which is why I also thought that it was very stupid for those Victorians to relying on mains electricity for their fire protection systems! Its perhaps a typical reflection of unrealistic "city slickers" moving to the bush having no idea of simple things that just seem like common sense to those of us who grew up out there. But then perhaps in some cases it was more just that they were doing the best they could with what they had to work with at that exact moment in time and doing anything was better than nothing. Hind sight is one thing but seeing in advance is another. One of the biggest problems they had in a general big picture sense in Vic was a lack of timely information.
Philip Rayment wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2020 2:16 pm
I think that a lot of the criticism of the Prime Minister has been political more than anything,
Are you for real? That is total garbage. He went to Hawaii while his country burnt and did several other stupid things. I cancelled my plans due to the fires, my mate has been fighting fires in dangerous conditions as a volunteer for three months and didn't get Christmas with his family or new years eve, same thing goes for many other firefighters and others. My wife had to cancel all her annual leave. I could not travel to any of my family's places for Christmas or new year due to the fires....etc. etc. yet that total "ken doll" knob thought we should understand that he wanted a holiday with his family! Stuff him. He's the prime minister of Australia for goodness sake. Why would he go to Hawaii? Going there was wrong and showed poor judgement on so many levels.
The sum of human knowledge is now so great that we are all now "idiots" with reference to majority of that knowledge. Unfortunately it seems to be becoming more popular for idiots to "believe" other idiots rather than understanding the measured facts, risk assessment, estimates and best guesses of the best people in that field who actually know what they are talking about. E.G. scientists!
Philip Rayment wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2020 2:16 pm
and climate change comments tend to be in the same category. Yes, the weather changes over periods of decades, but it tends to cycle, too. Recent NASA satellite data shows that the total area burnt by fires around the globe has been going down.
As for your NASA comment, I have no idea if it is true but who cares? Its so utterly irrelevant. It's an example of the sort of miss-understood, stupid, dangerous, sudo science often quoted by people who have no understanding of what they are talking about.
Its Climate Change not weather. The changes in our weather and fire season caused by climate change, are consistent with predictions and are on top off the natural variations. The natural climate variations exist over geological time scales but the human climate change is over only decades and is on top of the natural cycles. Feed back loops are potentially very dangerous and need a lot more study to understand. The climate is an extremely complex topic and does need and get continued scientific attention and study. Australia has had an ever increasing recorded high average temperature every single year now for 35 years in a row. All (or almost all) of those years have been in the top 10 hottest years to date up to that year, which if you understand maths means that we have been getting consistently hotter at an alarming rate.
It is as important that we don't listen to the extremest and idiots on all sides, be they "greenies" (who in their defence at least can see that we have a problem) with their idiotic ineffective solutions, the "bogans", "ultra-right", fossil fuel lobby, etc. etc. who are so stupid as to try to pretend that a we don't have a problem. We just need to get serious, read the numbers, identify the what actually are the greatest problems and put serious effort into scientific and political efforts to genuinely fix our problems. If anyone seriously wants to make the biggest positive impact on the world now, the biggest thing we need to fix is energy storage. Australia and the USA, and many other places, have more than enough renewable energy sources if we could store enough of it effectively.
I am not looking for further discussion here since this is a CAD forum not a climate forum, but Philip's sort of utter rubbish is just too dangerous to leave totally unanswered.
Back to the videos i was going to post a link to....
Does anyone want to come to Australia and be a volunteer fire fighter? Watch these and you might change your mind!
Trying to save a house in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, the fire brigade is from the northern edge of Sydney.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDWJ_wNQpVI
Gospers mountain fire, north west of Sydney.....the fire exploded over them, you can see their flash over protection system spraying water over them when they turn it on. The most common rural fire trucks carry either 1 thousand litres or 3,300 L, depending on their size. A modern pump can empty them very quickly. A modern suburban pumper fire truck connected to a town water main, at full pumping capacity would empty those tanks in a few seconds or a minute or so. The bush fire brigades constantly have to deal with the logistics of supplying water to their fire engines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th2fih9QRIQ
As i have said earlier, I could have written many more pages on fire fighting in Australia or climate change, but I will leave that for other forums!
Jim