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@antipodean said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@booboo said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
My personal opinion is that climate change has something to do with it.
That's a widely held sentiment and given the IPCC reports, extremely difficult to argue against. There's a difference between exacerbated and caused, not that it really matters much in the final analysis.
Ultimately Australia needs to better determine its land management, building codes and zoning. Without wishing ill on anyone, I can't help but point out if you build in or next to a forest, what do you expect to happen?
Building standards in general need a looking at for energy efficiency and safety, but labour costs of installing advanced features make it pretty unattractive.
On the earlier points about "capitalism" - it is just another thing with no moral compass. It can be used for bad shit (profit seeking at the expense of everything else) or good (driving innovation and efficiency).
In Australia, it is highly amusing that a liberal government who are supposed to lean toward free markets will prop up fossil fuels rather than let them compete (as they can) in the market against other sources. The balancing act is how to run a modern grid, and that isn't going to happen in a stable transition without policy direction.
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Some great stories coming out of such trying circumstances
NSW firefighters leave humble note on kitchen bench of house they saved
A NSW man has shared a humble and heartwarming note left by the firefighters who saved his home.
Paul Sefky, from Yarranbella in the state's mid-north coast, returned to his home on Friday, and found the note written by the Uranga RFS sitting on his kitchen bench.
Mr Sefky took to Facebook to thank the firefighters, saying the note was, "The best note on my kitchen bench since the morning after my wedding".
The grateful Facebook post has since been shared thousands of times and even managed to reach the firefighter who hastily scrawled the note, Kale Hardie-Porter.
"Paul Sekfy you have made my day! Im happy to know that my note got to you in one piece (knowing that the house survived once we had to leave)," Mr Hardie-Porter wrote in reply.
"Our crew of 4 did the best we could with what we had but unfortunately your two sheds didn't last a second. We took refuge in your house for a moment and that's when we discovered the fridge."
Mr Hardie-Porter went on to explain that his handwriting was so messy because it was late and he "couldn't see a thing".
Mr Sefky said while his house was saved, it was still uninhabitable.
"We have no power, no poles, no water, all dirty, and just too smoky for the next week," he wrote.
"It got big quickly and then seemed to come from everywhere."
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@NTA Great story, love it, thanks for sharing
What a day here in Sydney. Was actually fairly clear skies until that Turramurra fire, then it looked like armageddon to the north. Thank fck the cold front has arrived, now 19 outside. Still windy though, and it might have arrived too late for the firefighters to rip into the current fires tonight.
Those guys are deadset legends. My kids are too young right now, but I made a promise to myself today that I'm joining the volunteer firefighters as soon as they're old enough for me to take off with short notice - reckon 4 years from now. Even if it means spending time with Tony Abbott.
You cnts can hold me to this commitment post the next RWC.
Doesn't feel right to debate climate change on a day like today, when lives were lost and homes were destroyed. But regardless of whether you feel that it played a part in this event, it seems impossible to argue that more effort and funds are not required to address the impact of events like this. And that's where capitalism, IMO still our best baseline choice for an economic/political system, falls short when left alone. It just does not encourage the type of behaviour society will need without significant oversight and regulation.
We may have huge resources (dare I say "unlimited" as the @Baron-Silas-Greenback would hyperbolate (yes, I think I made that word up)), but how do we ensure they, along with their associated wealth, are directed in the right places? As an example, we currently produce an abundance of food in the world, yet we have not come close to eliminating hunger and malnutrition. We are inherently lazy and selfish. So why would we be confidant that technological advances will come to the aid of the poorest and most climate-affected amongst us?
Feels like this year is a bit different here in Sydney, like the mood is changing. When the flood levy was imposed a few years ago, it was met with derision - "why should we fund their choice of living location?" - but this seems to be hitting closer to home, and I think people are more willing to give something up to help. Feels like the time is right for some political capital to be spent without repercussions.
Anyway, hope all my fellow NSW-men and their families are safe tonight
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@antipodean said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@NTA said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@antipodean AFTER flying long haul in Business.
That's where the damage started for me, Qantas upgraded me and I've never been able to go back. Much to the wallet's dismay.
Husband of the year! Do you call her that to her face?
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I feel like Barnaby (cnut that he is) was stitched up a bit by the headline.
If you read his quotes in context, he's actually trying to avoid putting the boot into the fire victims. Instead the headline makes it seem like he launched a callous attack on them.
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@barbarian said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
I feel like Barnaby (cnut that he is) was stitched up a bit by the headline.
If you read his quotes in context, he's actually trying to avoid putting the boot into the fire victims. Instead the headline makes it seem like he launched a callous attack on them.
Yeah that was gutter journalism.
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@barbarian said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
I feel like Barnaby (cnut that he is) was stitched up a bit by the headline.
If you read his quotes in context, he's actually trying to avoid putting the boot into the fire victims. Instead the headline makes it seem like he launched a callous attack on them.
Barnaby Joyce’s claim that changes to the sun’s magnetic fields were linked to the bushfires burning out of control across NSW have been rubbished by climate scientists.
The former deputy prime minister told Sky News he accepted that the climate crisis was making Australia hotter and drier.
But the Nationals member for New England said other factors including changes to magnetic fields were also to blame.
"There are a range of things that affect the climate and on a global scale, you should be part of it, and acknowledge it would have an effect and I acknowledge that there are other issues as well," he said.
"There’s just the the oscillation of the seasons. There’s a change in the magnetic field of the sun."
Associate Professor Nerilie Abram, a climate researcher at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, called his comments "ludicrous and grossly ill-informed".
Dr Abram said she was unaware of any study suggesting changes to the sun’s magnetic field could increase Australia’s bushfire risk.
"I don’t know of any scientific study that says that," she said.
"Increasing temperatures, drought and fuel load all increase that bushfire risk."
Dr Abram said changes to the sun’s magnetic fields had a tiny effect on the Earth’s climate.
"They are not causing climate change.
"We can measure the energy we get from the sun, and it does have a natural variability. But it’s very small, and it has not shown any long-term trend over the past century, when we have seen this dramatic warming.
"It is clearly not one of the factors that has caused this warming."
Associate Professor Pete Strutton, from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, said it was difficult to analyse Mr Joyce's claim because it was so bizarre.
"I don’t even know what he means. We know what causes climate change," he said.
"What exactly would the magnetic fields influence? I can't even ... Are they influencing the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth? It is hard to respond to because it is so wacky."
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@jegga said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@barbarian said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
I feel like Barnaby (cnut that he is) was stitched up a bit by the headline.
If you read his quotes in context, he's actually trying to avoid putting the boot into the fire victims. Instead the headline makes it seem like he launched a callous attack on them.
Yeah that was gutter journalism.
The quote:
"I acknowledge that the two people who died were most likely people who voted for the Green party, so I am not going to start attacking them. That's the last thing I want to do."
Right. Not going to start attacking them. So why even raise conjecture over their voting preferences?
There is this belief that "Greenie policies" have somehow stunted the entire concept of back burning and fuel management, which is bullshit.
McCormack is lining up to have a shot at climate change while we're at it.
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Ultimately, it is not helpful if extreme language is being used on either side - but for a couple of guys who are meant to be leaders in the National Party, they're doing a pretty poor job of helping rural people by taking a handful of mining jobs over the health of rural Australia in general.
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@NTA said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
Right. Not going to start attacking them. So why even mention the possibility of their voting preferences?
Agreed. It didn't need to be said. He said it, therefore he needs to own it.
He can take some solace that he's not alone in trodding on his dick. Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John called his political opponents arsonists:
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Associate Professor Pete Strutton, from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, said it was difficult to analyse Mr Joyce's claim because it was so bizarre.
"I don’t even know what he means. We know what causes climate change," he said.
So what does cause climate change? And I'm not referring to recent years.
I'm talking about the past where we have had ice-ages. And then warmer periods. The back to ice-ages And ice-ages (or cold spells) when the CO2 level have been much higher than today. So it can't really be blamed back then on CO2.
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@NTA said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@jegga said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@barbarian said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
I feel like Barnaby (cnut that he is) was stitched up a bit by the headline.
If you read his quotes in context, he's actually trying to avoid putting the boot into the fire victims. Instead the headline makes it seem like he launched a callous attack on them.
Yeah that was gutter journalism.
The quote:
"I acknowledge that the two people who died were most likely people who voted for the Green party, so I am not going to start attacking them. That's the last thing I want to do."
Right. Not going to start attacking them. So why even raise conjecture over their voting preferences?
There is this belief that "Greenie policies" have somehow stunted the entire concept of back burning and fuel management, which is bullshit.
McCormack is lining up to have a shot at climate change while we're at it.
Still don’t think that’s as bad as the headline suggests. Typically I only read the headlines
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