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Of interest, further to @mariner4life 's post I received this communique today (FYI, this is from the Fraser Coast Regional Council, in the Wide Bay Burnett forecast district. Also Capricornia is around Rockhampton 4 hours north of here, and the place where they're having the massive fires currently, near Baffle Creek, is about an hour, maybe hour and a half north)
Subject: Fraser Coast LDMG Status - ALERT
Good Morning All
After a State wide teleconference this morning, and based on the information provided in that teleconference the Fraser Coast LDMG has moved its status to ALERT, Effectively immediately until further notice. This has been confirmed by the LDC and the Chair of the LDMG.
Queensland is currently being hit by unprecedented fire weather and heatwave conditions. These conditions are similar to what occurs in southern states and has not been seen in QLD before. So significant that the SDCC will release approximately 750k emergency alerts to the Capricorn Region warning of the danger now. Additional Emergency Alerts may be issued in any location (including ours) without prior notice.
Heatwave impacts will be felt from today through to at least mid next week in our region.
· Severe Fire Danger is forecast for the following forecast districts: Central Coast and Whitsundays, Central Highlands and Coalfields, Darling Downs and Granite Belt, Wide Bay and Burnett and Southeast Coast
· The Rural Fire Service Queensland advises you to:
- Action your Bushfire Survival Plan now.
- Monitor the fire and weather situation through your local radio station, www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au and www.bom.gov.au.
- Call 000 (Triple Zero) in an emergency.
· For information on preparing for bushfires go to www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au.
Heatwaves are a silent killer, and I ask that you be vigilant of your family, friends, neighbours and of course pets.
There is a Fire Ban in place for the Wide bay Area, see the attached declaration
Please share this information to your networks as a matter of urgency.
A separate email maybe issued to you for further information or instruction.
Stay tuned to the usual reporting channels
Report all emergencies to 000
Brendan Guy
Disaster Planning Coordinator
Disaster Management
etcThe interesting bit for me was the bit in bold. Confirming Mariner's impression that the current weather is a little out of the ordinary.
The weather they talk about related to extreme fire danger is usually hot (not unusual for Qld, but we overheat in the mid 30s, the fire danger in the southern states is usually over 40 with the hot dry air off the desert), with very very low humidity (not at all usual for Qld, as mentioned down south they get the hot dry air off the desert, we get warm humid air from the tropics), and high winds.
Also worth noting that the BOM ( Bureau of Meteorology) invented an additional level of fire danger called "Catastrophic" after the Vic fires about 10 years ago.
Having said that weather here was okish today. Low 30s and quite humid, but definitely had worse. Bit of cloud cover helped. But went through to Maryborough (50kms inland) and nearly collapsed stepping out of the car! Then got caught in fairly decent thunderstorm. So the rain from that cell would have helped dampen things. Had lightning strike about 20m away. Quite ... errr ... exhilarating...
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This is easily the hottest week i have ever experienced in Cairns. It's fucked. Hot and dry and windy. Storms in the late arvo with some very impressive lightening, but not enough rain to drop the temps.
Aircon for the win
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@nta said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
Some fucking awful fire action from the footage.
Wonder what summer holds? 😐
For Qld this time of year is bushfire season, as opposed to late summer down your way, as this is the warm dry bit and it usually gets wetter as after Christmas.
Probably means we'll get smacked with a couple of Cat 5 cyclones reaching south to us ...
Mind you didn't "they" recently adopt a Cat 6 as there are more, higher intensity cyclones/typhoons/hurricanes? So probably one of them.
Don't know what it's going to mean for you lot down south Nick.
The other "interesting" weather event so far this storm season was the massive cell thst smashed up Tansey (little village couple of hours SW from here).
We're used to thunderstorm warnings ("high winds and large hailstones ... seek shelter, park car under cover" etc) and keep an eye on the BOM radar. But this was next level.
Had been predicted all day and eventually enventuated with a vengeance, complete with tornados.
Everyone with a cell phone who was in or near the path of the cell got SMS message as follows:
Emergency. QFES VERY DANGEROUS STORM. likely impact Hervey Bay, Maryborough & Tiaro Tornados possible Immediately Seek shelter Avoid travel. Info www.bom.gov.au
Never had that before.
So called work early and tidied the backyard of debris, chatting with Mrs Boo as watching the clouds build up she said "Apparently if it looks green then you're really in trouble."
I looked at cloud: "That looks green."
By that stage the storm's intensity had dissipated slightly. Were still patches of black on the BOM radar (highest intensity rain) though.
Msin part of cell did slip just south of us - got a bit of wind, rain, bluff and bluster as the edge of the storm went over us, but that level of warning and intensity was unprecedented in my experience.
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Met Service forecast for Akl has rain for the next 8 days. It has rained for the last 10.
I hate our fucking climate.
I genuinely like a hot sticky tropical climate. Also a hot desert climate. Or a cold dry climate. But I loathe wet with a temperature in the teens i.e. Akl for 300 days p.a. Global warming for Akl seems to be more of a global wetting
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Stuff has banned climate change deniers from commenting, thus comment praising the action and saying it’s not censorship comes from a wannabe labour mp
“It is not a matter of censorship. It is a matter of ignoring their views because they are not reality based and are a waste of time.”
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@jegga said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
Stuff has banned climate change deniers from commenting, thus comment praising the action and saying it’s not censorship comes from a wannabe labour mp
“It is not a matter of censorship. It is a matter of ignoring their views because they are not reality based and are a waste of time.”
Unbelievable...I wonder if they did the same back in the day with letters to the editor saying that the food pyramid is shit...
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@jegga said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
Stuff has banned climate change deniers from commenting, thus comment praising the action and saying it’s not censorship comes from a wannabe labour mp
“It is not a matter of censorship. It is a matter of ignoring their views because they are not reality based and are a waste of time.”
I'm in the camp that believes the apparemt scientific consensus. But to ban an argument because you feel it's wrongthink is a pretty dangerous precedent.
Isn't scientific method to allow critique of theories?
BTW are they banning anti-vaxxers and homeopaths?
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@jegga it's just like your signature says - if we utterly rub out any chance for nuance in all of this we are on a slippery slope. I know that the vaccine/immunisation conversation is far clearer, at least in terms of science. But I also get that people can support that mahi but question the clustering of immunisations etc without being anti-vax.
With climate change it feels like that space for any nuance and robust conversation is being shut down with stuff like this (boom tish).
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@jegga said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
Stuff has banned climate change deniers from commenting, thus comment praising the action and saying it’s not censorship comes from a wannabe labour mp
“It is not a matter of censorship. It is a matter of ignoring their views because they are not reality based and are a waste of time.”
Meh. It's Stuff - just how much informed debate and nuance will there be on
theany subject? -
@booboo said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
Isn't scientific method to allow critique of theories?
Absolutely IF you are arguing with science. If you're not, then it is a waste of time, but fuck it why not? Internet comments don't cost anything but a couple of flops of a CPU.
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@paekakboyz said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
With climate change it feels like that space for any nuance and robust conversation is being shut down with stuff like this (boom tish).
Has the debate not been shouted down by opponents to climate change science, for decades?
I think there is mounting urgency that narrows the window of discussion on this, and the doing needs to take over from the talking, at least in the first few steps like cleaner energy generation and preservation of natural environments.
This comic always makes me chuckle:
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@nta I hear ya. but I think we might see people engage more if we keep the conversation open. I know that's been fruitless in the vaccine space, and that pushing these things often reinforces people's position. But don't we want to keep pulling people into this conversation, even if we know 5% (or whatever % it is) will always call bullshit for some reason or another?
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@paekakboyz for the same reasons trying to engage anti-vaxxers doesn't work, trying to engage climate deniers doesn't work. You can state the scientific evidence over and over again, and it won't make a difference; they're too invested in their position. They are highly unlikely change because it would require them to abandon their position and admit they were wrong, and people in general hate that.
The science will change, if given enough evidence. The point I always make - and which @TeWaio will back me up on: getting scientists to agree to something with a high degree of consensus is near fucking impossible if the underlying science is dodgy. There is nothing academics and industry bodies like more than proving each other wrong!
Even on an economic basis you can't convince them, because they don't believe that system-level weather or economic disasters are possible, or that energy generation is cheaper via renewables increasingly.
Status quo is a powerful position to hold, because it asks nothing of you.
EDIT: the other point I'd make is that, if you were at a BBQ with 20 people, and one of them (the 5%) is a denier, but 5 of them (25%) are unsure, all you do is give the 5% a platform to sway the 25% through simple shoutiness. Even the supporters might not want to generate conflict, safe in the knowledge they're right. At any point, when you simply walk away from the discussion, the shouty one will point at you being wrong.
Had this recently with some of the guys at the rugby club. Its easier to avoid the confrontation with people who get all their facts from talkback radio and politicians with vested interests.
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If only testing the theory of climate change or the effects of climate change was as simple as testing gravity. What an absolutely absurd comparison.
A massive reason for any skepticism is the boy cried wolf alarmism, not to mention the incredible hypocrisy of those screaming the most yet who have personal carbon footprints larger than vast swathes of the developing world. How about getting these nutters in order first before getting all high and mighty about "deniers" (that lable is just a coincidence btw and has absolutely no connection to Holocaust deniers, no none whatsoever) in the comment section of a trash news website.
Climate Change