pɐǝɹɥʇ lɐᴉɔᴉɟɟoun ǝɥʇ - ɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀

Mike Rotch
So NSW is literally burning out of control and ScuMo is on holiday.

Literal WTF.
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He was spotted yesterday.

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Also it's a good chance it will kick off down here tomorrow as it's going to be in the 40's pretty much state wide, no doubt some morons will light some fires. :rolleyes:
 
Just a friendly PSA that the clouds of ash and smoke from Australia have now reached New Zealand, some 2000km away. The whole sky is an unnatural tinge of orange and in some regions it's as dark as midnight because they're just that thick.

And the fires still aren't showing any signs of letting up with a total area the size of Belgium still well ablaze.

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These pics were taken in New Zealand.
 
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The fact that there is water dripping from the rail above the guy's head suggests that this truck might have been recently engulfed in flames and saved by the safety systems which shower the truck in a mist in emergencies.
 
What Australia is currently going through and facing for the foreseeable future is truly frightening and I sincerely hope that there is some respite from the devastation soon... but forecasters are saying that there may not be substantial rainfall in some regions until February or even March.

I have several close friends in Australia and thus far they have not been significantly affected by the fires, but the impact on Australia in the short term after this devastating episode will likely be pretty severe. The big worry is whether this is going to be the new normal...

While Australia is very well used to the bushfire season, it almost goes without saying that this ‘season’ has been unprecedented in many ways... the temperature records set late last year were astonishing and deeply worrying... and I would not be surprised if those records fall again, perhaps even in the coming weeks.

Now is arguably not the time to be too critical of the PM/government’s policies/views on climate change, and in a bitterly ironic twist, Australia’s own policies on climate change are arguably quite insignificant in the grand scheme of things anyway. But these horrific fires are very likely not the result of a mere one-off blip in an otherwise tolerable situation... Australia could well be (and probably is) facing the grim reality that they may already be passed a tipping point that is going to be extremely hard, if not impossible, to rectify.

I certainly hope that this isn’t the case, but in the meantime, Australia faces an uncertain and challenging future if, as I suspect, this is a taste of things to come.
 
Nismonath5
Just a friendly PSA that the clouds of ash and smoke from Australia have now reached New Zealand, some 2000km away. The whole sky is an unnatural tinge of orange and in some regions it's as dark as midnight because they're just that thick.

And the fires still aren't showing any signs of letting up with a total area the size of Belgium still well ablaze.

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These pics were taken in New Zealand.
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New Zealand's been seeing some effects for some time - the media was reporting in early December that dust carried over from bushfire smoke was turning glaciers pink:

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Looks pretty, but this on its own is pretty bad. Anything that lowers the albedo of ice helps it to melt, and glaciers don't exactly need much more help melting as it is...
 
The sky was as red as I've ever seem it last night for the couple of minutes as to sun went below the horizon, truly amazing and I should have got a photo but was in awe of the view and forgot.

Woke up this morning to the stench of a horrid smoke haze which going by the wind forecast will hang around for a few days.
 
And not to be forgotten the estimated 1/2 billion (yes billion) animals thought lost in the fires.

For what it's worth, I thought the city of Sydney's decision to have NYE fireworks was utterly disgusting. But, never let the opportunity a dollar go begging you greedy city and state muppets.

I'm sure the RFS folk sure enjoyed us city slickers partying it up 👎
 
The decision to go ahead with the fireworks in Sydney was, IMHO, very disrespectful and insensitive... though my initial thought, that setting off tonnes of fireworks during an apocalyptic bushfire season was a bad idea, probably wasn’t such a risk being located in Sydney harbour... but still...

My hometown of Edinburgh had a controversial new year as well (see below)... but, Edinburgh can and has cancelled the entire party (with less than two hours to go) in the past for safety reasons (high winds/bad weather), and so they can do it when they have to.

Many people argue that tourism is so important to the country that it would not be in the wider interest to curtail or even stop the New Year celebrations, but I beg to differ. The question is, if something as fundamental as a national disaster where people are dying and thousands are being made homeless is not enough to cancel the party out of respect, then what is?

The company that organises Edinburgh’s “Hogmanay” celebrations told residents in downtown Edinburgh that they would not be allowed to host more than 6 people in their homes over the new year celebrations, and argued that householders would fall foul of police safety regulations if they didn’t abide by that limit (on the basis that their street party was already bringing tens of thousands of people on to the streets). Of course, the people of Edinburgh told Underbelly (the company involved) where they could stick that idea.

Edinburgh’s New Year party is internationally recognised and an iconic part of Scottish culture in itself, but now it has gone too far. Telling people that they must ask a private company for permission to host friends and family in their own homes at New Year is frankly sick - it is not only ludicrously unfair on the residents of the area, but it is also totally contrary to Scottish culture and, I’m presuming, law.
 
Touring Mars
The decision to go ahead with the fireworks in Sydney was, IMHO, very disrespectful and insensitive... though my initial thought, that setting off tonnes of fireworks during an apocalyptic bushfire season was a bad idea, probably wasn’t such a risk being located in Sydney harbour... but still..[/spoiler]
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It was insensitive, agreed. I think the challenge for Sydney was that the money had already been spent on the display and that much of that investment is only recouped if the display goes ahead and crowds show up and spend money in the city. They'd have got a tonne of abuse had they cancelled the show as well I expect.
 
Daz555
It was insensitive, agreed. I think the challenge for Sydney was that the money had already been spent on the display and that much of that investment is only recouped if the display goes ahead and crowds show up and spend money in the city. They'd have got a tonne of abuse had they cancelled the show as well I expect.
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I think there is a way you can play that. Fireworks, if stored in a dry environment will keep and they could have used the lack of a display to send a message and to try and raise awareness around the world for support and donations to Australian charities and fire-agencies.

But maybe that's just me
 
Touring Mars
but, Edinburgh can and has cancelled the entire party
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The one year I had planned to go. Though we cancelled our plans several hours before the event was cancelled. It should have been called way earlier. Liverpool cancelled their fireworks on the 29th IIRC based on the weather forecast.

baldgye
Fireworks, if stored in a dry environment will keep and they could have used the lack of a display to send a message and to try and raise awareness around the world for support and donations to Australian charities and fire-agencies.
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Agree 100%
 
I worked right next to the bridge on the day and there was significantly less people there then last year, basically everyone was a tourist not many locals bothered to turn up.

The Sydney Mayor didn't want the fire works to be stopped so it had to go ahead eh.
 
Its starting to remind me of Interstellar seeing some of the destruction. I am so very thankful that I happen to live in an area that is pretty safe from bush-fires, but the reality hit hard when I went for one of my regular drive routes with my friend that takes me about an hours drive out of the city and we nearly drove through a bush fire. The sky began to look utterly apocalyptic and there was a smell of ash in the car despite having the air-con set to circulate. Luckily the fire was a little while off.

It was both awe inspiring and terrifying.
 
The 30,000 acres 1890-91 Dungeness forest fire is the greatest historic fire on the Olympic peninsula, Washington State, USA.

By comparison, the Australian fire is said to have consumed 26,000,000 acres. :crazy:


My fishing cabin is 1/3 the way up the right edge of this map.
 
Found this in my Facebook feed this morning. Apparently this bloke thinks that the bush fires are the fault of the Greens for not allowing burn offs and firebreaks on bush land.

 
UKMikey
Found this in my Facebook feed this morning. Apparently this bloke thinks that the bush fires are the fault of the Greens for not allowing burn offs and firebreaks on bush land.

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There's a lot of rubbish being spouted about this, it's infuriating - https://greens.org.au/bushfires

Now the narrative (mainly from Newscorp) seems to be shifting towards arson being the main cause of the fires instead of climate change. :banghead:
 
UKMikey
Found this in my Facebook feed this morning. Apparently this bloke thinks that the bush fires are the fault of the Greens for not allowing burn offs and firebreaks on bush land.
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Do they realise the Greens hold only 9 seats in the senate?
 
Touring Mars
but forecasters are saying that there may not be substantial rainfall in some regions until February or even March.
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What's the mudslide situation in Australia? I know in Los Angeles we'd get huge fires that would rip through, and then shortly after it would rain buckets (briefly) and bury everything that remained in mud. In some respects the mud can be worse than the fire.

Injury may be shortly followed by insult here.
 

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