The fires in Australia are awful but

Isn't climate change down to the world as a whole and not one country?

 

It’s nowt to do with yer family - the IP was talking about the whole country of Australia - not your family.
This country has become very wealthy by supplying coal etc to China.
Because of this they have greatly added to climate change.
And it’s come back to bite them.
Hard.

 

I don’t think any country is doing enough to help the planet. Your argument could also blame the ‘UK’ for the floods here. However to apportion blame to a ‘country’ at this time and in isolation for the fires is a bit off. Every single individual has a part to play in saving the environment, so what have you done to save the planet?

 

Some stuff I’ve read/watched over the last two weeks - the climate in Australia is getting wetter with data suggesting that the last 50 years were wetter than the preceding 50. Bushfires are nothing new, the reason they’ve spread so easily this time is because the firebreaks usually created by clearing tracts of vegetation have been abandoned due to environmentalist protests, Australia is meeting it’s emissions targets. Our climate has always changed, always will, our time on earth is but the blink of an eye in respect of its age, the earth will prevail and our species will evolve/die off/be replaced by something else and be lost in time. Greta needs to get out more.

 

You’re getting some flack here SuperTyke but you’re right and a lot of the Australian population are saying the exact same thing. Their government is incompetent and has it’s head in the sand about the climate crisis that’s killing their own people.

 

In the past people attributed this to God and blamed the people for bringing it on themselves by sinning. Some of the more sanctimonious climate change spokespeople are in danger of being the same.

BTW I'm not denying climate change and the need to look after our planet.

 

I may be way off the mark here, but I am sure I remember a few months (years?) ago seeing a documentary that the aborigines knew how to 'land manage' by doing exactòy what you said re fire breaks. Also huge forest fires such as California happen because previously the scrub used to be removed with controlled burnings and large firebreaks to stop naturally occuring small fores from spreading. I think the expertise of indigenous populations in countries suffering from these problems is often disregarded by Governments and enviromental agencies presured by lobbyists and organisations with commercial interests.
I know the above is woolly and lacking any detail and may be simply boll*x but somewhere in my addled brain I do remember an article / documentary stating whilst climate change has hugely increased the risks of wildfire the Land Management (or lack of) is the major cause of the increase in the incidents where these huge outbreaks cause such devestation and loss of life.
As regards Australia's (and Worldwide) use of fossil fuels vs Solar/Wind etc is a completely different issue to the cause of these fires. Australia should spend more on Land Management which given the size of the country would require considerable funding and, IMO, this is more important than spend on reducing their contribution Global Warming given their relatively small impact due to population size.

 

Regardless of land management issues man made climate change is real.

 

I agree but... I think opinions fall into 3 categories..
1 Deniers ( akin to 'Flat Earth' believers and 'Moon Landing conspiracy' believers).
2 Those who blame man is 100% responsible and we can reverse or at least halt it
3 Those who believe it is happening and agree we need to modify drastically the way we treat the planet but those changes will only slow what is a naturally occurring cycle in the Earth's climate.

I am one of those who believe no 3. Science cannot overcome nature and nor is our planet 'static' We, in our arrogance, like to think our current clmate is the norm, but evidence (sediment/fossils with tropical flora and fauna in the extreme Northern hemisphere), the fact that in the 13th century and beyond the North of England had a warm climate (e.g. Vineyards around Monk Bretton Priory) shows it is a constant state of flux. That is not to say we should do nothing , but Earth will carry on, long after man as a species has gone. Countless species (and for all we know 'civilisations') have come and gone and man has been here for mere seconds in relative terms.
Nature has a way of self correcting, in this case, possibly by wiping out the cause. i.e. us!!

 

You're correct, of course, but having recently become a grandparent, I'd like to think we can do something to give future generations a reason to remember us fondly, rather than as a bunch of self-obsessed, short-sighted idiots.

 

I’m sure your Australian family will be delighted to hear that you are offended on their behalf.

 

It's not so much the extent of the change which proves how badly we're f*cking things, but the rate of change. There have always been global fluctuations however these were moderate and happened over thousands of years. Since the industrial revolution we have essentially condensed a fluctuation that might have taken thousands of years to happen into a couple of hundred years with no sign of it slowing down or somehow self-correcting. If the current "warm spell" were to stay within the bounds of historic changes then we'd be fine. But we're already hotter than what we estimate the hottest historic period to be, and continuing to get hotter.

The warm period in England in the early part of the last millennium is a bit misleading - that was limited to the North Atlantic region and globally the temperatures around that time were likely lower than they are now. It's the equivalent of pointing to a snowy day and saying "see, there's no such thing as global warming".

 

... I like you

 

All of that. Greta reminds me of King Canute. There were many species here before us and they’ll be many long after we’ve evolved into something else.

 

This is brilliant! What an insight.

Entropy is inevitable so we might as well just murder all the babies.