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February 09, 2009
Australia burning ....
My sympathies go out to the men and women currently fighting the out of control wildfires in South Australia, Victoria and Southern New South Wales. With the toll now at well over 100 dead and rising - with may more remote towns still not fully accessed or searched, this will be far worse than the Ash Wednesday fires in the 1980's which, until now, have been the benchmark for this sort of disaster. The Victoria Country Fire Authority is well equipped and well motivated, but even with all its resources committed, the combination of heat, aridity and fire has overwhelmed them. It is soul destroying to spend day after day chasing fires that are no sooner brought under control than they break out and make a new run for it. It is even more so when your home, your community or your livelihood is destroyed or in the path of destruction.
I have no doubt at all that we will now see the well rehearsed arguments breaking out again over whether it is better to have small controlled burns regularly to clear the underbrush and maintain fire breaks - or - as the "green" lobby always argue - to stop all clearing and allow "natural growth". The truth is that Australia's bush has been subjected to bruning for more than 10,000 years of human activity. It was the manner in which the Aboriginal population cleared the bush and hunted down certain game animals and the vegetation has adapted to this. Many of the Euchalypts which make up the bulk of the natural vegetation now need fire to germinate their seeds!
No doubt we will be told endlessly by the same "green" lobby, that the fires are not the fault of a lack of contol of the vegetation, but of "global warming" and "man-made emmissions". Yeah, and the moon is made of green cheese don't you know.
Prayers for the fire fighters and for those who have lost everything, relatives, friends and children need to be offered by us all. I hope that the fires can be brought under control soon and that the debate on how to prevent it happening again can now occur without the usual "green" emotive chicancery.
Posted by The Gray Monk at February 9, 2009 07:04 AM
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