value the bush ?

[rogespeed]

So now is Australia going to value the bush a bit more and allocate required resources to safe guard against or minimise the damage of the next potential firestorm ? 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-28/3-billion-animals-killed-displaced-in-fires-wwf-study/1249797...

I wonder how many animal species are now extinct ? 

[davewil1964]

I wonder how long before the next similar catastrophe. Given a significant proportion of combustible material is now contributing to global warming, it will be 20+ years until there is any chance of a similar firestorm.

[myoclon1cjerk]

One autumn/winter of good rainfall and it's all primed by late spring.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_California_wildfires

[davewil1964]

Eucalyptus forests don't regenerate that quickly.

[myoclon1cjerk]

A couple of years. Then there's all the bush that didn't go up last season.

[myoclon1cjerk]

Check this out.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/2020/08/17/california-death-valley-temperature-record/

[springyzone]

---

@rogespeed wrote:

So now is Australia going to value the bush a bit more and allocate required resources to safe guard against or minimise the damage of the next potential firestorm ? 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-28/3-billion-animals-killed-displaced-in-fires-wwf-study/1249797...

I wonder how many animal species are now extinct ? 

---

Forgive me if I am a bit cynical.

After every catastrophe, we see a whole lot of media outrage and calls for things to be improved and government promises that they will be.

But then things settle down and public opinion often turns. Yes, turns! When that happens, it is political suicide to pursue the original promises or pour money into them.

We have seen this time after time.

I recall one year in the 1990s we had a period of excessive rain. Any murmurs of having another dam built were met with public outcry plus comments it was a waste of money, environmentally unfriendly, excessive etc

Fast forward to the drought. The outcry was-why didn't the government prepare better, why wasn't a dam built or at least something put in place.

So the government quickly poured money into the desalination plant but the drought started to break before it was completed. People of course were outraged by the waste of money.

After the Ash Wednesday fires, there were public calls for better regulation of buildings in high risk areas, better building codes too so houses would be safer. A few years down the track, we have people popping up in media reports complaining that new regulations added thousands on to building costs, making it impossible for families to build on their land-cue 'unfair'.

This latest pandemic-we have come to see how at risk we are when a chain of supply is broken, if almost everything coming from China. We've come to see the value of having Aust farming & industry.

So after the latest fires, will we 'value the bush more', will the money be put up for the required monitoring & surveys?

After the pandemic, will we try to build up more Australian industry?

Maybe, for a little while, but memories are short.

[myoclon1cjerk]

I can answer your question in two words. Susan Ley.

[icyfroth]

---

@springyzone wrote:

---

@rogespeed wrote:

So now is Australia going to value the bush a bit more and allocate required resources to safe guard against or minimise the damage of the next potential firestorm ? 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-28/3-billion-animals-killed-displaced-in-fires-wwf-study/1249797...

I wonder how many animal species are now extinct ? 

---

Forgive me if I am a bit cynical.

After every catastrophe, we see a whole lot of media outrage and calls for things to be improved and government promises that they will be.

But then things settle down and public opinion often turns. Yes, turns! When that happens, it is political suicide to pursue the original promises or pour money into them.

We have seen this time after time.

I recall one year in the 1990s we had a period of excessive rain. Any murmurs of having another dam built were met with public outcry plus comments it was a waste of money, environmentally unfriendly, excessive etc

Fast forward to the drought. The outcry was-why didn't the government prepare better, why wasn't a dam built or at least something put in place.

So the government quickly poured money into the desalination plant but the drought started to break before it was completed. People of course were outraged by the waste of money.

After the Ash Wednesday fires, there were public calls for better regulation of buildings in high risk areas, better building codes too so houses would be safer. A few years down the track, we have people popping up in media reports complaining that new regulations added thousands on to building costs, making it impossible for families to build on their land-cue 'unfair'.

This latest pandemic-we have come to see how at risk we are when a chain of supply is broken, if almost everything coming from China. We've come to see the value of having Aust farming & industry.

So after the latest fires, will we 'value the bush more', will the money be put up for the required monitoring & surveys?

After the pandemic, will we try to build up more Australian industry?

Maybe, for a little while, but memories are short.

---

Yeah.Aussie politicians don't run Austrlalia anymore...

[chameleon54]

---

@rogespeed wrote:

So now is Australia going to value the bush a bit more and allocate required resources to safe guard against or minimise the damage of the next potential firestorm ? 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-28/3-billion-animals-killed-displaced-in-fires-wwf-study/1249797...

I wonder how many animal species are now extinct ? 

---

My remote farm is only ten km. from one of the large bushland areas that has been hit by consecutive fires for the last decade or so. The area is pretty arid and is acting as a bit of a canary in the coal mine as far as climate change goes. Being so dry, if rainfall drops by another 30% and summer days are hotter it really hits hard out there. 

There's not much bush left in the area that hasn't been burned. What didn't burn five years ago, burnt three years ago and any bits that where still left got hit by the fires last year. I have got a pair of endangered Eastern Mallee Whip Birds nesting in a hanging basket on my porch near the front door of the old farm house. There was only estimated to be 2000 of them left a decade ago, before the fires hit, I would expect they would number in the hundreds now.

The breeding pair moved in last year ( never had them on the property before ) and raised two clutches , two chicks each time. This year they have three chicks already and going by last year, I would expect another nesting this season. While it is fascinating having such a rare bird nesting on my porch, it is very sad to think the birds will be a very small, isolated colony, probably taking refuge at the farm as a result of the fires that have destroyed the national parks nearby..