Yes. Let's drum up more 'fear'. Frighten the life out of the plebs so that they can be manipulated even more than they already have been.

I'm not sure we need fear, just a reasoned rational response!

Fear serves nobody especially now and people are already manipulated by the policymakers every day of the week. After all, who knows what they're thinking out there in mugsville? Quote unquote.( Courtesy of a conservative Vic Candidate.)

Me, I'd advise everyone to boil their drinking water regardless of source and let a volume stand overnight.

( A standard jerry can with separate inlet and outlet, will assist as the bottom tap can be opened in the morning to evacuate the muddy stuff that settles on the bottom after boiling for a minimum of 3 minutes, as a rolling boil, and overnight settling) And purchase sufficient for current family numbers.

Position square can on a side and slightly elevated to allow maximised application.


Then collect the top portion as your drinking water and also pass it through and activated carbon filter, there are off the shelf water jugs so equipped. And there are replacement cartridges. Even apparently clear water can be treated this way to exclude harmful, if invisible to the naked eye, pathogens.

You could be surprised at the "dirt" you exclude in this survival safe to drink, water treatment application.TBC.
Alan B.

No. What we need is clean bore water that can be extracted from sandstone provinces, particularly those located near large bodies of permanent water.

After that, we need municipalities to invest in deionisation dialysis desalination plants to treat any adjacent seawater availability, And in some instances, this could be accomplished by some convenient state-funded, channel construction?

Could be solar-powered desal via solar thermal as the most cost-effective after MSR thorium.

Such a plant could be built on any currently uninhabited coastal island for peace of mind? And as an offset for the usual fear-mongering over the only reliable, dispatchable, on-demand,carbon-free power source, currently available.

Had we invested in this technology years ago we could have kept and expanded our manufacturing sector essential now as never before! For our self-defence
Alan B.

Thanks Alan B for the good practical advice for outback trips (and emergencies), will remember it. Hopefully the major water utilities will be able to control the impacts so we don't have to resort to that. Also, that will keep the Climate change cultist happy, as we won't be wasting energy on boiling the water!

I see the infamous data manipulator Dr Michael Mann has landed on our shores to promote catastrophic climate change in the form of our bushfires. This is the guy who recently lost his defamation court case over the integrity of his shonky “hocky sticky” climate temperature graph (notoriously used by Al Gore to promote his renewable energy investments and global speaking tours). The Guardian of course has promoted him by publishing a “Dangerous Climate Change” essay.

I haven’t read it, as it’s a subscription only read, and I long gave up reading “the Gruniad” as it was known it the 1980’s (due to it poor editing and spelling!). I have read his scientific Journal papers and the titbits I have seen uses 'objectively emotive' headline statements which include comments like: -

“I am a climate scientist on holiday in the Blue Mountains, watching climate change in action. After years studying the climate, my work has brought me to Sydney where I’m studying the linkages between climate change and extreme weather events”.

Great, that’s all we need is another self-promoting scientist spreading fear and loathing and criticising anyone who dares challenge his cults beliefs.

Should any of you have a copy of his latest “masterful essay” tell us more of his inciteful comments. They should be informative!

Makes you wonder, ‘How many climate change cultist airplane global tours would you need to cancel if you wanted to cool the planet?’

Answer none, but at least we wouldn't have to listen to their tales of doom and damnation.

Voice from the back; "Did you bring your hockey stick ?".

AJ energy consumed boiling water that may have fecal material in it is never wasted energy! Some of which is often left on rooftops by visiting birdlife, bats and possums etc. Other older examples may have lead-based paint on them or collect some of the carcinogenic pollutants of passing diesel traffic

Some filters claim to remove all of it? Bore water is usually safe as is, but not always.

And it is a rolling boil for at least three minutes. Or you could just not bother and risk nasty stomach poisoning by waterborne pathogens.

Some of which create projectile vomiting at both ends and the consequent dehydration one of the greatest killers of kids the world over!

And so simple to avoid unless you're just too bone lazy or tired to get off ass and boil water?

It's not greens so much that's the problem, albeit I rarely if ever see eye to eye with those tree-huggers, the greatest problem is half smart, smart asses who are just too ignorant to know just how ignorant they really are. And if the cap fits?
Cheers, Alan B.

if nothing else, there'll be a post-bushfire common sense crisis !

We use tank water for all our household needs, our current tanks are plastic and well worth the investment, water is drawn off about a foot from the bottom to allow plenty of room for sediment to settle, this is mostly dust from the shearing and other sheds roofs.
Our underground cisterns, which collect from the house roof aren't fit to drink from and are used for garden/fire fighting/WC flush water.
We never boil the tank water but if I go to Glen Innes, I take plenty of water with me as the town water (even though it's treated) upsets the internals, so mostly I don't trust town water through Brisbane and Sydney water don't upset me,
Inverell is OK too, but there are other towns where I avoid drinking the local offering, which is a good excuse to have a beer.

Drinking unfiltered water won't kill you, unless, like millions around the world, you have to source it from mucky ponds and stinking polluted rivers. A good rainwater tank with a first flush and a correctly placed offtake like yours works well, even in our capital cities!

I us rainwater for everything ,only using Sydney Water supply for top-up such as this recent drought (about 5-10%). I do use a multiple stage filter, due to the close proxity of a train line (covers everything in brake dust) and UV disinfection lamp due to the abundance of birds and possums that live in the trees overhanging some of our roofs (Council protects the trees). As a result, I collect 90% of my water, have lovely soft crystal clear water which also makes great tea and coffee.

Properly treated town water does taste of chlorine BUT it is safe. The chlorine is essential the water remains free of bugs as it is distributed across the city pipes from the treatment plants.

Most people from non chlorinated water supplies can detect the chlorine taste, while those used to it no longer notice. I know Glenn Innes is a small town, but it has a relatively modern (compared to many) water treatment plant. If the water upsets your stomach, ask the council water to check the chlorine levels.

Yesterday SMH highlighted another US California wildfire expert who works for an insurance company) commenting on our fires and the dangers of climate change.

Somehow I don't think you will see them, the Guardian or the ABC covering the an actual substantive "expert report" on California's last three years of fire. I haven't tracked down a copy of the report as yet, but US media reports state that:

"Climate change played a minor role in the wildfires that devastated California in the past three years, a panel of experts said yesterday, blaming most of the damage on land management and development."

and quote comments of members at a Conference yesterday who state that:.

"Both Montgomery and Stephens advocated thinning California's forests, either through prescribed burns or manual clearing. They spoke yesterday at the annual conference of the National Council for Science and the Environment".

Sounds like Climate Change ain't as big a factor as CC Cultists argue, and land management and prescribed burning is needed. Thankfully our major water utilities and planation foresters have a more sensible approach to this.

Manns here for a sabbatical in Australia (obviously has come here to lick his wounds after his legal exposure his his false 'hockey stick' diagram). So expect an increase in scar-mongering and crisis doom and gloom stuff from the ABC and The Guardian. I found the version of his Guardian article in The US AGU magazine. Here is the link if you want to see what he says (without having to subcribe to the Guardian).

http://send.agu.org/link.cfm?r=91mmZJ_UV_QRFe4CAJS4mg~~&pe=ZpomIBSvRz2gjIG__-SSpt2MCXyy5i65GhlmPC4oG_jTu4v0tyM0Dt-0ikE0kOKQP30hnBE5JESzHyaQPJP1Xw~~&t=NGRWQ5J0isMvkbjjsivpCg~~

As this is just a entrée into his spruiking things here, he has co-authored a book which he is promoting.

I bet it will become the cook book for forthcoming recipes for the Climate Change cultists and the media to feed us with more climate crisis stories this year.

Happy ' "climate change crisis" year 2020