Like modern-day flagellants, the zealots of the Church of Climate Change are parading themselves in the wake of the Victorian bushfires, making loud protestations of their own piety, and stentoriously thundering at the rest of us sinners to repent our wicked ways lest we bring further divine wrath on our heads.

Just like the flagellants of the Black Death, these fools have convinced themselves that purely natural events are in some way the fruits of human wickedness.

And just like the Fourteenth Century, no amount of millennialist hysteria - religious or secular - is going to make a whit of difference.

“While it is be (sic) impossible to say whether these particular weather events were caused by climate change, what is clear is that these kinds of extreme weather events will become more frequent and more severe as climate change advances.”

If it is impossible to say whether or not weather events were caused by climate change, how can it be possible for this author to claim that the events will become more frequent and severe as climate changes advances!

If this person is “…Greenpeace's Climate and Energy Campaign Leader”, save us from Greenpeace! He doesn’t even know that Bangladesh, wettest country on earth, is always having floods; as has Australia always been drought and flood prone.

How could a person like this expect anyone to believe his cries of: “What matters is that our climate is changing”, and “And we’re running out of time to act.”

“Australian’s are dying as a result of extreme weather events”, bleats this climate change hysteric, insulting the memories of the most recent to die, and those who have died in bushfires before climate change was even heard of. Every time there is a tragedy, there are always “experts” who jump on the bandwagon to air their pet ideologies.

The fact of the matter is that the same greeny types as the author bullied local councils in the Kinglake area to encourage people to grow trees right up to their homes to keep the ‘forest look’, and to forbid the clearing of undergrowth. The eco-nuts are, in this case, just as responsible as arsonists for the deaths of residents.

The current tragedy that will “forever be etched into the nation’s psyche” (the author’s claim), will gradually pass from the memories of those not directly affected just like all of the other natural disasters repeated in Australia; disasters which are repeated because we don’t take precautions because we DO forget previous experiences.

Continued...

I find it hard to contain my anger at this insensitive piece of Green opportunism. What is clearly emerging in the aftermath of Saturday's bushfires is that the north west of Melbourne is one of the most dangerous bushfire areas in Austtalia and that the misguided 'green' policies of local councils, which made clearing the land around houses difficult, if not impossible, was one - and far from the only one - of the contributing factors in the horrendous loss of life. Indeed, in today's 'Age', there is the story of one family who were fined $50,000 for clearing trees from around their house. After the fire, theirs is the only house left standing in their local area.

It is worth pointing out that Mr Hepburn represents Greenpeace, a large, hierarchical and extremely wealthy multi-national corporation, whose co-founder Patrick Moore abandoned it because he deemed it too alarmist and lacking in scientific knowledge and expertise.

...continued

The unwillingness or inability of people to respect and fear the vagaries of the Australian bush by living in it when they should not do so causes self-inflicted tragedy; the mantra of ‘climate change’ has nothing to do with it.

The claim that “…we can still prevent is runaway global warming that would see these kind of events happen far more often” is nonsense. This author is not the only one using the cruel deaths of people to beat the climate change drum. The climate will change when it is good and ready to change of its own accord. We have to learn to adapt, not have the arrogance to think that we have any control over nature.

Given the unnecessary current bushfires deaths, and all those in the past, it is clear that we have never been able to adapt to the dangers of the Australian climate and environment. Given that there is nothing that we can do about climate change, it is very unlikely that most of us will be able to adapt to it either

I suggest the author gets the book "Water into Gold" written by Ernestine Hill nearly fifty years ago. She details a hotter day than last Saturday on the Murray over one hundred years ago.
This really is distressing the hysteria being generated over natural events.
Now the climate changers are claiming everything is settled and very quietly give us lots more money.

I don't think you can take one event and use it to prove anything, and it is foolish to do so as it removes credibility. And it certainly doesn't do much good to use emotive and sensationalist language to try and cause a panicked response.

Having said that -

Clownfish, you must in the Church of Climate Change Deniers...the ones who steadfastly refuse to believe anything on principle, rather than for any logical reason. You appear to an equally unreasonable and uninformed zealet, very similar to the people you criticize, and very short on justification for your viewpoint.

Some very basic research would have shown you that the sorts of temperatures experienced in southestern Australia were well outside normal climatic variations. Of course, this does not conclusively prove that climate change is happening, but it could well be an inidcator of more instability in the climate.

This is currently reflected around the world, for instance in unusually warm weather in Moscow prior to Christmas (6 degrees above normal), the current cold snap in northern Europe, flooding in northern Australia etc. This instability is worrying in that it makes it far more difficult to work out what is going on and therefore more hazardous. However, such instability is predicted in the often maligned climate change models and does provide some comfort that these models are on the right track.