they'll be gone by 2044
mhaze,.
I'm not a CC warrior but I wouldn't be crying Wolf just yet either !
It's a little to Cavalier considering that no-one's got a clue really !

cutting down the gum trees around dwellings
is Mise,
I wouldn't cut down good trees, I'd rather see building away from trees. I had 33 trees on my block & 24 were rotten in the core, I left the good ones & pruned the ones close to the house. Also, old neighbour & I got together with the local fireies & convinced them to burn the undergrowth in the adjacent State forest shortly after the rains. We had fires during that severe dry but not threatening anything. We'll burn again after this next Wet & so will the people down the road.
The new grass among the trees brings in the wildlife now that they can access the forest.
We don't have people building in live trees, local council sees to that !

Only if it was 60 ft tall and you were perched at the very top Issy. Glad to see you admit that "we often light fires". The we being you and your best mate Wombat Man Tony Assi, and the fires I assume being bushfires. About time you came clean, you little pyromaniac you.

We'll never get rid of gum trees. What we have to deal with are people who stupidly build houses among them. With few exceptions, the houses seen on TV, burnt to the ground, are surrounding by them. I have to say that my sympathy with bushfire victims is tempered with thoughts of how idiotic it is for people to live in the Australian bush.

The Australian bush is not a friendly pace. Most people know this, and live in the cities. People who must live in rural areas should have been well aware of the risks by now and should have taken proper precautions. It is hoped that a Royal Commission into this year's disaster will include legal requirements for clearing and building. It is sheer lunacy that most of the people burnt out will rebuild on the same spot, as they have done every time following bushfires. Sympathy and willingness to compensate has its limits.

Yes we most definitely need to cut all trees in a position to fall across roads if burnt off at the base. Even in a cool burn old & rotting trees will catch fire at the base, smolder for days, then finally fall. We must make roads safe to exit an area in an emergency.

Paul, "BTW, reading a good book recommended by Mr O, 'Collapse' by Jared Diamond". Does he mention that civilizations collapse mostly when they get too easy for the basically useless to live in comfortably.

Once there is no struggle for the daily bread to feed your family, & too much time with no real work or stimulus, people start this fool greenie religion, & start worshiping trees, & valuing them, & even their fallen detritus, more than the people who have to live with it, & the resultant fires it causes.

They live in large cities, now ridiculously high ones, with no contact with the earth at all, walking on paved over land, if they do come down to earth. Not seeing a real live animal they endower all animals with some mystic value, way above that of their fellow humans.

They value wildlife above people, & rather stupidly want to protect their own predators. I guess the crocks snakes & sharks don't often make it far up high rise apartment blocks.

These people have no idea. They would do well to have some work to do. Like my son & I who now my dam & the river are dry, have put in about 30 hours each of hard work in a rather hot sun, to be able to provide water for our single horse, & my neighbors 6 horses.

Not only the horses, but the wildlife too. We have had about a dozen & growing kangaroos drinking from our horses bath tub daily. I really don't mind that, now we have water for a while, but I do wish they would go next door to graze. We really don't have enough grass to feed the size of mob our water supply is attracting.

Hi Is Mise,

Of course, minimise any fuel load under trees along our roadways, maybe back fifty or 100 metres if possible, and cull any trees which show signs of rot; and plant less flammable and smaller trees near houses - if any at all.

I saw one house on an SBS news report, from Omeo I think, a beautiful wooden house with trees right up to its windows. I thought, "O-o-o-o-o-o-o ! Isn't that lovely ?" In that sort of situation, I'd cut those trees right back and also try to get rid of any fuel in the bush within fifty or 100 metres, drag it out and mulch it if possible, cart it away to be burnt if not.

Whether, in some complex way, it's all down to too much CO2 in the atmosphere, surely something has to be done which is sensible in actual circumstances ? An explanation is not an excuse to do nothing, after all.

Joe