Paul,

What is needed for cataclysmic bush-fires ? Long periods of dryness, i.e. droughts; ignition, such as from lightning strikes and/or the odd half-wit arsonist; and NP and council policies which down-grade preventive measures such as clearing, allowing animals to graze, cool-burns, wide fire-breaks, clearing away from roadways and houses, etc.

Climate change is happening, currently at even more than one degree per century. CO2 may be a major cause of climate change. But neither is all that relevant in these situations: once much of Australia is in the grip of drought, and with dumb-arse policies opposing preventative measures, all you need is ignition, and away it all goes.

So now we will be suffering the effects of these stupid anti-environmental policies for a century or more. Christ knows how many cue, little furry animals have been incinerated in the past few months, due to those policies.

Thanks, Paul. Please pass on our thanks to all of your idiot mates.

Joe

Joe, nice try at deflection once again, you attempt to blame those not in power, greens/environmentalists, the so called my idiot mates you like to refer to, they are mealy scapegoats for you, and the do nothing conservative politicians you support get off scot free. The fact is its your idiot mates in Canberra and in the states who have been in power for years during the build up to these catastrophic fire events and done nothing more than to pay lip service to bush fire minimisation.

Morrison and Berejiklian were caught with their pants down, not willing to admit their do nothing stupid policies on bushfires contributed to the disaster, they proceeded to put on a show of contrite compassion for those who are suffering the most.

Wake up old boy, prove it was MY MATES that are the cause of these bushfires. I bet you offer nothing in the way of evidence. Your support for do nothing conservative politicians is a big factor in the cause of catastrophic bushfires. Going to take your portion of the blame will you? I bet not.

Paul,

So you agree that there has been a " ... build up to these catastrophic fire events ..... " ? Do you mean in the amount of fuel available for catastrophic burning ?

In other words, incompetence amongst those who set the policies, NP and state authorities and local councils, for regular reduction in fuel loads ?

Thank you.

Joe

We were earlier told by the Department of Meteorology that we would not see substantial rain till April or May, however thousands were meeting in prayer for rain during January throughout Australia and it came. Thank God!

Lets blame god for the bushfires. After all if god provided the rain to put the bushfires out, god must have provided the bushfires in the first place. Agree Fr Joe.

In NSW National Parks and Wildlife conduct 80% of hazard reduction, the remaining 20% is done by other agencies. In the last year in NSW 136,500 ha were hazard reduced, about 5% of the total area that in a 20 year cycle should be reduced at least once. This was achieved on a budget that allowed for 135,000 ha, thus exceeding the budget by 1500 ha. These authorities and councils do not have an unlimited amount of resources to conduct hazard reduction, they rely on state government funding. Good old Gladdy dropped the ball on that score. In the case of reduction burns winter weather conditions play a big part, they have to be right before burning can commerce, to wet, to dry, to much wind can reduce the number of days reduction burns can take place. Experts tell us that hazard reduction burning is no magic bullet when it comes to bushfire control, unlike some ignorant posters here believe.

This whole sorry episode requires a Royal Commission to determine where the failures were and why, what we can learn, along with recommendations to improve the whole way we tackle bushfires and other disasters in the future.

Joe, don't forget the evidence that MY MATES are responsible for the bush fires. I actually believe you conservative voters are partly to blame for voting in uncaring clueless dumb clucks from the LNP who failed to understand the seriousness of the problem, despite being told well in advance by experts.

Paul,

I'll leave the religion of Climate Change to you :) As it happens, I've always been an atheist, although I'm interested in the various human, real-world, moral imperatives in the various Bibles.

But in order to avoid being burnt as one of Misopinionated's witches, I have to point out that I've said many times that CO2 probably kicks up world temperatures, although that may not be relevant to the current crisis. Our current drought may be caused more by anomalies in the Indian Ocean Dipole (which seems to be switching around now) and oscillations in the Pacific currents. I don't understand any of that, but it sounds quite scientific.

The New Great Satan, Climate Change, may not be the only Great Satan around of course. I only half-believe in Her, just the FO2 bit, I'm not convinced that the measurements of temperatures over the past 200 years has been all that reliable.

So prepare the pyre !

Joe