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More Destructive Green Policies
Creating Bushfire Hazards
by Viv Forbes
17 February
2013.
A pdf print-ready copy of this newsletter with all
illustrations in place can be downloaded from:
A recent
report from friends who suffered terrible losses of buildings, fences, pasture
and cattle in the Coonabarabran fire commenced with the ominous and
oft-repeated message: “a raging fire came out of the National Park straight for
us”.
There is
only one way to limit fire damage – reduce the fuel available.
Fuel load
can be reduced in three ways – by grazing animals, by planned small “cool”
fires, or by mechanical reduction with slashers, mulchers or dozers.
Australia’s
grassland landscape was created and managed by generations of Aborigines who
were masters at using man’s most useful tool – fire. Every explorer from Abel
Tasman (1642) and Captain Cook (1770) onwards noted the smoke in the sky and
the burnt trees whenever they landed. This burning created the open grassland
landscapes that dominated pre-European Australia. Aborigines lit fires
continually, mainly to keep their fires sticks alight. Their small patchwork
fires caused no permanent damage to the environment and fortuitously created
and maintained the healthy grasslands and open forests on which many animals
and Aborigines depended.
There have
been two major changes to the tree/grass balance since European settlement. In
the fertile well-watered coastal strip, large areas of thick scrub and open
forest were logged and cleared for timber, farms, towns, roads, schools and the
domesticated grasses of suburban lawns. Most of those trees have been displaced
by those people who now, in ignorance, are also destroying the grasslands and
remaining open forests by locking up land and preventing any form of regrowth
control. Having destroyed much of the coastal forests and scrubs, they are now
destroying the open forests and grasslands.
Misguided
tree lovers and green politicians have locked the gates on ever-increasing
areas of land for trees, parks, heritage, wilderness, habitat, weekend
retreats, carbon sequestration etc. Never before on this ancient continent has
anyone tried to ban land use or limit bushfires on certain land. The
short-sighted policy of surrounding their massive land-banks with fences,
locked gates, fire bans and exclusion of livestock has created a new alien
environment in Australia. They have created tinder boxes where the growth of
woody weeds and the accumulation of dead vegetation in eucalypt re-growth
create the perfect environment for fierce fires.
Once ignited
by lightning, carelessness, or arson, the inevitable fire-storms incinerate the
park trees and wildlife, and then invade the unfortunate neighbouring
properties.
Many of today’s
locked-up areas were created to sequester carbon to fulfil Kyoto obligations.
Who pays the carbon tax on the carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere by
wild fires?
The green
bureaucracies and politicians are clearly mis-managing their huge land-bank.
Aborigines and graziers did a far better job. There should be a moratorium on
locking up any more land and a return to sustainable management for existing
land holdings.
The
Grassy Plains of Queensland in the 1860’s
Richard Daintree was a, scientist, explorer,
pastoralist, miner and historian. He spent much time in the years 1860 – 1876
exploring, photographing and promoting Queensland. A large collection of
Daintree’s photographs is held in the Queensland Museum, and some were
published by the Queensland Museum in 1977 in “Queensland in the 1860’s – the
Photography of Richard Daintree”, by Ian G Sanker.
Here is a picture taken by Daintree, in the Richmond
area -not a tree to be seen. Daintree wrote about the vast soil-covered
plains: “The resulting physical aspect is that of vast plains which form the
principal feature of Queensland scenery west of the main dividing range”. He
described them as first class pastoral country totalling about one third of
the area of Queensland.
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For a fascinating report on the condition of
Australia when Europeans arrived see:
http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/fire-and-landscape.pdf
An Environmentalist writes about ‘Hazard
Reduction Burning:
http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/hazard-reduction-burning.pdf
Abel Tasman comment, Nov - Dec 1642. From
Blainey’s “Triumph of the Nomads”, p 67.
“He sent men ashore - and they returned with the
news that the trunks of many trees had been deeply burned and that patches of
earth had been baked hard by fire. There was no sign of the Tasmanians but the
smoke of their fires could be seen from the ship when she anchored or sailed
along the east coast”.
From the Journals of Captain James Cook, Sat
28th April 1770, Botany Bay:
“After this we made an excursion into the
country which we found diversified with woods, lawns and marshes; the woods are
free from under wood of every kind and the trees are at such a distance from
one a nother that the whole country or at least a great part of it might be
cultivated without being oblig’d to cut down a single tree;…”
Time to Build Better Infrastructure.
Floods, fires, cyclones and drought are ever-present
features of the Australian landscape and have been here far longer than cars,
cattle, coal miners and timber getters.
Yet every time we have a natural disaster, we find
government infrastructure washed away, burnt down, blown apart or lacking
water. Meanwhile billions of dollars of community savings are wasted on vain
attempts to cool the climate of the next century.
This surely is the year to stop wasting money on
climate-change follies in order to allow more spending on real present-day
problems like disaster-proofing government controlled infrastructure and land.
Two policy changes are needed.
First, stop all federal, state and local government
spending or legislative support for climate commissions and bureaucracies,
UN-Kyoto junkets, carbon sequestration, green energy, biofuels, carbon taxing
and accounting, global warming research and climate change foreign aid. In
short, abolish every department, position or budget with “climate”, “warming”
or “carbon” in its name or description.
Second, re-build government infrastructure and manage
government lands to standards that can better withstand the inevitable floods,
fires, cyclones and droughts.
Magic-gas Discovery.
It has been
discovered that Australian coal has a magical property – it is one of a small
group of coals which produces an invisible gas with super-natural properties.
This magic
gas, carbon dioxide, first became famous for its claimed ability to warm the
whole world, thus removing the threat of a new ice age. The British academic
who reported this magic power claimed that winter snow would become “a very
rare and exciting event”.
Then an
Australian guru predicted that just a tiny addition of magic-gas to the
atmosphere would abolish floods, and billions of dollars were spent
constructing water desalination plants to combat his forecast of never-ending
droughts.
Then after
massive snows in Britain and huge floods in Australia, it was widely reported
that magic-gas could produce both heatwaves and snowstorms, floods and droughts
and even bushfires, cyclones and tornadoes, depending on the way the political
winds were blowing in that country.
Strangely,
only a few countries are able to produce “magic-gas”. A special exclusive club
called the Kyoto Club was formed for these lucky countries. Membership fees are
stratospheric, but members are rewarded with invitations to lavish UN
conventions at top tourist destinations. However, many founding members have
allowed their membership to lapse, leaving only EU, Australia and New Zealand
as fully paid up members.
Coals burnt
in Russia, India, China, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Canada
and USA produce carbon dioxide but their gas apparently lacks the magic
climate-altering properties of Australian magic-gas. Amazingly, these
properties are lost if Australian coal is burnt overseas – once loaded on a
ship the magic disappears.
There are a
few unpatriotic Australians who think the whole “magic-gas” thing is a big con,
and just an excuse for a new tax. Worried that the world may become sceptical
of the magic-gas story, CSIRO has been charged to re-educate these dangerous
and deluded sceptics. Vast sums are also being spent by academics to invent
more climate-bending properties for carbon dioxide, and regular dramatic announcements
are expected on the ABC and the BBC.
Extreme Weather is Nothing New
The great
snowstorm NSW 4-5th July, 1900 – an extreme weather event before CO2 was
invented.
See: http://www.australianweathernews.com/snow/Russell_RainEtc_NSW_1900.pdf This is a copy of the original report.(scroll down past some blank space). Thanks Peggy)
See: http://www.australianweathernews.com/snow/Russell_RainEtc_NSW_1900.pdf This is a copy of the original report.(scroll down past some blank space). Thanks Peggy)
Prof James Lovelock on:
The Blind Worship of
Windmills
“We never
intended a fundamentalist Green movement that rejected all energy sources other
than renewable, nor did we expect the Greens to cast aside our priceless
ecological heritage because of their failure to understand that the needs of
the Earth are not separable from human needs."
The veteran
environmentalist added:
"We
need to take care that the spinning windmills do not become like the statues on
Easter Island - monuments of a failed civilisation."
The Last Word
CSIROh! Malcolm Roberts has taken a close look at the
main taxpayer-funded organisations in Australia promoting the idea that
man-made production of carbon dioxide is causing dangerous climate change. His
findings demand answers.
Reminder, Lord Christopher Monckton is returning to
Australia and New Zealand. For details see Lord Monckton Tour 2013.
Finally, Politicians on Drugs.
Footballers
on drugs don’t worry me, but politicians can do a lot of damage, even on
caffeine.
Some
politicians believe a tax on the production of carbon dioxide in Australia will
change the world’s climate. They are surely hallucinating and should be drug
tested.
Authorised by:
Viv Forbes
Rosevale Qld
Australia
Phone 0754 640 533
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