Parts of #Australia are likely to experience an increased risk of #bushfires in the coming months 🔥

Today, satellite imagery shows smoke drifting over #Sydney as firefighters begin hazard reduction burns.

Not pleasant to wake up to the smell of bush fire smoke. Smoke haze over the Central Coast this morning. Triggering memories of the horror of the mega-blazes of 2019-20.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/11/sydney-wakes-to-blanket-of-burnoff-smoke-that-could-linger-for-days

#bushfires #bushfires #climateemergency

It's only a few days into spring but the fires are already burning in the Northern Territory with forecasts of a hot, dry summer to come.

Fire crews battle large fire in the Northern Territory
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-10/nt-emergency-services-battle-bushfire-in-barkly-region/102837278

Hot, dry and early fire season forecast for Western Australia
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-10/wa-at-risk-of-difficult-fire-season/102837728

#Australia #ClimateEmergency #bushfires

Plantations and fires
"We were able to show that some of the most intense fires were associated with eucalyptus and also pinus plantations.The plantations really were driving some of the most intense fires on Earth at that point and these are not non-trivial fires.These are absolute raging firestorms." Professor Bowman

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-09/wildfires-portugal-greece-california-hawaii-euclyptus-trees/102760264
#ForestryCorporation #plantations #eucalyptus #bushfires #firestorm #risks

Air pollution kills 3,200 Australians a year.
"Air pollution is the world’s single greatest environmental cause of preventable disease and premature death. In Australia, it’s linked to more than 3,200 deaths a year at an estimated cost of A$6.2 billion."

"Decarbonising transport will improve air quality as well as reducing emissions."

End
Killer mobility (Bushmaster like combustion tanks: SUVs)
Treating the Earth's air/atmosphere as a tip
Slash and burn 'plantation' forestry
Burning everything down before it might burn culture

https://theconversation.com/3-200-deaths-a-year-1-of-many-reasons-air-pollution-in-australia-demands-urgent-national-action-212973
#FossilFuel #transportation #cars #trucks #traffic #HeavyMachinery #roads #bushfires #smoke #NativeForests #NSWlogging #BellingLogging #burning #smoke #pollution #air ##climate OneHealth

Future-proofing Australia in a climate emergency?

"In 2019-2020, the Black Summer fires killed or displaced three billion native animals, burned an area equivalent to Belgium and hospitalised thousands from smoke pollution...It also doubled the nation’s greenhouse gas output."

“Never has the destructive force of climate change revealed itself so widely across the globe, and the explosion of climate-fuelled d i s a s t e r s has given billions of people a f i r s t - h a n d u n d e r s t a n d i n g of their ferocity — and impact,” says Council on Foreign Relations climate fellow Alice Hill."

“Like a world war, climate change is a threat to people, law and order, stability, quality of life, the economy and health infrastructure,” she says. “But it’s worse. The extreme events caused by climate change have other impacts.” The ANU’s Head of Disaster Solutions, Associate Professor Roslyn Prinsley, says Australia desperately needs a national Disaster Resistance Authority."

"The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority has warned Australia must invest $3.5 billion each year to limit the damage from increasingly frequent natural hazards...What they suggest is that simply responding to disasters after the fact is likely to cost 11 times more,” Prof Prinsley explains."

"But future-proofing is not politically popular. In the 20 years to 2022, $24 billion was spent on disaster recovery and relief efforts. Only $510 million was spent on resilience projects."

https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/adapt-or-die-nightmare-weather-coming-for-unprepared-australia/news-story/c9373216f21e42621e16f5f74096a86a
#FossilFuels #coal #disasters #prevention #bushfires #smoke #pollution #floods #deforestation #disruption #extinction makers

Using satellites to rapidly detect bushfires is not as easy as it seems

#Bushfires #disasters #space #Australia

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2023-08-30/bushfires-can-be-detected-from-space-within-minutes-of-ignition/102765624

Koalas crushed, starving as Kangaroo Island's blue gum plantations come down

"As the plantations come, down dislocated koalas are hurting recovering native vegetation."

"Wildlife workers and researchers say Kangaroo Island koalas displaced by the removal of controversial Tasmanian blue gum plantations are starving — and an urgent solution is required...We're seeing koalas starving and being displaced in large numbers and this is just not good enough. Mrs Welz said since November last year, her group had cared for numerous animals with crush injuries."

"What we … would love to see is a sacrificial plantation where healthy koalas can be put in to live out their natural lives," she said."

"Koalas are not indigenous to Kangaroo Island and were introduced in the 1920s...the island's vegetation had not fully recovered from the Black Summer bushfires, and as koalas displaced by the plantation shutdown moved into farmland and areas of roadside vegetation, over-browsing was occurring."

"The spokesperson said the department was aware of the potential impacts on remnant native vegetation as koalas were forced to move, but that it was not considering acquiring or leasing part of the remaining unburnt plantation as a refuge."

"The animals are being displaced as the island's timber plantations come down."

""Locals say a koala management plan is needed as displaced animals are destroying native plants."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-30/calls-for-koala-management-kangaroo-island-plantations-removed/102754180
#wildlife #habitat #koalas #crush #injuries #plantations #RemnantVegetation #logging #BlackSummer #bushfires #CarbonOffsets #KangarooIsland #translocation

Stop burning fossil fuels
Stop deforestation

Off-the-charts records: humans have broken the climate

"Climate science’s projections are pretty robust over the last decades. Unfortunately, humanity’s stubbornness to spew out ever higher amounts of greenhouse gases has also been pretty robust."
Prof Malte Meinshausen, University of Melbourne, Australia.

“What we are seeing this year is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, of what we expect to happen...If we do not halt global warming soon, then the extreme events we see this year will pale against the ones that are to come.”
Prof Natalie Mahowald, of Cornell University

"The impacts are frighteningly more impactful than I - and many climate scientists I know - expected."
Prof Krishna AchutaRao, Indian Institute of Technology.

A" “tiny window” of opportunity remained open to tackle the climate crisis,..with humanity having all the tools needed. The researchers overwhelmingly pointed to one action as critical: slashing the burning of fossil fuels down to zero."

We need, above all, a just and equitable transition. A very small percentage of the human population is responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions.
Prof Paola Arias, University of Antioquia, Colombia.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/28/crazy-off-the-charts-records-has-humanity-finally-broken-the-climate
#deforestation #logging #Bushfires #heatwaves #floods #disasters #FossiFuels #transition #ClimateAction #Climate #OffTheCharts records

How 19th-century plantations turned Maui into a tinderbox

Hawaii/ Lahaina, the 18th century, “Venice of the Pacific”:
"A glut of natural wetlands nourished breadfruit trees, extensive taro terraces and fishponds that sustained wildlife and generations of Native."

"But more than a century and a half of plantation agriculture, driven by American and European colonists, have depleted Lahaina’s streams and turned biodiverse food forests into tinderboxes... The rise of plantation capital spawned the drying of the west side of Maui."

"Land privatization and water depletion set the stage for the Lahaina fire 150 years ago. ...Disaster capitalism at its finest”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/27/maui-wildfire-water-plantations-ecology
#colonial #monoculture #plantations #water #rights #logging #IndigenousPeoples #Lahaina #Hawaii #disasters #Australia #NativeForest #bushfires

Rivers in the Sky: How Deforestation Is Affecting Global Water Cycles

"The water that a single tree transpires daily has a cooling effect equivalent to two domestic air conditioners for a day."

"Forests moderate local climate by keeping their local environments cool. They do this partly by shading the land, but also by releasing moisture from their leaves. This process, called transpiration, requires energy, which is extracted from the surrounding air, thus cooling it. A single tree can transpire hundreds of liters of water in a day. Each hundred liters has a cooling effect equivalent to two domestic air conditioners for a day..."

https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-deforestation-affecting-global-water-cycles-climate-change
#Forests #deforestation #logging #Australia #NSW #BellingenLogging #GNKP #trees #biodiversity #climate #Droughts #bushfires #risks

Fossil fuels being subsidised at rate of $13m a minute, says IMF

"Countries have pledged to phase out subsidies for years to ensure the price of fossil fuels reflects their true environmental costs, but have achieved little to date...Ending the subsidies should be the centrepiece of climate action."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/24/fossil-fuel-subsidies-imf-report-climate-crisis-oil-gas-coal
#FossilFuels #consumption #heatwaves #bushfires #floods #governance #risks

"Australians urged to prepare for most significant bushfire season since black summer"

#Australia #BushFires #Environment

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/23/australian-bushfire-season-how-to-prepare

Bellingen biodiversity up in smoke today
#bushfires #smoke #pollution #health #Bellingen #climate #InAction ##wildlife #Biodiversity

Bushfires and the 15-kilometre traffic jam
Dangerous fires and a bottlenecks when fleeing bushfires

"There will be people caught in their cars, trying to get out of the area...When wildfires tore through the county of Maui in Hawaii earlier this month, leaving more than 100 people dead, some whom perished in their cars on the gridlocked road out of the town."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-25/wollondilly-residents-road-upgrades-bushfire-traffic-bottleneck/102776522
#planning #sprawl #ExitRoutes #FossilFuel #bushfires #risks #cars #traffic #roads #gridlocked #Bellingen #WaterfallWay

Underground power lines now
Energy - “Overhead transmission is the quickest and cheapest way to deliver what is needed”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/23/renewable-energy-new-power-lines-for-transmission-risks-concerns
#ecosystem #destruction #trees #underground #energy #NSW #bushfires

Large parts of #Australia put on high alert for significant #bushfires in spring.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-23/australia-bushfire-forecast-high-alert-spring/102741650

#wildfire season could be really bad for Australia this #ElNino year after the triple-dip #LaNina fueled vegetation growth for 3 years.

Logging the Great Koala National Park, Tuckers Nob State forest, Bellingen

#Bellingen #logging #LoggingIndustry #BellingenLogging #koalas #biodiversity #GKNP #TuckersNobSF #SaveTuckersNob #destruction #climate #bushfires

More bushfires in southeastern Australia due to climate disruption

What environmental and climatic factors influence multidecadal fire frequency?

"The complex spatiotemporal changes in fire frequency quantified in this study, and the complex between-region differences in the factors associated with the number of fires, have major implications for biodiversity conservation, resource availability (e.g., timber yields), and ecosystem integrity. In ecosystems subjected to repeated fires at short intervals, new rapid detection and swift suppression technologies may be required to reduce the risks of ecosystem collapse as high-severity wildfires increase in frequency."

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.4610
David Lindenmayer et al, What environmental and climatic factors influence multidecadal fire frequency?, Ecosphere (2023). DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.4610
#FossilFuels #climate #ecosystems #collapse #bushfires #logging #biodiversity #conservation

Fire down below

The recent devastation caused by wildfires across Europe and Hawaii has sparked concerns about the return of catastrophic bushfires in Australia, but despite the forecast of a hotter, drier summer, a repeat of recent ‘black summers’ appears unlikely. #bushfires

https://www.openforum.com.au/forums/fire-down-below/