Climate Change zealots are going absolutely spastic trying to defend their crumbling theory that the Australian brush fires were caused by global warming.
As soon as real scientists started pointing out that the fires were caused by humans, not the climate, all the left-wing “fact checkers” started quoting things out of context and tap-dancing around the hard facts. When liberals can’t refute something directly, Snopes and the others find something related but inaccurate to pick on.
Australia’s biggest mistake is using California’s model of forestry management. Australia restrains efforts to clear the fuel build-ups in the forest and uses ineffective methods for controlled burning.
The Golden State has also suffered terrible devastation as a result of power line equipment sparking the dried undergrowth which hasn’t been removed for years.
The vast majority of Australia’s fires were set by humans, either by accident or intentionally. “There are a number of fires so far this season that have been lit with malicious intent,” asserts NSW Rural Fire Service Inspector Ben Shepherd.
The fact checkers zoom in on the cases of confirmed arson while denying that in New South Wales alone, police charged 183 people with fire-related offenses since early November. Almost half of the recent bush fires were set by people.
As reported by CNN, “Out of those 183 people, 53 have received cautions or criminal charges for failing to comply with a total fire ban and 47 are accused of discarding a lit cigarette or match on land, according to the police statement.” After accounting for the unintentional fires, at least 24 were charged with the crime of Arson for intentionally setting brushfires.
One was even a fire-fighter. In November, a 19-year-old volunteer fireman was arrested on suspicion of arson. He was charged with seven counts of deliberately setting fires over a six-week period.
While dry weather is a contributing factor, the real problem for Australia is “built-up layers of dry eucalyptus twigs and leaves” which make “excellent fuel,” Climate Depot reports. Australia’s national science agency warned about it in 2015.
“Forest fuel levels have worsened over the past 30 years because of ‘misguided green ideology,’ vested interests, political failure, and mismanagement, creating a massive bushfire threat.”
Politician David Packham submitted a similar warning to the state of Victoria’s Inspector-General for Emergency Management. “Victoria’s ‘failed fire management policy’ is an increasing threat to human life, water supplies, property, and the forest environment.”
He went on to say, “unless the annual fuel reduction burning target, currently at a minimum of 5 percent of public land, is doubled or preferably tripled, a massive bushfire disaster will occur. The forest and alpine environment will decay and be damaged possibly beyond repair and homes and people [will be] incinerated.”
Australia’s Aborigines successfully managed the forest for thousands of years and they have a number of suggestions. For most of the past 60,000 years, until the white man invaded, they were the experts at “managing the ecology of the world’s-driest inhabited continent.”
According to indigenous fire practitioner Victor Steffensen, “the Western mindset is always about dealing with problems while they’re doing damage — it’s reactive. If we can use our way, these types of fires will never get the chance to start.”
The nation already uses the controlled burn method but the way they do it is ineffective. The old-school method was to use “cool, slow” controlled burns, and do them at night. That way, dangerous fuel loads of scrub and fallen timber are removed from forest floors. “We will never defeat fire in this country, so we have to use it as a tool and adapt.”
Large areas of land are treated “with multiple small-scale burns.” Justin Leonard with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization explains that “such an approach is more labor intensive and takes longer. But the lower intensity and slow progress of the fire gives animals chance to escape and protects the forest canopy.”