Now let's remember our Denial training: This is NOT climate change. Climate change is an Al Gore plot to take over the world. The droughts, extreme weather events, fires, rivers drying up, new heat records...they're all just somebody else's fault. Hey let's blame Mother Nature. It couldn't be all the poisons we spew into the air, water, and land. It couldn't be that we are mining, logging, fracking, overfishing, and paving the earth.

Here is a place with many major problems.

This is the place our foreign aid money, supplies, man power and extra fire fighting equipment should go. But no !!! We piss it away in sand box snake pits , rather then help our friends in their time of need. It is no wonder we are going to hell in a hand basket.

Mr. President & Congress :

Get off your sorry dead asses and help these people NOW.

Bob, don't worry about it mate. Australia is a rich country. Things like this are generally covered by insurance, and the government helps out those who fall between the cracks. It isn't like the USA where 8 years after Katrina people are still living in cardboard boxes. Or Sandy for that matter.

The last thing they want or need is Obama rolling up in a motorcade of 50 vehicles telling everyone how the USA is such an ally of Austria, and how much he admires them for helping defeat the Nazi's during WWII. You know?

Wow, the first thread and already the liberal idiot is screaming climate change. Newsflash, these fires are not from spontaneous combustion. Either they were set on purpose or there was a lightening strike.

Instead of turning every global event into a political propaganda point how about just expressing you concern for those who are suffering.

Wife extensively toured Aus before we met. Developed a great Love for the people and the country. Longed to return. Back then it was somewhat less densely populated (like everywhere), especially in the 'at risk' areas. The Australian Continent, being in the Southern hemisphere, especially outback has suffered extremes of climate for all of officially recorded history and according to geological studies, long before. A very resilient people Australians. Able to shrug off many catastrophes that would bring others (including many Australians) to their knees. Being brought to 'Our Knees' is what helped families survive stress since time immortal. According to 'new' and popular opinion, That Faith based existence is no longer in style. A Pity, a pity indeed.

Bob,

Western Australia is very rich in natural resources. They don't need our money. We already throw enough away.

KarlStevens,

My poor child. No one is denying climate change. We know it happens in a cyclic fashion. Ice ages and hot periods; all happen on the Earth.

The "denial" is that humans caused this heat spell. The Earth has changed its climate many times over the millenia when humans were not around. Do we aggrevate it? Probably...a little. Should we? No, not if we can help it.

The question, as far as human affects on the continually changing climate, is: what are the tradeoffs?

Now, calm your hysteria and eat your lunch,

@ Sam Adamas

You didn't read all of my posting did you ??

What I said was. We piss men , material , resources and money away to countries that hate us and do not want us there. With all the equipment and material we wasted over there. We could have helped the Australians rebuild the housing lost and replaced the equipment lost to those fires. But NO we piss it away on snake pit filled sand boxes. Who's people want to live in the seventh century.

Hey Karl Stevens, this is not climate change, it is weather. And it's not the Jet Stream. It is the same pattern that the Pacific had last year, which was a neutral ENSO. But you wouldn't know about that.

Australia has been suffering from record heat waves/droughts for years now.

Unfortunately, they are predicted to suffer some of the extremes from climate change, which is plainly occurring now. There are tens of thousands of acres of farmland in eastern Australia that have simply been abandoned because it simply does not rain in that section of the country due to the shifting jet stream.

There are tens of thousands of acres of farmland in eastern Australia that have simply been abandoned because it simply does not rain in that section of the country due to the shifting jet stream.

Comming soon to the Plain States.

It has already started.

Good thing there is no such thing as global warming. LOL

Greg,

Just like the 1930s. Gosh, did it change any since then?

Settle down. It will change yet again.

Australia has had an ozone issue for years, which is the primary cause of the problem...

Just keep going with carbon emissions and overconsumerism that will definitely contribute to global ecologic catastrophy within your lifetime. In other words, welcome to hell, humans, you deserved it...

NC-492358

The dust bowl in the 30's was due to man as well. They didn't know about the need for crop rotation. Other than that they are not the same and it isn't "just a cycle".

Evening How...Glad to hear they are OK. Going to be a tough few weeks ahead for everyone here..still we knew it was coming just a case of where and when. Then just doing the best you can to evade it and fight it. Many have learnt from previous bushfires and many have not. And when the time comes, it is the hand of fate that will decide which way you will go....

Thanks for the support. They've always been very alert and on the ball when it comes to fire safety. My 13-year-old brother lives with them and they'll never take a risk of staying to fight it out should the worst happen.

Yes there have been some very hard lessons learnt here over the years. It is the nature of the beast. You have to decide do you stay or go..depends how well you have prepared before hand and how you think you will stand up to a 50 metre wall of flame or the millions of burning embers flying through the air. I hope I never have to make that decision, but I am afraid many will have no choice in the coming days and weeks here.

Good luck.

Evening stone..Thanks..it will be right...rather face a bush fire than an earth quake..at least you can see it...

Hi Shona,

Our thoughts and prayers are with you and all Australians faced with this catastrophic fire season. I sincerely hope that the rains come quickly to quench the parched land. Just know that if it is time to evacuate your area, please do not hesitate!

Jack

Good evening Jack..yes keeping an eye on things..about 20 km's away from me but when you see smoke and smell it you know you are in range. The wind is the problem if that picks up. We have had heaps of rain which has encouraged the under growth. The 40oC days fries everything off. Then throw in a "fire bug" a person who goes around and deliberately lights fires on total fire ban days and "up she goes". Have a feeling the one in my area was started by a fire bug, started near the highway. So yes I hate going to work on days like this as I would prefer to be home where you can monitor things. But it is OK at the moment. They are worried the fire will double in size tomorrow, but will see. The fire is in pine plantations but if it gets into the bush with the gum trees it will become catastrophic. Gum trees explode as they are full of eucalyptus and then it is virtually unstoppable.

I lived in California, the vast majority of brush fires there were from fire bugs as well. Despicable that people would be so brain dead as to endanger others.

Good luck, our thoughts are with you.

Good luck shona1, How D'ya Like Me Now, Chucklehead?, and all our Aussie friends Down Under-- our thoughts and prayers are with you! Stay safe! Valhalla Phil--I live in Bakersfield, CA and my mom-in-law lives near Lake Isabella, and I agree with you!

Uh, Valhalla Phil, you might want to do just a tiny bit of fact checking before you make your inane claims. The vast majority of fire in California are caused by lightening strikes.

And this bit, "

Wow, the first thread and already the liberal idiot is screaming climate change. Newsflash, these fires are not from spontaneous combustion. Either they were set on purpose or there was a lightening strike.

Instead of turning every global event into a political propaganda point how about just expressing you concern for those who are suffering."

Seems to me that yesterdays story about freezing temps in China brought out the paid climate change deniers in droves.

Then there's this bit of politicing from you, "The same Al Gore whose documentary contained 91 lies and was proved in a court of law to be fiction? The same Al Gore whose home uses more energy than a dozen average homes? The same Al Gore that warned the seas could rise 30 feet then turned around and bought a house on the beach? The same Al Gore who pushed cap and trade and just by coincidence was heavily invested in the Chicago climate exchange? The same Al Gore who preached limiting fossil fuels yet flew around in a private jet and used limousines? Yea, I thought so."

The same old crap about Gore flying in a private jet. And I'd like to see some documentation about a court case finding 91 lies. Or is that just more of your rush limbo inspired B.S.?

I might add, The same Al Gore that just sold, wihin this last week of 2012 (to avoid 2013 Obama Taxes) a US Licensed broadcast system, now transferred to Al Jazera, an international (off shore) anti-USA enterprise, denying the US license to a US based system that he politically disagreed with (demonstrating diversity Intolerance). The same Al Gore that picks his own 'researchers' that being so involved (financially), apparently have no knowledge of world Climate Changes throughout the overwhelming radical swings of All of History.

BTW are Al Gores harshly punitive (on the lowly 'Proletariat) 'Cap and Trade' CO2 emissions penalties, going to apply to beleaguered Australia? BTW Natural wildfires each year contribute More CO2 to the atmosphere, than All cars, trucks around the entire world. Of course Al Gore knows that, but there are 'Interests' to be served. Agendas to be pursued. Elections to manipulate. Totalitarian POWERs to be Assigned.

You are, unfortunately, incorrect. All natural events, from fire to volcanoes contribute only 5% of the carbon emissions in our atmosphere. You really shouldn't use Rush Limbaugh as a scientific source, he never even graduated from college and his knowledge of science is nonexistent.

It was people like Limbaugh and the Koch brothers who turned this into a political football. The Koch brothers and their chemical companies and coal mines who are afraid that the cost of slowing global warming will impact their bottom line. They don't care about your kids or your grandkids or the future of the planet. They only care about right now, this dollar, to hell with the future.

Ninety seven percent of climate scientists are convinced that global warming is a reality and that manmade emissions are increasing the speed of this climate change at a dangerous rate. The ability to adapt to climate change is predicted on climate change being a fairly slow process. Rapid change makes it virtually impossible to adapt and survive. If global warming continues at its present pace, air quality, water supplies, natural disasters and food supplies will become increasingly difficult to survive.

So you keep on making this a political issue. But it is not a political issue. It is an issue of survival. If we don't respond quickly, it may just be too late. The national debt, the war in Afghanistan, the political gridlock in DC will all pale into obscurity as our very survival is called into question.

"Ninety seven percent of climate scientists are convinced that global warming is a reality and that manmade emissions are increasing the speed of this climate change at a dangerous rate."

This reads like it's part of handout that gets passed around, never varies by a word. How come you never provide facts and figures instead of parroting the same bullet points. What are your solutions. The country is broke.

Rick-911527, I live in Bakersfield CA and my mom-in-law lives by Lake Isabella, CA. In our area, many fires are caused by people or lightning strikes, with that I agree with Valhalla Phil on. On the other hand, I am NOT a climate change denier. All politics aside, and aside all arguments about whether global warming is man made or not, one thing is for sure--we humans need to go back to kindergarten and learn that part of being a 'grown up' is cleaning up after ourselves. As a species, we seem to be wholly lacking in that regard. Clean up pollution -- air, water, and land -- and the environment will be healthy again....

The global warming that seems to be going on everywhere except in the USA.

Yes, global warming causes liberals brains to swell. That gets them a little crazy so they set wild fires to relieve the stress. The flames have a calming effect on them.

Read the Wikipedia article:

Of course if you'd rather rely on Rush Limbaugh for weather information, do so at your own risk.

Yes, we have global warming.

No, humans did not cause it.

Climate change is cyclic. It will change yet again.

Really? Really? Can you get off your hate machine long enough to stay on topic?

There was a story a year or two ago about a man in Australia who was fined $50,000 for cutting trees down around his home. When the fires came, his was the only house that survived.

Your last line was pathetic. If that's the kind of friends you have I pity you. Everyone I know is more than willing to help someone in need.

A remark from pathos defined, Phil- after all, your ignorance is on display for our amusement on a daily basis.

Neither I nor my friends subscribe to the ideologies which make the abandonment of friends possible.

I made contributions to charities which supported complete strangers I probably wouldn't even like- people just like you- who had their houses destroyed by tornadoes last year.

I put my money where my mouth is.

While we're at it, let's debunk another of your assumptions:

I have 12 solar panels, a battery farm, a 5kw parallel inverter system, and a new Chevy Volt.

Deal with it.

The same Al Gore whose documentary contained 91 lies and was proved in a court of law to be fiction? The same Al Gore whose home uses more energy than a dozen average homes? The same Al Gore that warned the seas could rise 30 feet then turned around and bought a house on the beach? The same Al Gore who pushed cap and trade and just by coincidence was heavily invested in the Chicago climate exchange? The same Al Gore who preached limiting fossil fuels yet flew around in a private jet and used limousines? Yea, I thought so.

P.S. The seas have NOT risen 30 feet last time I checked.

To Valhalla Phil who said "P.S. The seas have NOT risen 30 feet last time I checked." Mr. Gore did NOT say they would rise 30 feet all at once or even 'overnight'....in the CNN segment last evening on the Coming Storms, the data quoted was that the seas are rising inches at a time...it's partly WHY shores in New Jersey and Manhattan were flooded in Hurricane Sandy...the seas ARE rising a few inches over the last decade. Those kinds of floods will continue to happen because seas are warming and rising and that contributes to stronger hurricanes and more flooding. Say what you like about Al Gore...and I don't have all the "facts" about him that you seem to have (and I'm not knowledgable enough about him to believe what YOU say)....climate change is happening and will continue along these ways and sea will continue to rise.

Let me know what it's like when Australia and California, AZ, and Colorado burn to the ground and island nations are flooded and destroyed. I'd like to ask you more about your so called "knowledge" of anything approximating the truth about climate change.

MenOPaws,

Your shrieking is awful!

Climate change happens over and over. It has happened many times on the Earth. It is cyclic. Humans did not cause it.

Calm your hysteria.

Humans are causing this climate change, or at least contributing greatly to the speed with which it is occurring. About half of the climate change deniers have now changed to the position that acknowledges climate change but denies man's culpability in this change. This should tell you that denial is a political position, not a scientific position. Science says that climate change is happening and is largely man made. So forget conservative vs. liberal and start thinking about ways to slow the change and adapt to the reality of that change. We can't survive climate change if we don't slow it down. We can't survive climate change if we don't start adapting our living circumstances and habits.

Who do you mean by "we" when referring to adaption.

Royaul, you're right. Local and State governments are often partly to blame. There were some hard lessons learned in Western Australia over the last few years, but forcing change through the government is always difficult. They seem to have their rules and will try to stick to them no matter what common sense and experience says. This heat in Tasmania is unprecedented though. It seems to be a changing world for them down there. Like the rest of us.

Where my mom-in-law lives (by Lake Isabella, California, people make a 'defensible space' around their homes. People can be cited by the fire dept if they don't.

Geez. And here I thought humanitarianism was a global and universal phenomanon.

You should leave now before your hysteria comes in full force.

sorry the snow ball melted 1/2 way down the mountain... yahooo

I see that NC stands for No Clue lol.

Global warming does not make weather events more intense and extreme, never been proven by any viable measure of science. That is where the "theory" breaks down.

Easy, son,

No one is denying climate change. We know it happens in a cyclic fashion. Ice ages and hot periods; all happen on the Earth.

The "denial" is that humans caused this heat spell. The Earth has changed its climate many times over the millenia when humans were not around. Do we aggrevate it? Probably...a little. Should we? No, not if we can help it.

The question, as far as human affects on the continually changing climate, is: what are the tradeoffs?

Now, calm your hysteria and eat your lunch,

the rock seems to the best place for mice

NC no one is denying that earth has cycles. However what everyone seems to miss is that we are basing our predictions on looking at the past cycles and comparing to ours. The problem? Things are heating up much faster than they should. Since cycles make for reasonable predictions we can assume that something is speeding up the process. The science community has come down to mostly you guessed it us which is the most reasonable assumption. Take for example the depletion of the ozone layer. Do you even know what causes it? It's free radical catalysts. Do you know what we have been steadily releasing more of into our air? You guessed it free radical catalysts! If you truly believe that humans have no impact on earth then I can't help you. We don't live in a vacuum. What we do impacts earth and what happens to earth impacts us. You can't live in an ecosystem without impacting it. For all the nay sayers the great thing about science is even if you don't believe it, it's still a fact.

I had such a better comment, but this website ate it. So sorry you got stuck with a much quicker straight to the point second comment.

NC

Psychiatrists regard denial as a serious psychological disorder. In cases like yours, denial endangers the entire planet. You need to stop taking political positions with events that have absolutely nothing to do with politics. Ninety seven percent of recognized climate scientists affirm that climate change is real and is being greatly accelerated and intensified my man's actions. So get real and recognize reality.

Do something??!! Exactly what Sherlock? And what heck are "free radical catalysts" CFC's are not used much anymore.

And underemployed...if Obama is not worried about it, neither am I.

This is probably true in the case of forest fires. But in much of the West and in Australia, these are not forest fires but grass and brush fires. Grass and brush regenerates on a yearly basis. I have seen fires in California reburn the same areas a year after the first fire. So your solution won't work for areas like these.

You are the only load of crap on this vine.

Real adult comment underemployed.

Does sand burn?