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Subscribe to RSSBlazes raging across Australia have already destroyed more than 100 homes and are threatening more as dry, hot weather persists. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
Firefighters battled scores of wildfires raging across southeast Australia on Tuesday as authorities evacuated national parks and warned that record-level, blistering temperatures and high winds had led to "catastrophic" conditions in some areas.
"We are shaping up for one of the worst fire danger days on record," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said. "You don't get conditions worse than this. We are at the catastrophic level and clearly in those areas leaving early is your safest option."
Catastrophic threat level is the most severe rating applicable.
Firefighters hope cooler weather sweeping up the Australian east coast late Tuesday, which dramatically dropped temperatures in a matter of hours in some coastal towns, would ease the incendiary conditions. Monday was the hottest day on record for Australia, with the average temperature across the continent reaching 104.6 degrees F., Australia's 7 News network reported.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the unprecedented temperatures left weather forecasters having to add new colors - deep purple and pink - to their charts.
No deaths had been reported, although officials in Tasmania were still trying to find about 100 residents who had been missing since a fire tore through the small town of Dunalley, east of the state capital of Hobart, last week, destroying around 90 homes. On Tuesday, police said no bodies were found during preliminary checks of the ruined houses.
Australia faces 'catastrophic' days
Wildfires have razed 50,000 acres of forests and farmland across southern Tasmania since Friday. In New South Wales, the country's most populous state, the fires had burned through more than 64,000 acres of land.
More than 130 fires were blazing across New South Wales, though only a few dozen houses were under threat by early evening. One fire was threatening about 30 homes near the small town of Cooma, south of the capital of Canberra. Cooma-Monaro shire mayor Dean Lynch told Australia's Sky News some residents had evacuated to the nearby town of Nimmitabel.
Strong winds were hampering efforts to bring the fires under control. Wind gusts more than 60 mph were recorded in some parts of the state.
PhotoBlog: Wildfires in Tasmania
Arsonists have been responsible for some of the fires, 7 News reported. In western Sydney on Tuesday, three people were charged with deliberately starting a fire, the network said.
All state forests and national parks were closed as a precaution and total fire bans were in place with temperatures surpassing 113 degrees F. in some areas.
One volunteer firefighter suffered severe burns to his hands and face while fighting a grass fire near Gundaroo village, about 140 miles southwest of Sydney, on Monday. He was flown to a hospital in Sydney for treatment, and his condition had improved Tuesday, Fitzsimmons said.
Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. In February 2009, hundreds of fires across Victoria state killed 173 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes.
The Associated Press, Reuters and 7 News contributed to this report; 7 News is NBC's Australian partner.
More world stories from NBC News:
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- India gang-rape case: Accused duo offer to testify against others
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To help ensure that this report is kept in perspective, everyone please note that this record high temperature is just that ... "on record" and not since the beginning of time, or the formation of the planet, or the continents or even Australia.
Global Warming Nuts....Ready.....Set....Go!
Followed by the " Nothing wrong here" nuts. Yes, let the party begin !
OMG, we are entering an ice age....coldest day ever in Jammu!
right on que kornfed
Of course, there is no global warming. It is all a hoax (sarcasm).
Enlighten us with your "wisdom", and let us know that that is all part of God's plan to test us. RIGHT!
As recently as 1980, extreme weather events affected, on average, 0.1% to 0.2% of the Earth's landmass in a given year.
But that number has been climbing rapidly, and extreme weather now affects ~10% of our landmass in a given year. Whether it's extreme heat or extreme cold, extreme weather is now affecting 50 to 100 times more of our landmass than it did just 33 years ago.
Some will continue to point to a few extreme cold events as 'proof' that climate change isn't happening. They're mistaken. The incredible excess of energy in our climate now produces many, many kinds of extreme weather - although extreme heat and drought events far outnumber extreme cold events, and will do so in even greater numbers in the future.
This winter, both the record heat in Australia of the record cold in Siberia/China are just more evidence of that trend.
You know Climate Change gives a crap whether or not you believe or not you know? :)
When it comes to spending tax money on green jobs, climate change "Guru" Al Gore couldn't spend enough! Wonder how much Gore is going to donate toward combating "Climate Change" with his $100 million PROFIT from the sale of the Al-Goreza network?
WHAT PART OF HOTTEST MONTH EVER DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
According to NOAA July 2012 was the hottest month in the contiguous USA since recording began more than a century ago. The average temp was 77.6 degrees a full 3.3 degrees warmer than the 20th century norm. This spring was the warmest on record by 5.2 degrees
WHAT PART OF HOTTEST YEAR EVER DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
The warmest 12 month period ever recorded in the US the 14th consecutive year with above average temperatures
WHAT PART OF HOTTEST TEN YEARS EVER DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
The 10 hottest tears on record nine in the occurring since 2000
WHAT PART OF MELTING ICE CAPS DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
An enormous mass of ice, four times the size of Manhattan broke off from northern Greenland and slipped into the sea the biggest in 50 years. On July 8, 2012 40% of Greenland’s ice sheet’s surface had thawed –a typical summer. But four days later in an extreme melt event almost all the ice sheet had thawed an event that hasn’t occurred in at least 150 years. The Arctic ice cap reaching a record low volume has lost as much as 40% of its area in summer in just 30 years.
WHAT PART OF EXTREME WEATHER DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
The deadly European heat wave of 2003, which led to thousands of deaths
The fiery Russian and Middle East heat wave of 2010, which led to thousands of deaths
The catastrophic droughts in Texas and Oklahoma in 2011resulting the largest fires in AZ. History The fire season is now increased by 78 days.
Mega floods displacing millions around the world
The number of weather disasters has tripled in the last 20 years
Record snowfall in 2010 followed by record rainfall and floods and then the worst drought in 50 years in 2012 and let's not forget Superstorm Sandy
WHAT PART OF ESCALATING FOOD PRICES DUE TO EXTREME WEATHER DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
Floods, fires, drought taking food crops off the global market a 5.2 billion lose in TX in 2011. Drought this year on the Midwest the corn crop all but ruined while the USDA predicts a 3 to 5 percent increase on everything from cereal to steak, some economists believe price hikes will come closer to 10 percent.
WHAT PART OF ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
Hotter oceans are making corals pale and sick 95% of the world’s reefs are likely to be severely damaged
WHAT PART OF A MILITARY INTEL REPORT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
Drought, floods and a lack of fresh water may cause significant global instability and conflict in the coming decades, as developing countries scramble to meet demand from exploding populations while dealing with the effects of climate change, U.S. intelligence agencies said in a report released March 2012. An assessment reflecting the joint judgment of federal intelligence agencies says the risk of water issues causing wars in the next 10 years is minimal even as they create tensions within and between states and threaten to disrupt national and global food markets. But beyond 2022, it says the use of water as a weapon of war or a tool of terrorism will become more likely, particularly in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. (Nuclear armed Pakistan has already been destabilized by severe flooding caused by climate change)
WHAT PART OF SCIENCE DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
Global warming has been endorsed by EVERY National Academy of Science of every major country on the planet Every Major Scientific Society related to the study of global warming 98% of Climate scientists throughout the world 3,000 of the best scientific experts in the world as “unequivocal” All the complex computer climate models show climate change
WHAT PART OF MATH DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
90million tons of heat trapping emissions dumped into the Earth’s atmosphere every 24 hours with 20% of the pollution still here 20,000 years from now Global warming gases in the world’s atmosphere are rising
with concentrations up 29% since the start of the Industrial era. Carbon Dioxide gases up 39%
No longer can the deniers point to a single weather event as having numerous causes by simple asking the question how likely is this to have occurred with the absence of global warming the new statistical research proves that statistically what’s happening is not random or normal but pure climate change
WHAT PART OF GEOLOGICAL TIME DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
The deniers like to point out that climate change has happened throughout history. That is correct those climate changes took millions of years to occur what we are currently seeing is taking place in decades not thousands of years
WHAT PART OF COVER UP DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
The polluter and Ideologues finance pseudoscientists whose job is to manufacture doubt about is real and what is false. Buying elected officials wholesale with bribes that the politicians have made legal and can now be made in secret. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on misleading advertisements Hiring 4 anti-climate lobbyists for every member of the US Senate and House of Representatives The tobacco industry did the same thing and the deception went on for decades The script was leaked in 1991 in an internal document the largest global polluters spelled out their strategy: “reposition global warming as theory rather than fact” so undermine the public’s respect for science and reason and leaked documents from the Heartland Institute The heart of the climate denial machine relies on huge corporate and foundation funding from U.S. businesses, including, Koch Industries, Altria (parent company of Philip Morris) RJR Tobacco and more,"
Well deniers WHAT don't you UNDERSTAND?
It is summer in Australia not winter, Just because it is winter where you are does not mean it is winter everywhere
WHAT PART OF...THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN REALISTICALLY BE DONE ABOUT IT...DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
Why are you not personally doing something serious about this awful threat, instead of mindlessly posting on a forum. I know it makes you feel superior and smarter than everyone else, but you're only preaching to the choir here. If Obama is not concerned about it, why should the rest of us get all excited
And besides...the piggy bank is bare...there is no money left to attempt to mitigate these coming disasters. Humankind will either adapt, or die off.
Might want to have that Hemisphere thing re-explained to you. Most of you are "Dumber than 5th graders". It took Millions if not Billions of years for all that carbon to get out of the atmosphere, and taking humans only a couple hundred years to put it all back. If you paid attention to science class, you might have remembered your teacher telling you that humans could not live in a Carbon rich atmosphere. Say what you want about climate change, but there is no denying that humans have impacted the planet more than we're led to believe.
On a side note, I do find it amusing that China is having its record cold, while at same time, Australia is having their record high.
It is winter in China and summer in Australia, The record cold in China is only a 28 year record so it is not really a record at all because just 28 years earlier it was just as cold.
The heat in Australia is affected by the wildfires, As they burn they push hot dry winds causing the temperatures to rise and while they may not be the sole factor in the high temps they certainly contribute to it.
Everyone needs to stop breathing and farting....if we just stop breathing, cars will not be driven. Its sthciencethh peaplthsss!!!
Witchking
I dont understand why you cannot get off unemployment after an entire year
Actually the saying is"Doesn't/don't give a crap" but Climate Changes also doesn't give a crap about how much you do to try to stop it either, Climate Change will occur and there is very little man can do to change/stop it, Climate Change has been occuring throughout the recorded and unrecorded history of this planet, Sometimes that changes has been slow allowing some life to adapt and sometimes it has been very rapid causing mass extinction to many species of both plant and animal life. I am all for pollution control and environmentally safe products but not at the cost of millions of jobs especially when those jobs that are lost here end up in another part of the world where they care even less about pollution and the environment. Yes I worry about the future of my children and grandchildren and my great grandchildren and the health of the environment they will live in but I also worry about their ability to actually financially be able to survive just as much.
I was just wondering:
When the northern plains of North America were tropical, huge animals roamed, swamps, lakes, vast areas of vegetation which were transformed into vast areas of crude oil, WELL, what was the weather like in other parts of the world at that time? Particularly Australia.......
LostInThePineBarrens
Very logical and healthy way of looking at it.
You've got to be kidding. You would save jobs that are killing the rest of us instead of retraining these people for jobs that have a future? I'd rather spend the money to train coal miners to service wind turbines or be nuclear power techs than continue to use coal just so they'll be employed.
While it's true other countries are also polluting, their citizens are starting to make the same noises we are regarding the need for clean water and air. If we can develop clean technologies for them to adopt, we'll make a fortune.
The ratios do not work out, Exactly how many wind turbine techs do you think are needed and how many nuclear power techs do you think we need, While I have no problem with either wind turbines or nuclear power plants there are restrictions on where they can be used, These restrictions are ecolological,environmental,physical and capability. And it is not just the jobs in the coal industry that are affected by environmental regulations although you would like to try to use that one industry for your comparison.
Of course not; they're just an example, and there are more replacement jobs out there than wind and nuclear. The point is it's not desirable to perpetuate jobs that are harmful to us long-term when we could be moving in a better direction. There is a lot of money to be made in clean tech if we can but master it.
Polutant control is a necessity BUT anything and everything can OVER regulated. Regulations can end UP making all of us starve, just as with anything too much is a bad deal...common sense has to prevail and jobs must prevail or we all starve, the government cannot feed all of us...even tho some think that is possible...IT AIN'T
A few thoughts from an actual scientist.
First there is no doubt climate is changing, it is always changing. That doesn't mean humans are off Scott free. It doesn't mean they are a major contributor let alone the predominant one either. The IPCC recently admitted that their CO2 model was grossly exaggerated and some of the early alarmists are backing off their claims. Apparently this news hasn't filtered down to the brainless parrots since the scientists that are backing off are demonized worse than deniers.
Second, any teacher that claimed humans can't exist in a carbon rich environment needs to be fired on the spot. That is pure propaganda.
Third, a common mantra of enviro-nazis is to think globally and act locally. So the EPA shuts down a factory that puts out a megaton of carbon only to have it reappear in China putting out three megatons of carbon. Not only does the EPA INCREASE pollution by 3x, they send thousands of jobs to China as an extra added bonus. Is THAT thinking globally???? This is the blatant stupidity of the left.
Fourth, whether you believe in AGW or not is irrelevant, China and India will swamp any steps we take here. Combined they account for 70% of future coal fired plants. China alone is bring two on line a week and will do so for three decades. MSDNC recently reported they are opening 500 new coal mines to supply them.
Fifth, we are already on the right track with wind and solar, not to mention nat gas replacing coal. Wind is supported by both parties as is solar, with TX rivaling CA in green energy. Solar capacity has been doubling year over year as costs have plummeted while wind turbines are sprouting up all over the nation, (except in liberal Cape Cod of course). In fact solar is the cheapest energy you can buy if you DIY the install.
Finally the best way to shut a liberal up on AGW is to ask them how many solar panels they own, what car they drive. 99.9% are compete hypocrites, only willing to spend other peoples money to address the issues, never their own.
Can you link to that IPCC admission?
This is unprecedented,,,new colors added!!!! Apparently libs are not aborting their babies fast enough...too...many..people...
?? the colors were just to show the people the hotter parts of the county on the synoptic chart. Visual representation is easier to understand then saying "this town recorded 100 degrees" when some people might not know where that town is.
interesting. two climate change denialists already making defensive claims. i bet if this article was about unusually cold weather you two would say something like " so much for global warming" see its cold somewhere!!
Record cold is not reported. Back to grazing....
global warming refers to the average temperature of the poles incresing, which causes changes in global climate. resulting in the EXTREMES in BOTH COLD and WARM weather events. do you know what your talking about or just the typical religious right wing moron thant thiks science is a joke and that we should leave it all to god? morons
Golbal Warming is a joke. Its been proven that global temperatures have been COOLING for the last 18 years. They are also having a record cold winter in China/Russia as we speak. So go stick your head back in the sand and stop waiting and choosing the particular weather events that fit your BS science.
By the way Lets, the polar ice in Greenland was melting due to volcanic activity under the ice... not the temps over it. So before you start calling anyone a moron maybe you should do some research.
The "theory" of global warming/climate change "predicts" extreme weather events. However, there is no verifiable scientific evidence that these claims are true, and no way to prove that this hot spell Down Under is due to climate change. The science of weather and climate is quite complicated and is composed of many interacting elements, not just the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Correlation does not imply causation
It amusing to see so many scientific experts posting here.
Completely inaccurate. The Escalator.
Also completely inaccurate.
Extreme metrics
Much more at the link - although few Viners bother to actually read these links.
But the numbers don't lie.
thom,
read something other than an bs right wing blog/site and youll find that the average temperature of the earth has been rising over the past 18 years. please site the crap source where you got your info.
rex,
so the mississippi river being almost un-navicable isnt extreme enough for you? the largest river in north america, which i cross everyday, looks as though over half of it is gone and forecasters are calling for it to reach a depth of 9', but thats not an extreme weather event is it? nearly the entire state of colorado was on fire over the spring/summer and that wasnt an extreme event to you? multiple hurricanes hitting the american northeast in just 2 years isnt extreme to you? what world do you live on? pull your head out of your a** and take a look around.
And how many solar panels do YOU own? What is in YOUR driveway? Are you a player or a poser? My guess poser.
Climate "science" is what is known as a soft science. You cannot have a mathematical proof of weather or climate. The entire field relies on statistics an modeling, the problem being you don't know what you don't know. Have the models accounted for EVERYTHING? Obviously that is impossible to answer. In point of fact some models call for more violent storms, some call for less. Obviously both can't be correct.
As mentioned earlier correllation does not equal causation. Consensus is junk science as well, it is skepticism that move science forward, not consensus. Consensus quickly devolves into dogma as many of these posts have demonstrated.
Again, that doesn't mean that AGW isn't real or that humans don't play at least some part. But anybody who claims AGW as fact is a complete rube and wouldn't know a real scientist if one kicked him in the hindquarters.
People will believe what they will. Not that I'm religious, but most know the Bible stories. This is very like Noah and his Ark. Every one laughed at him until the flood came. They weren't laughing then. The trouble is our lives are so short and our attention/memory spans even shorter. Most humans live in cities and have no daily/hourly relationship with Mother Earth. They know only what they are told/read and they believe what they want from that information. They can only truly comprehend a disaster when it affects them DIRECTLY, then it is to late.
Oh Rex - I am so happy to see you are amused at all the individuals that actually believe in science and who use a bit of common sense. You must think you are so smart, in order to look down on dumb liberals who look at the evidence, read what the experts say, weigh it and then make their conclusions.
With every post you and the other global warming naysayers make, you all look dumber and dumber. Go out and buy yourself a Hummer, so you can flaunt your arrogance and stupidity.
Records are made to be Broken! same with CD's!
Climatologists have said it for years if anyone here is listening. "Extremes in temperatures would be happening globally. As you can see, Australia is suffering from extreme heat, whereas in other areas are suffering from extreme cold temps. There is no more normal anymore because the weather patterns have been affected so drastically. This is why you will see record heat again in this country after this mild winter. But as usual, you will have the people out there that will always in denial but that is only "normal" thing that will happen.
And I have my prediction for the 2013 hurricane season. There will be between 5 and 500 named storms. There will be between 1 and 500 storms make landfall.
See how easy it is to "predict"?
There is nothing to support this hypothetical "extremes in weather" statements.
New scientific analysis strengthens the view that record-breaking summer heat, crop-withering drought and other extreme weather events in recent years do, indeed, result from human activity and global warming, Nobel Laureate Mario J. Molina, Ph.D., said at a conference in Philadelphia
Maybe it cannot be proven, but many if not most scientists believe one outcome of global warming will be erratic if not extreme weather.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120820114041.htm
Link I forgot above.
wishing you all the best from the USA..
We seem to be able to spend billions fighting pointless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but not one whisper in the halls of power about helping our good friend and close ally Australia, in its desperate efforts to control hundreds of wildfires raging throughout the country. Its winter here in the northern hemisphere, and not much for our elite back country fire suppression units to do. What would it cost to fly some of them down to Australia, along with some air tankers and heavy equipment, to lend a hand? Friends help friends in time of need.
Thanks for the offer and we Australians do love the sane Americans, I am a duel citizen and proud of both.
However we can not understand the insane mentality of the republican tea bag whackos
I think Australia is financially able to take care of it's self and the Australian economy is in a way better shape than yours, keep your money and resources for your own suffering people - there are many
Australia is where we were 1-0 years ago. We now have a runaway government in Washington which is bankrupting America. This is what we "Tea Party Whackos" are so upset about. Our politicians have made promises to shore up votes that we as a Country cannot keep. America is in decline and I guess some of us don't like leaving our children with such a mess.............Our state dept. has allowed 6 million Muslims from 3rd world countries to immigrate here since 1980. This is not the kind of immigration that strengthens our country. Your neighbor New Zealand has very strict immigration standards. We did also 50 years ago; but we have abandoned them. Mexico is dumping their felons on us by the busload rather than house them there. Much cheaper to escort them across the Rio Grande!
We are in extreme trouble here and when we go down, Australia will be effected. A broke country buys no lamb.
Actually its not, Your economy just took longer to feel the effects of the recession. A quick search will provide any number of economic comparisons between the 2 economies.
We the United States have defended the free world since WWII. We were the only capitalistic Republic that had the wealth to stand up to communism after the war. We spend a great deal of our wealth as a nation in the process. Over the last 50 years we as a Country have lost our way. We have taken almost 1/4 of our population out of the workforce; our government welfare policies subsidize illegitimate birth and discourage marriage financially. Government has become head of household in way too many American families. The value of these entitlements is equivalent to a mother and 2 children is $57,000 per year. Totally free medical and dental being valued at $16,000 alone. These government families would have to have being jobs that paid over $5,000 per month to leave welfare and they are the least skilled among us-most having NEVER held a job. Genetically our government has encouraged the lowest end of the gene pool to reproduce at a very early age as a source of substance. Our brightest are now waiting until their 30's to have their lst child so the spread between educated-Tea Party types and the illiterate Democrat base is widening every year. Now the government has seized our medical care: to date the government has ruined everything it has ever touched so bye-bye world's best medical delivery system. To enhance the dumbing down of America, immigration from 3rd world counties has been sped up including Mexico with the onslaught of illegals pouring across our borders. With the world's greatest military we could easily seal this border, but we as a people lack the will to survive. Very sad state of affairs for both America and the free world.
hot daddy,
yet your against a health policy that requires people to pay for their own health insurance? a republican plan, but not ok if it comes from the lips of count blackula right? are you calling for a eugenics policy, but yet your against any form of abortion, like rape incest or threats to mothers life? also take a look at the official stats which show the correlation between levels of education and party support. undergraduate and post graduate groups tend to vote democrat instead of republican so please re-examine who is illiterate.
also where are all the 5k a month paying jobs? in our right to work states? you know the policy so generously backed by the koch brothers and tea-bag morons? take a look at the average wages in those states, they rank among the bottom.
mexican deportations were at an all time high under obamas first administration, look it up. 6 million muslims over 13 years equates to nearly 182k/yr. in a country of over 300 million. not to mention these are not illeagal immigrants either. apparently you have forgotten that we are a nation of immigrants. you are no different than those who freaked out because of irish immigration and their overwhelming ties to Catholicism, or freaking out over aisian immigration even though we paid the next to nothing to build the western railroads, if we paid them at all. sounds kind of like our large agricultural corporations and taking advantage of the low wages of immigrants such as latinos today doesnt it?
so i think your proving our australian friends point and backing the point of most, even a growing number of republicans: the tea party is damaging our country and international credibility.
Seems like anyone that is against the outrageous spending is termed "whacko" these days. The teaparty is just that.......against outrageous spending that we currently are doin. If anyone thinks spending beyond your means is smart then you need help not financial either.
Sooner or later the debt becomes unserviceable even the good ole US.
The tea party is the only group advocating reality so of course they are demonized by all sides. NOBODY wants to deal with reality. "Lets just keep mortgaging our future" only works until the future is upon us. From our debt to GDP ratio, it looks like reality will be here before the end of the decade.
The sky is falling, the sky is falling!!!
As a child, we burned off our pastures every winter. The result was to return the potash and phosphorous locked up in old growth to the soil for new growth to utilize in the spring. Today, everyone is against controlled burn of both grasslands and forests. The same people who oppose these practices favor the public disclosure of registered gun owner's home addresses and names by the local rag.
Wonder if the bunch of sheeple would approve of the local rag exposing the home addresses and names of all on welfare, SS disability, etc??
talk about mind controlled sheeple... spending so much time with your cranium near Rush's 'position' has had some decidedly negative effects
What most people do not understand is that forest fires and burning are a natural occurence, We burnt off our salt marshes after we harvested the salt hay, Burning the stubble and chaff enriched the soil and promoted new growth,Regular burnbing also eliminates the build up of dead and dried wood and leaf litter that can fuel some fires Currently the Pine Barrens and Pine lands of NJ are being threatened but not as much from people building homes there but from the lack of forest fires, Every time a fire is spotted it is extinguished, This has resulted in the pinelands gradually changing shape, The pigmy pines are losing ground to the faster growing decidious trees, The pines require the heat from a forest fire to properly open their cones so that the seeds can drop and sprout the hot winds of those forest fires also carrying those seeds to other areas, The forest fires burn off the undergrowth that strangels out the new sprouting pines, These pines have adapted over thousands of years to the forest fires that were a regular normal occurrence in the pinelands and the pines grew hardy enough to survive raging forest fires that burnt off other vegatation, The Fire Lily requires a hot fast forest fire to warm the ground before it will sprout and bloom, While not really a lily and probably closer related to the orchid these plants are no longer seen because the forest fires that once used to help them are now being extinguished by man.
Thank you for your amplification of the usefulness of fire in nature. Our people know one thing; they hate smoke! SO NO FIRES! Very simplistic approach by the masses.
Luckily there are still a few of us that do not blindly follow the views of the masses.
We still burn our salt marshes and we still burn off our uplands, We obtain the required permits every year and do our controlled burns in late winter/early spring when the State Forestry service is doing theirs.
I also obtain permits to burn my pastures each winter much to the chagrin of neighbors who raise hell, but right now cannot stop it.
I burn the tall grasses that grow along the road front of the property my home sits on, I get strange looks from people driving by and some even report me to the police and fire dept, The police used to show up regularly and occasionally a fire truck would show up, I just showed them my permits and they went on their way, Now they pretty much know what my routine is and explain to callers that I have permits to control burn Since my home is in a remote locaton surrounded by forest it is my responsibility to keep a sufficiently wide fire proof zone around my home.
We raise cattle, sheep and hay. We have firearms as do all our neighbors out here in the country to fend off dog packs, coyotes, meth-addicts, etc. Are you armed also?
Time police/sheriff's dept gets here it is only to report a crime; you are on your own to prevent it.
Yes, Even in NJ we are armed in the confines of our homes and on our properties, It is almost impossible to get a Concealed Carry permit in NJ unless you are politically connected but possession for home defense,Hunting, Target practice and collecting are allowed.
Holy cow, if you did that around here, you'd be crucified. Presumably you have some experience making sure your controlled burn doesn't become uncontrolled, but we've had major forest fires in Colorado from "controlled" burns. It only takes one miscalculation to result in a 100K-acre burn zone, especially this year. We've still got a fire going in the Rocky Mt NP that was started from a campfire this fall, something the campers assumed was controlled when they started it.
you two are now all of the sudden for science and observation? no one is saying controlled fires are bad, but massive wildfires that engulf entire states are not normal.
One big issue in Australia is a ban on tree thinning. There was a big story about one Aussie that trimmed trees around his house and was fined $50,000. Next fire season his was the only house left standing.
Either way you look at it, humans screw up the natural order of things. Fire is not bad, it is natural. Humans are not natural, we think we are gods. To burn or not to burn? It is up to US to decide when it happens. But Mother Nature does her own thing and has for far longer then the human parasite has resided on this planet.
They dont have tornadoes. Mother nature just keeping them in check this way.
A/noon Gd..Actually we do get tornadoes but they are quite rare..and yes they do the same damage but not on as big a scale as over there...Even NZ gets them one went thru Auckland the other month and killed 3 people...
Reaping the rewards of public indifference to human-caused global climate change. Marvelous!
And how many solar panels do YOU own? What's parked in YOUR driveway? Are you a player or a poser? I'm guessing poser.
Could more heat in the southern hemisphere due to global warming increase the differential between the southern hemisphere's heat and the northern hemisphere's cold, effectively increasing the heat "pull" ability of the south?
I do believe air currents flow from cold to hot, because hot is less dense. Maybe these air currents suck more moisture from the north, decreasing clouds, increasing continentality. Hot air also carries significantly more moisture so would as well explain the more droughts as the moisture is up in the air and not on the ground, neither in the form of snow nor rain.
I doubt it. Global wind patterns are pretty fixed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_wind_patterns.
The extreme cold we're currently seeing in some parts of the Northern Hemisphere is directly related to last summer's record loss of Arctic sea ice.
In essence, the jet streams are driven by the temperature differential between the equator and the poles. As the Arctic warms (rapidly), that differential decreases. When Arctic ice melts, the open water absorbs a lot of heat. And as a result, two things happen:
1. The jet stream slows down - so whatever weather you happen to have at the moment just 'sticks around' longer. If it's warm, it stays warm for a while. If it's cold, the cold lasts longer, too. Same thing for rain/snow and drought. We have several examples of that happening here right now.
2. The 'dips' in the jet stream (Rossby Waves) become much deeper. This allows very cold air to come far south and stick around for a while - like what we're currently seeing in China and Siberia - and also allows much warmer air to be pulled up from the south (creating mild winters in other places, like what we saw here last year).
This video explains it very well, if you have 16 minutes. It's extremely well done.
The heat in Australia is exactly what we'd expect from climate change - although it's happening much faster than anyone thought. But then again, virtually every predicted effect from climate change is happening faster than we thought.
Excellent question, STE.
In other words it is "snowballing". Which is to be expected in my humble opinion.
Well, I've worked for many, many years in Arizona, and it gets a lot hotter than that my friends. I am sorry they have the fires, but we have them too.
A/noon Dave..yep gets a lot hotter in the outback just like Arizona....these are "coastal Temps" and to be honest not sure what they are worrying about..Yep 40 is hot but nothing really drastic or out of the ordinary. We hit it every year. The damn fires are just the nature of the beast here as well as over there.
Ban the sun.
I remember my grandfather doing field burns on their farm when I was a kid. Pretty exciting stuff for me. I don't think this is allowed now.
Here's what happened during our scorching heat in the U.S. last summer -
The anti-global warming pseudo scientists of Fox News assert that it is Hillary Clinton's fault Australia is on fire. After a thorough investigation, they've concluded the flames look identical to those on the video from Benghazi
Only an idiot would turn this into something political. Thanks for proving ...once again....you are that idiot.
Truth hurt right MSNBC,....hurts to be in the minority uh?
Smart people like myself are in the minority...stupid people like you are in the majority...does not make it right...by the way...coldest ever in China...southern polar caps are growing...this indicates colder climte ahead...fact are facts...nothing you can do about changes in the world....it is called speciation...survial of the fittest...think I'll throw my Coke can with the garbage...I refuse to waste my time recycling...creates more jobs...when using more aluminum...ahh...big fire in my back yard...love it going into the atmosphere...IT AFFECTS NOTHING>..idiots...LIke that Gore Jackass!!!
Hey Coach, didn't you work at "Cheers"
Coach, the results of our pollution causes colder winters and hottest summers. Brazil is going through their hottest summer:
Passengers and workers at Rio’s Galeão International Airport have been left sweltering after a power outage Wednesday night meant the terminal buildings were left without air conditioning, while temperatures in the city again soared to 40°C (104°F).
It comes after the mercury touched 43.1°C (110°F) on Wednesday – the highest official temperature recorded in Rio in nearly a hundred years.
RE: Antartica:
Here’s some fodder for the crowd that scoffs at global warming: Antarctic ice has grown more solid over the last 20 years.
So says a video report by BBC science editor David Shukman, who notes that in Antarctica, “The bulk of the ice sheet is largely unchanged, or even getting slightly thicker.”
But before the jeering gets too loud: The overall condition of all polar ice, is, you guessed it, melting. That takes into account considerable thawing in the Arctic, as well as in coastal areas of western Antarctica that buck the continent’s hardening trend.
Southern polar caps aren't growing. Read a book or watch a documentry. They would tell you they have been declining for decades.
True recycling is almost useless since only a small percentage is actually recycled. But those recycling centres are still jobs for people. I don't agree with Yhbua but your clearly the idiot.
You can tell a stupid liberal airhead by their fretting over Fox. If they ever actually watched the channel they would find that Fox has no stand on AGW. Unlike the MSDNC, etc. propaganda outlets they just report the news. Of course in a bed wetting liberals mind that by definition is proof of bias. What idiots.
Do not fear. A massive depopulation effort is in the works.
Enough already! Both global warming AND global cooling are HUGE scams and, as many people have said, it does not matter what we do or do not do about it because, to be honest, it is too late to really do anything to change the situation and the piggy bank is indeed bone dry and empty. Also, we should actually, gasp, encourage MORE fires, namely through the process known as a controlled burn, and let the fires make the soil better and thus promote MORE plant growth. However, we should obviously keep the fires away from the cities. Also, as for all of you, if you want to shame me into recanting what you are referring to as a heresy, then I would rather be a heretic and defy your sick and twisted forms of psuedo-logic and actually, gasp, SAVE the world rather than oppose saving the world. Finally, it is the Earth simply having a bigger wobble, for lack of a better term, of its poles, and ditto for the moon, along with the coming Planext X/Nibiru/etc. that are REALLY causing the weather and the planet to act this way. Your money and lining your coffers to promote your useless anti-religious, special interest claptrap will not make the world a better place to live.
you have got to be freakin kidding me. the coming planet x/nibiru. you must be retarded. instead of listening to scientists whos job it is to study the fossil records of trends in the climate, and listening to data, not your gut feeling, your talking about an undiscovered mythical planet coming that is true meaning for climate change? no wonder the rest of the world sees us as a bunch of unintellegent, backwater, self righteous a-holes. people like you spewing all kinds of crap like this. i mean you cant be effing serious. honestly the only truth your telling is that the religious right is mentally damaged beyond repair.
You lost me as soon as you mentioned Planext X/Nibiru/etc. If you believe that you must of believed the world was going to end 21/12/12.
Severe drought, the biggest since the dust bowl. Melting ice caps, tremendous storms, unusual floods, the Mississippi so dry that barge traffic may have to be suspended and these corporate polluters still can't accept the remote possibility of climate change or warming. Virginia under the Governorship of some evangelical right winger legislature, las passed legislation prohibitin terms like those I just mention.
And how many solar panels do YOU own? What's parked in YOUR driveway? Are you a player or a poser? I'm guessing poser.
I prefer the term climate change over global warming. Global warming sounds more like a term used to drive peoples fears.
I just farted.
I don't think you can deny that humans have had a profound effect on our planet earth. We have defiled, killed, and polluted every living thing, and rearranged all the non living stuff. We're at 7 billion people now and climbing and all of us want stuff, and lots of space to keep it in. We've been in a global recession for the past 5 years so you would have thought the lack of productivity, and building would have slowed some of the possible climate killers down. I think you can safely say we're doomed. Politics aside, the only chance we would have is to throw 6 billion people out of the lifeboat. Everything bad that is happening now is directly related to over poplulation. We are at the beginning of the end and if you can't sense that from all the physical, social, and political indicators (i.e. flaming red flags) you are in denial. What a miserable age we are living in, although it was probably worse in the dark ages (if that cheers you up).
It does all boil down to rampant out of control human breeding. We really need to have mandatory birth control. But wait we are the master specie and favored by God (whichever one you believe in)! We can do no wrong!!
Let's see...average temperature across the continent reaching 104.6 degrees F. But everyone around me says "there is no such thing as global warming". Then I say okay "global climate change" and I still get laughed at. I guess they will still be laughing in the year 2100 when 50% of our crops will no longer grow because it is too hot at most places. I won't be here, but my grandchildren will be. All I can say is "I'm sorry" to them and hope for the best.
50% crop growth? You are an optimist!
Physicist Retired has very clearly
explained it above for all but the simplest; The confusion that
people have with terms such as Global Warming when in fact locations
on earth experience record cold at times. As someone with a medical
background let me explain it another way; Global warming is the
disease and climate change is symptomatic of that disease. Extreme
warming, or cooling, are both possibilities, but neither are the
disease they are merely symptoms. It is always premature to mistake
the symptoms for the actual disease. In the same manner to treat the
symptoms and not the disease is purely palliative. As an emerging
disease, never before examined by man, both the course of the
disease, and its outcome are unknown. But it is likely that it is a
chronic condition; The nature of a chronic condition being that long
asymptomatic periods are followed by short dramatic acute periods
wherein rapid decline is a real possibility. Also questions will
remain concerning the final outcome of the disease till the disease
runs it's course; But it's likely that will not lead to the death of
the patient,( the Earth,) but some of the patients systems,( the
Human race,) may well be altered to the point that those systems will
no longer resemble their current status. As with the diagnosis of any
disease, and certainly one never before seen, the immediate reaction
is one of denial followed by anger. Acceptance is the final stage in
the palliative process, and often does not arrive until the end is
near.
Really it all is as simple as high
school biology; Take a dish, add bacteria and a medium, and the
bacteria will expand till the dish is uninhabitable. Or fundamental
physiology; The functions of living systems are carried out by their
constituent structures. As physiologist Claude Bernard observed in
1854, “ The stability of the internal environment is the primary
condition for a free and independent existence.” It is quite simple
to see how the basis of cellular homeostasis also applies to the
organism; Regardless of whether that organism is a one-celled
bacterium or a solar system.
Meanwhile those of you that continue to
be in denial; Enjoy yourselves.....It's later than you think.
Longshank,
Allow me to return the complement - an excellent explanation via analogy.
Hats off.
We see this in complex, nonlinear systems, from seizures to financial markets. It also (increasingly) seems to apply to our climate.
Edit - somehow, this comment ended up at the end of the thread. It belongs here.
Analogy, AKA storytelling is always the
surest way to explain anything. By taking complex processes, or
events, and putting them into words that one can visualize in their
head.....The light comes on. It is simple for me to understand how a
neoplasm can metastasize....But when I attempt to explain that
process to one that has never taken advanced physiology it is much
easier if I relate that cancer cell to a criminal street gang.
Wandering the streets with nothing better to do than to assault some
innocent cell sitting there minding it's own business .......The
light comes on.
I like the way you put that. And I agree, it is later then most think!
do not need science - can see the difference - winters are warmer and shorter ( we would skate on frozen lakes all winter in new york a mere thirty years ago - now never - summers are hotter and longer - leaves would start turning first week of sept - now we still have green leaves in nov - the weather is changing for sure and very very fast - thats the issue- climate events take thousand of years to have an impact , this , this is happening in 30 - scary - and i guess if you want to throw in melting ice caps , record heat and storms , tornadoes , drought , wildfires - ..... alot to just over look - but what do you expect talking snakes and people coming back from the dead from a two thousand year old book - that , that they swallow whole - events right in front of their eyes - that, that they cant seem to get - priceless
I agree. But people are stupid and most don't live with nature anymore. Their lives revolve around central heat or AC and they never go outside unless it is to get into their heated/ac car to drive where there is heat/ac. Even when the planet is a desert there will still be people saying the whole thing is a hoax...
Very true also, most don't know jack
about the weather till it hits the fan. Furthermore the humans that
survive the coming weather calamity will be the ones that already
have an eye to the weather, and are already in tune with nature. The
Tea-bag crowd is right about one thing, we can not kill the earth,
every sibilance of civilization will crumble long before that. The
survivors will be the ones that never depended on it much anyway.