Australia is burning again

[Vrtigo]

I wouldnt know, considering Im sitting in a nice cool 15C AC'd room in a Kiwi city experiencing a civil temperature of 19C, but I hear Australia is getting chargrilled?

The obligatory pics that have probably been posted everywhere:






Hows it feelin where you are?

[chiQ]

I like that the temperature scale has rolled around to purple again, because of the heat this week.

[CCS]

Originally Posted by retard

Australia is burning again

Fuck, izzat right? Man, it's almost like clockwork, a year apart.

[Ab]

Fuck whoever owns all that bush is gonna be up for a massive carbon-emissions tax bill.

[p01s0n]

lol at the super smug OP and he doesn't even realize its like 25deg and really pleasant today

[Vrtigo]

Apparently snow fell in the mountains of Victoria today tho, so yaay climate!

[fixed_truth]

Fuck you! You'll be back. Fuck this warrior shit. You'll be back!

An average increase in summer temperatures will increase the frequency of bushfires, perhaps exponentially. The modelling cannot be precise on this, but the direction is clear.

This is because with an increase in background temperatures, climate scientists also expect an increase in climactic volatility. In other words, more exceptional weather events: drier droughts, wetter floods and more catastrophic bushfires.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politi...108-2ceu1.html

[Ab]

Hey, as long as Australia still has all this coal to burn to power the airconditioning units we're good, right?

[MadMax]

yes, i entertained that thought after seeing articles about the coal hoax.

[_Incubus_]

Yeah it's hot, this year I'm pretty ambivalent to the heat..working at the mines in mid 50s is what I call hot now, as Simon mentions we have coal for our air con :-)

[Heresy]

what are you guys gonna do when you run out of water?

[aR Que]

increase in climactic volatility. In other words, more exceptional weather events

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dustowl

turn back transients, no jobs here!

[TnT]

Originally Posted by Heresy

what are you guys gonna do when you run out of water?

Move back home.

[Lightspeed]

Somehow I don't see NZ surviving the next century as an independent sovereign nation. I heard a reporter on Al Jazeera talking about the fires in Australia say "It's going to get worse before it gets better", which I found puzzling, as I haven't heard a single news article about how this gets better.

[Ab]

Here's one: extreme climate change, collapse of ecosystems, mass extinction, and in a few hundred million years things will be different. But without us, so, like, better.

[Nothing]

Nope. This is as good as it gets. It's all down hill from here.

[aR Que]

Originally Posted by Nothing

Nope. This is as good as it gets. It's all down hill from here.

Well that's good news, going up is so tiring.

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by Ab

Here's one: extreme climate change, collapse of ecosystems, mass extinction, and in a few hundred million years things will be different. But without us, so, like, better.

That's what I figure. At some point when continents collide no doubt there will be some epic evolutionary battle between what emerges from the cane toads in Aus and whatever's survived on the landmass it hits.

[pxpx]

Originally Posted by aR Que

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dustowl

[Ab]

I kinda figure we're in a game of musical chairs. We gotta get sustainably off-planet before the music stops, i.e. we run out of fossil fuels or everything falls apart. This is our one shot, because it takes fossil fuels to develop a society energy-rich enough to have a space program.

Caveats: safe fusion power changes everything; technological singularity changes everything; intervention by benevolent spacefaring aliens changes everything.

[aR Que]

seen the thorium nuclear reactor? that shit sounds like it'd be off the chain.

[Lightspeed]

Not enough energy. There needs to be a reason to stop the building of hundreds of new coal plants.

More than 1,000 new coal plants planned worldwide, figures show

[Vrtigo]

^^^ thats what a coal lover would say

but srsly, fuck yeah thorium, bring it on

[A Corpse]

Coal, fuck yeah, fuel of the past AND future!

[p-b]

Originally Posted by Ab

I kinda figure we're in a game of musical chairs. We gotta get sustainably off-planet before the music stops, i.e. we run out of fossil fuels or everything falls apart. This is our one shot, because it takes fossil fuels to develop a society energy-rich enough to have a space program.

Caveats: safe fusion power changes everything; technological singularity changes everything; intervention by benevolent spacefaring aliens changes everything.

Warp drives? http://gizmodo.com/5942634/nasa-star...ecirculatio n

Time to start building that Space Ark!

[_Incubus_]

Gen iv nuclear...consumes nuclear waste...but it probably makes your average prius owner happy to protest against nuclear power...charging your green car up on fossil fuel is where it's at.

[Nich]

http://io9.com/5974435/a-disturbing-...een-from-space

nasa iss looks down upon aussie fires.

[chiQ]

I reckon we should officially rename gum trees 'fire trees'. That would help.

[Ab]

Moomba, South Australia, today's high: 49.6 C

SOUSTRAYACUNT

[A Corpse]

Originally Posted by chiQ

I reckon we should officially rename gum trees 'fire trees'. That would help.

We'd need to rename an awful lot of things if there was to be some sort of global truth-in-naming standard.

[Nothing]

Dear Australia,

Thanks!

Sincerely,

Atmospheric CO2 Levels.

[StN]

The clouds on the horizon at the beach looked decidedly orange yesterday. Not to the extent where shadows have brown fringes yet though.

[chiQ]

Originally Posted by A Corpse

We'd need to rename an awful lot of things if there was to be some sort of global truth-in-naming standard.

Whoa! Hold up there, cowboy. I just want to name one tree!

[crocos]

But that's how it begins... <shudder>

[TnT]

Meh we already have "Flame Trees" whilst they don't burst into flame the same way gum trees do, they do blind the weary driver.

[Ab]

You know, I passed on that gag secure in the knowledge that inevitably someone else wouldn't be able to resist it.

[fixed_truth]

Australia fires create plume of smoke wider than Europe as humanitarian crisis looms

People queue for hours for food with temperatures forecast to rise to danger levels again, in scenes likened to a war zone

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...a9266846.html?

Nearly 500 million animals killed in Australian bushfires, experts fear

[Ab]

Selfishness factor 10: I’m literally on a boat in the Hauraki Gulf right now and almost as isolated from this ecotastrophe as one can get, but I’m also looking up at the night sky reddened by what might be the carbonised remains of animals I’ve met and played with in Aussie national parks because that’s where I you know live.

And I got nothing. This is normal now. 30% of the koalas in existence incinerated in the past 5 days. 500 million Australian animals making tonight’s pretty sunset. Fuck the world. Kill all humans.

[StN]

Felt similar weirdness yesterday - drove up to Lake Coleridge to go fishing - dense haze so thick that it was as bad as fog - ie can't see 40m in front of you. And completely overcast, so none of the shiny lures were reflecting anything. I blamed Australia, before being introduced to Matthew who had come over for a reprieve and to see something green.

And the smell - until I realised like Ab that it wasn't just wood.

[Nich]

Bright has been evacuated (50 min drive from our home), and Myrtleford (20 min drive) on “watch & act”, woke up to house stinking of smoke and couldnt even see the lake less than 100m away.

Go bags / valuables packed and we’re in Melbourne till sunday. then if conditions still shit we’ll stay with a friend in Castlemain