Greens Fuel Victorian Bush Fires

Victoria bushfires stoked by green vote

David Packham
February 10, 2009
The Australian

VICTORIA has suffered the most tragic bushfire disaster to have occurred on this continent throughout its period of human habitation.

The deaths, loss of homes and businesses and the blow to our feeling of security will take decades to fade into history. The trauma will live with the victims, who, to a greater or lesser extent, are all of us.

How could this happen when we have been told in a withering, continuous barrage of public relations that with technology and well-polished uniforms, we can cope with the unleashing of huge forces of nature.

I have been a bushfire scientist for more than 50 years, dealing with all aspects of bushfires, from prescribed burning to flame chemistry, and serving as supervisor of fire weather services for Australia. We need to understand what has happened so that we can accept or prevent future fire disasters.

That this disaster was about to happen became clear when the weather bureau issued an accurate fire weather forecast last Wednesday, which prompted me, as a private citizen, to raise the alarm through a memo distributed to concerned residents.

The science is simple. A fire disaster of this nature requires a combination of hot, dry, windy weather in drought conditions. It also requires a source of ignition. In the past, this purpose has been served by lightning. In this disaster, lightning has not played a big part, and for this Victorians should be grateful. But other sources of ignition are ever-present. When the temperature and wind increase to extreme levels, small events -- perhaps the scrape of metal across a rock, a transformer overheating or sparks from a diesel engine -- are capable of starting a fire that can in minutes become unstoppable if the fuel is present.

The third and only controllable factor in this deadly triangle is fuel: the dead leaves, pieces of bark and grass that become the gas that feeds the 50m high flames that roar through the bush with the sound of jet engines.

Fuels build up year after year at an approximate rate of one tonne a hectare a year, up to a maximum of about 30 tonnes a hectare.

If the fuels exceed about eight tonnes a hectare, disastrous fires can and will occur. Every objective analysis of the dynamics of fuel and fire concludes that unless the fuels are maintained at near the levels that our indigenous stewards of the land achieved, then we will have unhealthy and unsafe forests that from time to time will generate disasters such as the one that erupted on saturday.

It has been a difficult lesson for me to accept that despite the severe damage to our forests and even a fatal fire in our nation's capital, the political decision has been to do nothing that will change the extreme threat to which our forests and rural lands are exposed.

The decision to ignore the threat has been encouraged by some shocking pseudo-science from a few academics who use arguments that may have a place in political discourse but should have no place in managing our environment and protecting it and us from the bushfire threat.

The conclusion of these academics is that high intensity fires are good for the environment and that the resulting mudslides after rains are merely localised and serve to redistribute nutrients. The purpose of this failed policy is to secure uninformed city votes.

Only a few expert retired fire managers, experienced bushies and some courageous politicians are prepared to buck the decision to lock up our bush and leave it to burn.

The politicians who willingly accept this rubbish use it to justify the perpetuation of the greatest threat to our forests, water supplies, homes and lives in order to secure a minority green vote. They continue to throw millions (and no doubt soon billions) at ineffective suppression toys, while the few foresters and bush people who know how to manage our public lands are starved of the resources they need to reduce fuel loads.

It is hard for me to see this perversion of public policy and to accept that the folk of the bush have lost their battle to live a safe life in a cared-for rural and forest environment, all because of the environmental fantasies of outraged extremists and latte conservationists.

In a letter to my local paper, the Weekly Times, on January 25, I predicted we were facing a very critical situation in which 1000 to 2000 homes could be lost in the Yarra catchment, the Otways and/or the Strezleckies; that 100 souls could be lost in a most horrible and violent way; and that there was even a threat to Melbourne's water supply, which could be rendered unusable by the ash and debris. Horrifically, much of this has come to pass, and it is not yet the end of the bushfire season.

In the face of this inferno, the perpetrators of this obscenity should have the decency to stand up and say they were wrong.

Southeast Australia is the worst place in the world for bushfires, and we must not waste any time in getting down to the task of making our bush healthy and safe.

But don't hold your breath. Do you hear that lovely sound the warbling pigs make as they fly by?

David Packham OAM is an honorary senior research fellow at Monash University's school of geography and environmental science.

An unholy alliance between the Sociopathic Loons of the "environmental movement" and the Sociopathic Loons of the "Religion of Peace" ?
Two "Religions" dedicated to the annihaliation of the western world, Islam, and the International Socialist,rabble that make up the environmental industry, could it be, that, albeit, unknowingly for most of their respective dewy eyed members, these two groups are working as one, to facilitate terrorism ,the death of infidels and the destruction of public and private property and the resulting drain on Australia's wealth, under the guise of a natural disaster?
Australia's Green Loons / Peace Activists are known for their mantra of "....you first have to rock the boat in order to sink it" these descendants of the drug fucked 60's and 70's Hippies boast of the goal to return Australia, and indeed the world to the stone age, as do the followers of the Religion of Peace, Islam.
I am not suggesting there are meetings of Islamists and Greens conducted in Mosques and crystal healing nights around environmentally friendly scented candles,where they plot the down fall of civilization, however I suggest that the followers Satan, or the Godless can, and do have, what appears to be two totally unrelated malevolent groups, working towards a common goal, with both parties rank and file members (and everyone else) unaware they are working for the same Godless master, the Beast of International Socialism aka the United Nations.


Unholy Alliance David Horowitz

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Politics & Governmen Presentations & Slid international social the peace left

Australian Bush Fires:Memories of Canberra blaze rekindled

Memories of Canberra blaze rekindled

BY NYSSA SKILTON
Canberra Times
10/02/2009

Victoria's bushfires have stirred memories of Canberra's own bushfire disaster just six years ago, raising the question: What has been learnt?

Bushfire and meteorology specialist David Packham, of Monash University in Melbourne, said nothing had changed in forest management since the Canberra 2003 fires and Victoria was suffering the consequences. ''The mismanagement of the south-eastern forests of Australia over the last 30 or 40 years by excluding prescribed burning and fuel management has led to the highest fuel concentrations we have ever had in human occupation,'' Mr Packham said.

''The state has never been as dangerous as what it is now and this has been quite obvious for some time. ''It is a recipe for the disaster that we have had.'' Mr Packham, who is a research fellow at Monash University's School of Geography and Environmental Science, said a ''God almighty brawl'' was about to erupt in Australia about how forests should be managed to reduce the risk of bushfires.
''There has been a total lack of willingness to instigate a proper fuel reduction management program based on the skills and understanding of indigenous people who, after all, for tens of thousands of years were the stewards of our environment,'' he said. ''We have thumbed our noses at what these people did and knew and we just can't keep on doing it.''
The director of the centre for environmental risk management of bushfires at the University of Wollongong, Professor Ross Bradstock, said now was not the time to speculate on what went wrong. ''There needs to be more sober appraisal to figure out exactly what's happened,'' he said. ''We know these very big destructive fires have occurred before in Victoria under very different eras of management.'' Professor Bradstock said scientific knowledge of bushfires was quite rudimentary.

He said, like Canberra in January 2003, the conditions in Victoria on Saturday were off the top of the fire danger scale. ''We actually have no formal scientific knowledge of the way fires behave in the upper part of the fire danger scale, let along off the top of the danger scale,'' he said. ''Yes, we have scientists and people working on the problem, but these are extraordinary phenomena and we don't fully comprehend them.'' Professor Bradstock said there was no prescribed burning solution which would totally eliminate risk of bushfire. ''Anything we do in terms fire management is about the reduction in risk,'' he said.

''Understanding the best use of resources to reduce risk is still a formidable challenge. We don't have all the answers.'' CSIRO bushfire researcher Andrew Sullivan said aerial shots of Marysville, depicting green street trees dotted among destroyed houses, reminded him of what he had seen in Canberra in 2003. ''It implies to me that what's happened is house-to-house spread after the fire front has gone through,'' he said. ''That's what happened in Canberra. Primarily the bushfire hit Eucumbene Drive and Warragamba Drive [Duffy] and spot fires started in the gardens of houses that lined those streets.'' Mr Sullivan said prior to Saturday, he would have said Australia was becoming better at dealing with bushfires.

Australian Fires: 400 fires hit Victoria over the weekend

Firebugs blamed for blazes: fire criminologist

Mark Dunn
Herald Sun
February 09, 2009 07:26pm

MORE than one arsonist would have been responsible for several of the blazes which erupted in Victoria over the weekend, a fire criminologist believes.
About half of all bush fires in Australia are deliberately lit by fire bugs, Australian National University research fellow Dr Damon Muller said.

Given up to 400 fires hit Victoria over the weekend at varying locations across the state, Dr Muller believes more than one arsonist was at work.

See Post Forest Fire Jihad Australia singled out for "Forest Jihad"

"Without putting a figure on it, it would be surprising if some of them were not deliberately lit, just by virtue of the significant number,'' Dr Muller said.

"And by virtue of the diversity of locations there is probably a number of perpetrators.''

Federal Attorney General Robert McClelland said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's description of arsonists as "mass murderers'' in the circumstances was warranted and any offenders would be pursued with relevant murder charges.

"Anyone who lights fires deliberately, with reckless disregard for the safety of their fellow Australians, in our view establishes the requisite criminal intent that would sustain a charge of murder,'' Mr McClelland told parliament.

Police and CFA arson investigators are currently trying to identify the precise ignition points where fires at Churchill and several other locations began.

All fire areas where deaths have occurred have been designated by police as crime scenes - although only Churchill and the six houses lost at Narre Warren are suspected at this stage to have been deliberately lit.

The Kinglake and Marysville fires are assumed at this point to have been the result of natural disaster but the crime scene designation enables police to investigate whether arson was a factor.

Police Supt. Ross McNeil said it was important for forensic evidence to be preserved.

"We are calling them crime scenes so we can protect them to a high level,'' Supt McNeil said.

Arson detectives yesterday began their work to identify which fires may have been sparked - or re-lit by fire bugs.

In order to confirm a fire was deliberately lit, samples of burnt vegetation at the ignition points will be tested for the presence of any accelerant.

Investigators will also assess wind direction, speed of fire spread, any witness reports of suspicious activity in the area and weather reports tracking any lightning strikes in the vicinity.

Dr Muller said bushfire arsonists were typically male and likely to start fires on urban fringes.

Based on a study of previous prosecutions, Dr Muller said the typical arsonist had a history of low-level property and violence offences and generally came from a lower socio-economic status.

Arson in all its forms costs Australia $1.6 billion each year, Dr Muller found in a report released this month.

Australian Fires: Death Toll reaches 171

Victoria fires death toll leaps to 171

Herald Sun
February 10, 2009 01:47am

WHOLE towns have been declared crime scenes as the toll from Victoria's worst natural disaster leapt to 171.
But Premier John Brumby says the Victoria fires emergency will get worse before it gets any better.

"We've still got fires that are not contained," he said.

"There is a huge effort to get them under control.

"Tragically, we will have more deaths later this week."

There are fears the tragedy will have claimed more than 200 lives by the time police complete their searches of towns wiped out by the blazes.

The bushfire death toll has now reached 171 dead, a police spokeswoman confirmed about 1am this morning as police try to account for the people who perished in the fires.

Authorities say they are shocked by the sudden leap in numbers as more discoveries come to light, with early indications that the numbers leapt amid the discovery of clusters of bodies.

4Meter Crocodile kills 5 year old boy on Daintree.

Don't kill the crocodile who killed our son

By Thomas Chamberlin and Carenda Jenkin
The Daily Telegraph
February 10, 2009 12:00am

THIS is the crocodile suspected of killing a five-year-old boy. The 4m dominant male, known as Goldie or Yellowtail, is the prime suspect in a deadly croc attack that has shaken a tight-knit community on the Daintree north of Cairns.

Two other massive predators known as Scarface and Fat Albert have been ruled out as likely culprits after witnesses provided a detailed description of the killer.

Dad could not save his boy from croc

Jeremy Doble is missing feared dead after he was taken by a croc in front of his brother, Ryan, 7, whose terrified screams alerted their father who was working nearby. Daintree River tour guide Steve Doble threw himself into the croc-infested mangrove swamp in a brave attempt to save his son only to find he vanished without a trace.


Police said the father and son, who have lived on the river for five years and who have an intimate knowledge of the dominant aggressive male crocodiles in the river system, were able to identify the killer.

Yellowtail or Goldie is easily distinguished by its tell-tale bright yellow markings on its back and tail, and aggressive demeanour as the dominant territorial male near the attack site. Locals said they had seen the croc in recent weeks hiding in the mangroves away from the fast-flowing cold floodwaters.

The Doble family, who live on the river on a 12ha tourist property, were yesterday "too distressed" to speak publicly and were counselled by grief trauma experts. They have begged authorities not to kill or hurt the crocodile if it is trapped as part of a massive croc hunt.

"They do not want any harm to come to the croc and for it to be treated as humanely as possible," acting Inspector Jason Smith said. "They are very distressed, but have had some incredible support from the local community."
He said the description given by the boy's brother who witnessed the attack had "narrowed the likelihood down to one particular crocodile".

The two boys had been playing on a boogie board in a mangrove swamp behind their family home as their father Steve fixed a mangrove boardwalk nearby when tragedy struck about 9.15am on Sunday.