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Bushfires.
Don’t usually reblog lots of stuff, but as an Aussie, this hits really close to home. A favourite camspite of mine, where I made so many good memories, was burned down in an earlier bushfire. Some school friends with asthma have had to go home early because they couldn’t breathe. Every morning, I wake up, look out the window, and see a haze of smoke, almost covering the sky. Some days the smoke smells almost chemical.
Here is the situation as of 5 hours ago (excerpt taken from The Guardian newspaper):
Queensland
14 homes had been destroyed.
There were 80 active fires.
Leave immediately and leave now alerts had been issued at locations including Kinkuna Waters, Pechey, Buxton, Woodgate/Walkers Point Road, Kilkivan and Noosa North Shore.
There were 293 vehicles across all of the fires around the state.
100 interstate and international personnel had arrived in the state to assist.
Very high to severe conditions were expected to persist across Queensland. Conditions may ease in some areas on Thursday but severe fire danger was expected again into the weekend.
New South Whales
There were 76 active fires.
None were currently at emergency warning level, most were at watch and act or advice level.
Conditions eased on Wednesday after the catastrophic and extreme fire danger ratings on Tuesday.
Thursday was forecast to bring very high fire danger across much of the state, as was Friday, with potentially severe fire danger on Friday in the greater Hunter region.
The very high fire danger being experienced in the north-east of the state was expected to continue for the rest of the week.
The Rural Fire Service commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, said severe conditions forecast for the weekend would be followed by another burst of hot air next week, meaning crews “simply aren’t going to get the upper hand on all of these fires”.
Western Australia
One fire was at emergency warning level at Drummond Cove in Geraldton.
A second fire, the Utakarra fire in Geraldton had been downgraded to watch and act.
AAP was reporting that two homes had been destroyed and two homes had been damaged in Geraldton.
Please. Wise up, Government, and cut the shit.
My heart goes out to the firefighters. Love you guys, absolute LEGENDS. Keep it up.
- Pasta
tl;dr my country is literally on fire and the politicians refuse to help
I know there’s a lot going on in the world, but you probably haven’t heard about what’s happening in Australia.
we’re on fire.
approximately ¼ of australia’s population is in catastrophic fire danger. A catastrophic fire level means your only chance of surviving is leaving before it’s too late.
it’s Spring in Australia, and rainforests aren’t meant to be dry enough to burn, yet at the time of writing this (11/11/19) there are 71 active fires in NSW (43 out of control), and 51 active fires in Queensland - not including those that have already burned before now, and there are more in other states. Sydney is already rated “catastrophic”, the first time this rating has ever been used there since its creation in 2009. That’s right, we had to add yet another level of destructiveness, because “high”, “very high”, “severe”, and “extreme” were no longer adequate. To quote the Fire Danger Ratings, “for your survival, leaving early is the only option”. conditions tomorrow will be the worst they have been, and people are evacuating as we speak. the fire fighters are preparing as best they can.
This isn’t just about people losing their homes; people have died and will die, countless animals have already lost their lives and many more will still perish. our land, our lives, and our hope is up in flames and will soon be nothing but ash. the annual fire season has not even begun yet. this is only the beginning. my native land is burning, and there is nothing i can do to stop it.
the government refuses to acknowledge that we are in a climate crisis. the fires have never been this bad. we have been in severe drought for more than a year which has only contributed to the force of these fires. the Prime Minister Scott Morrison has done nothing but send his “thoughts and prayers”. He will not accept aid from other countries because he is too egotistical to admit that we need it. All the while the people of this land are suffering. Climate change needs radical human change to be combated. we are already seeing the results of years of indifference, and this is barely the beginning of something that will only get worse the longer government’s and big companies refuse to act to counteract climate change.
Our government has also cut funding to Fire and Rescue NSW by 35.4%, the Rural Fire Service by 75.2%, and QLD Rural Fire Service by 26.42%, resulting in closures of services; they don’t have the resources to cope. We are fighting a losing battle against the results of climate change. and this is only the beginning.
