Australians learned so much from the Ash Wednesday bushfires (I was living in Melbourne at the time and still visit as often as I can); there was a sense that although everyone knew bushfires are capricious and dangerous, that there were things to do to mitigate them. That all changed this week.
The combination of years of inadequate rainfall, record high temperatures, and arson meant there was no escape, no hope for those caught in the bushfire’s path. There are thousands of people out there fighting for people and animals, hoping and praying for the rain that is the only solution. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation Melbourne news site tells the story.
I can’t find the right words to express my sorrow and sympathies for those who lost family and friends in this horrific way. All I can do is point people who want to help to some of the appropriate venues. There’s the Australian Red Cross, the Australian Salvation Army, and some organisations to help with animals and wildlife.
Hey Lauren,
Thanks for the links! The Red Cross link is broken — there’s an extra z at the end.
One of the most interesting comments on the media was from some meteorologists who said that the run of high temperatures (several days of 115 degrees at the equivalent latitude of San Fransisco) were so extreme statistically that they could not be considered mere outliers, but hard proof that the game has changed: things are warmer (and therefore drier at this stage of the various oceanic Oscillations Indexes, such as the Pacific el nino/la nina).
On the fire danger scale of 0 to 100, these fires rated 320, which means way beyond human control: Eucalypt forests (gum trees) are particularly dangerous, with the eucalyptus oil vapororising before exploding like napalm (if you watch videos, you can see the explosions amid the flames), and the flaky bark easily carried as burning embers sometimes a kilometer ahead of the firefront. Places like Southern California that plant eucalypts get the same problems: I think, people should really consider the wisdom of non-native gum trees anywhere near habitations.
And in Far North Queensland, there have been terrible floods this week.
With the economic crisis, the balloon is bursting and chances are they will sort themselves out. I don’t see much indication from the US media that recovering from a bubble does not mean returning to the bubble: if we find that in fact the US economy is half the size the US thought it was, then recovery involves a substantial downsizing and and rejigging of international economic power.
So what are we to do? On the personal level, the big thing is not to take our happiness from things that are ephemeral: our economic success which can disappear because of mad bankers, our nice house which can be burned down, our career which can be robbed by illness or anything like that. Those things have to be the icing on the cake, the things we do to help our main goals, our families and friends.
Thanks for posting this blog item, and the links to the Red Cross, Lauren. It is looking like the old advice (get our early or stay to save the house: don’t flee on the roads at the last moment) will need to be altered: first, leave early means leave that morning not when you can see fire, and that people who stay will need to put in fire bunkers to shelter in: several people were saved by sheltering underneath floors, behind concrete stairs and so on.
The bushfire dead give us a heart-breaking gift, which we dare not not reject if we know what is good for us, of learning how to survive in a hotter world. If global warming does continue, then many other countries with marginal ecosystems, such as Australia has, may also need to learn these new survival skills.
But people are good at it. We are the cockroaches that will survive even nuclear war! The bushfires are cause for great sadness and concern, but not despair or depression.