Wallace - thanks for that; a crack firefighting team from California has just arrived to assist.

Pink and Nicole Kidman have both donated $500,000 each to the rural fire services here and many sports stars are also contributing.

The fires continue to spread in strong winds and there are more evacuations from southern coastal towns (e.g. Eden!!) and I have just seen photos of native wildlife and farm animals littering the road into Batlow, which was our largest apple growing region before the fires hit. Just too distressing to post those pics.

Only rain will stop these fires and there is none on the horizon.

OMG
It's raining today, according to television... a little respite but for how long ...?

Wish I could give you some of our Alabamian rains to you folk down under. Hopefully things will get better soon, but your summer, like ours, is 3 months and summer's just begun for you folk down under. What a lot of folk don't realize is the Earth is closest to the sun during the Northern hemisphere's winter. That means your summers have to be much more harsh than ours. Anyway, for the folk rich enough to do so down under, there's always a trip to Antarctica (I actually want to go there myself; when Buzz Aldrin went (and he's in his mid 80s), I know something's down there and I want to know what it is for myself and I suppose now's the time to go while it's at its warmest. lol

Only gotta hope, when it does rain properly (in the places not experiencing drought) and all the undergrowth etc. grows back that they will allow
controlled burning so these terrible bushfires don't go on as long and especially stay away from built up areas etc..
This photo was taken a couple days ago by Photographer Rose Fletcher took the photo at Victor Harbour as the sun rose on New Year's Day when fires near her home were at their worst.
'It was taken on New Year's Day, just after sunrise, when the fires were arguably at their worst, and hearts were heavy and people were frightened - me included,' She saw the likeness of the aboriginal Flag immediately



Click for more

"The Earth is closest to the sun during the Northern hemisphere's winter."
Thanks Lyle. There is a difference of around 3 million miles closer to the sun in January. This did not contribute to our current fires.
2019 in Australia was as the hottest and driest year since records began.
We are used to high temperatures but this is a long term heating trend and a drought which could be the new normal.


"Australia mines about 57 tonnes of CO2 potential per person each year, about 10 times the global average, and exports 7 per cent of the world's fossil fuel CO2 potential"
Overall, we are the planets third largest fossil fuel exporter after Russia and Saudi Arabia. We are also a major land-clearer.


My message is 'don't blame the sun blame humans'. The World's biggest coal exporter is on fire. Donations are not the long term solution. They just prop-up the coal industry indirectly.

Our government claim they can't do much about climate change because it's a global problem. At the same time they export more coal than anybody else on the planet.

The coal is mined to be burnt but using an accountancy trick it becomes another countries carbon emissions.
This has to change.

Note that none of the big mouths denying climate change have science degrees?
Why get your car brakes fixed by a pastry cook?
And that's the problem. We are run by idiots and we put them there. Tragic.

Tas_mania

Yesterday my favorite channel Arte broadcast an interesting debate concerning Australia.



I agree with you...

Thanks sallyanne for that amazing Rose Fletcher photo.

Its nice of Wallace to point to the Red Cross donations.

The bottom line. The World's biggest coal exporter has caught fire and the Hollywood A-listers are making big donations without solving the problem. For me Australia's real friends are in Europe, especially a 17 year old Swedish girl with Aspergers.
Thanks level_0 for being so level

Tas_mania
I'm not sure I understood what you meant by this sentence:"Thanks level_0 for being so level"
Greta Thunberg

I meant 'level headed'. That may not translate so well.

Thought I'd share this here. It is very graphic/sad. 50 years+ ago I lived in the area that got burnt.

This was posted last Tuesday https://7news.com.au/news/sa/kangaroo-i ... g-c-657438
Kangaroo Island bushfire declared contained after weeks of active firefighting
Contained but not out. Gusty winds may flare them up again.

Our sincere sympathy to the families of the three American crew killed when their Coulson Aviation C-130 Hercules water bomber crashed here a few days ago. These firefighters have been assisting us by dropping retardant and water for some time now on those terrible fires, most contained now, but still burning.

So many sad stories still reaching the news in print and digital media.

And in North Queensland ... widespread floods, typical contrariness of weather in this great land .... https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-country/

Thank you OMG for making me discover this writer and this magnificent poem.

Yesterday North Queensland had 529mm of rain in 24 hours and of course much flooding, whilst last night this was our capital, Canberra ...