In brief:
* What are hazard reduction burns, are we doing enough of them, and could they have stopped Australia’s catastrophic bushfires? (2020-Jan-10) [ABC News]
❝ How much burning is happening in the states?
Fuel reduction burns are primarily a state government responsibility and they conduct burns over hundreds of thousands of hectares each year.
In Victoria, 130,044 hectares of public land was burned across 251 burns in 2018–19.
A further 12,000 hectares had fuel reduced using other methods, such as machines clearing undergrowth, while 31,750 hectares of private land had planned burns that were run in conjunction with the Country Fire Authority (CFA).
The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) says it and partner agencies protected 113,130 properties through hazard reduction works during the same period.
Almost 200,000 hectares were burnt in hazard reduction operations, which was 106 per cent of its target.
According to a Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) spokesperson, the Queensland Government conducted 117 of 168 planned hazard reduction burns. ❞
* Bots and trolls spread false arson claims in Australian fires ‘disinformation campaign’ (2020-Jan-08) [The Guardian]
❝ Bot and troll accounts are involved in a “disinformation campaign” exaggerating the role of arson in Australia’s bushfire disaster, social media analysis suggests.
The bushfires burning across the nation have been accompanied by repeated suggestions of an arson epidemic or “arson emergency”. ❞
* Hazard reduction burns not a silver bullet: expert (2020-Jan-07) [ABC|Radio National]
❝ Phil Zylstra joins RN Breakfast for his insights and is a landscape flammability expert and an adjunct associate professor at Curtin University.
He says “there is not yet any empirical evidence to that large areas of remote prescribed burning have had any effect on reducing house loss” and that the “window of opportunity to do prescribed burning is shrinking as the climate warms and the landscape dries.” ❞
* A national disaster. On the PM’s catastrophically inept response to Australia’s unprecedented bushfires (2020-Jan-07) [The Monthly]
❝ Scott Morrison campaigned for the leadership of the country with little more than two thumbs up and a sunny disposition. His popularity rested on a persona of practical, upbeat suburban dad. He had no real agenda to speak of, but held out the promise that his government would shield ordinary Australians from tough realities, from any economic shocks, from illegal immigrants. Climate change would have to wait a little longer. No one trusts politicians and their promises anyway, so what did it matter if he didn’t have grand plans? ❞
* 2019-20 Australian bushfire season (2020-Jan-03) [GFED]
❝ Cumulative MODIS active fire detections for New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland summed per ‘fire year’ running from July 1st to June 30th in the following year. This fire year, satellite fire detections in New South Wales are more than four times higher than the previous record year (the 2002-03 fire season). … ❞
* Thread by @jwthwaites (2020-Jan-06) [threadreaderapp]
❝ I was Victoria’s Environment Minister in 2005 when a fire burnt much of Wilsons Promontory. The fire was the result of a fuel reduction burn which ESCAPED ten days after initial ignition as a result of warm and windy weather. The risks are REAL. … ❞
* Brian Gilligan writes: why do we still have politicians unwilling to fully and urgently consider the fire management implications of climate change? (2019-Nov-26) [Newcastle Herald]
❝ During my time as head of NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) from 1998 to 2003, I laboured repeatedly to explain the complexities of fire management and the limitations of hazard reduction.
Today, I worry that the ill-informed commentary that passes for debate is rolling around again 20 years on. ❞
Some reading/listening:
* Episode 27 – Leshp Miserablés (2020-Jan-08) [Pratchat]
In episode 27, Liz and Ben are joined by guest writer and psychologist-in-training Craig Hildebrand-Burke to discuss the depressingly relevant yet uplifting 1997 Discworld novel of war and prejudice, Jingo.
* 📻 Old Time Radio – Police Headquarters – Single Episodes [archive.org]
by Old Time Radio Researchers Group
There is not too much known about the series Police Headquarters. There are 39 known episodes of this police procedural series. The series was syndicated on NBC stations in 1932. Each episode is a complete story of 15 minutes, including the silent movie music at the beginning and end. There is not much to the story line: the police are notified of the crime; they investigate at the scene of the crime; and follow the leads to get their man. Best of all each story gives a glimpse into the 1930s and they are interesting to hear.
Visible Procrastinations 