It's started again!

What's started again?

The blame game of course, where "Greenies" get blamed for fires, floods, pestilence, etc etc all without offering any evidence it being enough just to yell out "Greenie".

Now, I've been involved with the rural Fire Service/Bush Fire Brigades for around 25 years altogether (and did an overnighter just 2 nights ago dealing with a hay fire)and have been employed in the Natural Resources/Environment field for the past 18, I have been to conferences put on by environmental groups discussing fire and have spent a shitload of my time chasing fires lit by some numbnuts that thought they were doing a hazard reduction.

I have yet to see any environmental group oppose the need for hazard reduction burning (and it is hazard reduction not fucking "backburning", two completely different concepts), yeah, sure there's individuals that reckon all burning is bad but we have a name for them "nutters", if anything at these conferences many of the "greenies" at these conferences seemed too keen to burn.

This is what the NCC has to say about fires:

The Australian landscape has evolved under a natural and cultural regime of fire. Bushfire continues to be a natural disturbance which is critical for the survival of many of our plants and animals. It is when bushfire interacts with society that disasters can result. From a human perspective, bushfire is one of Australia's most frequent and devastating natural hazards.

The Bushfire Program arose to "ensure that all Bushfire Management activity is ecologically sustainable while protecting life and property". The program has been actively involved in fire management, bushfire education and advocacy for sustainable land policy since 1979.

Yeah, real anti fire conspiracy.

So what is the cause of these big fires? It's quite simple, extreme fire events are associated with extreme temperature events, always have been, always will be. Yeah, sure people make mistakes and there are ways we can reduce the hazard and impact but on a 40 degree day with humidity in the single figures, a hot westerly and bugger all rain for the past couple of months unless you've done a hazard reduction burn in the past couple of weeks any fire will be difficult to put out.

Hazard reductions are called that for a reason, they reduce the hazard but they don't eliminate it once you get to extreme conditions any reduction is going to be minor.