Was wondering about this aspect of the fires. I don't think it is unfair to say that Australia has, for whatever reason, more than their fair share of climate change deniers.
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The impacts of the climate crisis are now clearly manifesting in ways beyond rising temperatures. In Australia, the conditions for severe bushfires are occurring far more regularly (hot days, dry land and high winds). And the country is now suffering its most intense bushfire season ever. The quantity of land burnt, the smoke pollution impacts, the temperatures and number of homes lost are all breaking historical records.
At the same time, Australia is pioneering the denial of climate disaster.
There is some interesting research around denialism. Researchers have essentially discovered a strong political divide when it comes to climate science: progressives are much more likely to accept it as fact than conservatives. And presenting climate deniers with scientific information in the hope that they’ll change their minds actually reinforces their rejection, because they are so taken aback by the information.
This phenomenon affects solutions, too. If a policy proposal to reduce emissions conflicts with someone’s pre-existing beliefs – if it requires more government intervention in markets, for example – they tend to deny that the problem exists in the first place.
Over the course of the past decade, Australia was a laboratory for this type of thinking. Research has shown that “climate scepticism gets substantial favourable exposure in mainstream Australian media”. As a result, Ipsos polling finds that Australia lags behind other nations in “acknowledging the threat of climate change”. And a renewable energy target of 42% – proposed in a landmark report by Australia’s chief scientist – was rejected by the conservative government partly because the number sounded too close to the opposition’s 50%.
Rightwing media outlets in Australia have responded to the current bushfires by either refusing to give the story its due prominence or by spreading falsehoods. Specifically, there is a claim emerging that environmentalists have blocked hazard reduction efforts by supposedly opposing dry fuel loads being burned or manually removed. It isn’t one of those half-truths – there’s no truth in it at all. Once spread by a rightwing journalist over 10 years ago, it has been given a new lease of life as a meme on social media.
Then a quick Google news to see what one of their top mouthpieces has been up to recently shows that The Australian recently providing a platform by running an op-ed from him. https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/ep...limer/11758240
The reason is 2/3rds of Australian media is owned by Murdoch. The Australian is a right wing propaganda rag. They have been going hard to distance the fires from any talk of global warming while deflecting blame from the Liberal governments towards leftists and greeenies.
Anyways here is Ozzy Man's take. Warning for naughty language and disturbing images. The song at the end is savage af.
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The reason is 2/3rds of Australian media is owned by Murdoch. The Australian is a right wing propaganda rag. They have been going hard to distance the fires from any talk of global warming while deflecting blame from the Liberal governments towards leftists and greeenies.
Anyways here is Ozzy Man's take. Warning for naughty language and disturbing images. The song at the end is savage af.
I love the Chats. That was a great song!
It pains me to see the destruction the fires have caused. I wish I could give more but no one wants to see me naked.
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And on Wednesday, Mr. Murdoch’s News Corp, the largest media company in Australia, was found to be part of another wave of misinformation. An independent study found online bots and trolls exaggerating the role of arson in the fires, at the same time that an article in The Australian making similar assertions became the most popular offering on the newspaper’s website.
It’s all part of what critics see as a relentless effort led by the powerful media outlet to do what it has also done in the United States and Britain — shift blame to the left, protect conservative leaders and divert attention from climate change.
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The smoke reached us in New Zealand last week. New years day the whole country had "Calgary in August 2018" levels of smokiness. Just insane that the smoke could be that thick after crossing 2000km of ocean
I was just hearing about how bad the fires wore in 74/75 and took a look at wiki. Sort by acres. 224 million acres burned! I'm not sure if this year is accurate, but it is "only" 26 million acres.
The smoke reached us in New Zealand last week. New years day the whole country had "Calgary in August 2018" levels of smokiness. Just insane that the smoke could be that thick after crossing 2000km of ocean
It happens on occassion with big fires. One of the most famous smoke events was caused by the Chinchaga Fire of 1950 in Alberta.
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Witness the “Great Smoke Pall” of September 1950. After a dry summer in northern British Columbia and Alberta, there was an outbreak of fires in mid-September. The biggest of these, the Chinchaga4, burned 1.4 Mha, making it possibly the biggest fire in North America’s recorded history.
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Now on a southeastern course, the smoke aloft was subsequently observed in the Northern Ontario town of Nakina at 1330 UTC, and later in the after-noon, widely across southern Ontario. The pall created a 3-hour blackout in Sarnia, and the appearance of dusk at mid-afternoon in Guelph. In Toronto, indoor lights, street lights and automobile headlights were turned on to navigate through the darkness, with city police facing a deluge of calls from concerned citizens.
I was just hearing about how bad the fires wore in 74/75 and took a look at wiki. Sort by acres. 224 million acres burned! I'm not sure if this year is accurate, but it is "only" 26 million acres.
