It is only a couple of years since scientists first told us we could expect a whole new order of fires in south-eastern Australia, fires of such ferocity they would simply engulf the towns in their path. And here they are.
The fires we saw on Saturday were not "once in a thousand years" or even "once in a hundred years" events, as our political leaders keep repeating. They were the face of climate change in our part of the world.
These fires are simply the result of the new conditions that climate change has introduced here: raised temperatures, giving us hotter days than we have ever experienced before combined with lower rainfall giving us a drier landscape. Let's stop using the word "drought", with its implication that dry weather is the exception. The desiccation of the landscape here is the new reality. It is now our climate.
Comment: Let's stop using the fear mongering of Global Warming to incite hysteria into the public. The fact of the matter is that weather extremes are rarely the first time ever, unprecedented, or a new reality.
Longest hot spell (world): Marble Bar, W. Australia, 100° F (37.8° C) (or above) for 162 consecutive days, Oct. 30, 1923 to Apr. 7, 1924.
Comment: The current hot spell in Australia is in no way to be minimized. But the brainwashing of the Global Warming meme is very apparent in this article and the author.
For some perspective on world weather extremes -
Rather than providing any data, Freya Mathews resorts to the old "the scientists say" and "the scientists told us" definitive to tell everyone that the end is nigh.
Let's look at what "those scientists" don't tell us and what a bunch of "other scientists do tell us".
The CO2 fear mongering - The current CO2 concentration of 385ppm as being some kind of unprecedented man caused disaster is plain nonsense.
CO2 after R.A. Berner, 2001 (GEOCARB III)
Source: GeoCraft
Additional graphic of historic CO2 concentration from NOAA's National Climate Data Center
Historical Temperatures over time. The last 2 billion years has seen the Earth's climate swing between Ice Ages and Hot House climates. (Open Full Size Graph)
Long Range Solar Forecast - Off the Bottom of the Charts
NASA: Solar cycle may cause "dangerous" global cooling in a few years time
Solar Activity Diminishes; Researchers Predict Another Ice Age
Sunspots spell end of climate myth
2008 Now Ranks #2 Since 1900 in Number of Sunspotless Days
Sunspots, Global Warming, And An Ice Age
State of the Sun for 2008: ominously quiet - too quiet
Danger ahead as the Sun goes quiet
Drastic climate chill came exactly 12,679 years ago, happened in less than a year: study
What's Happening to the Sun? Could its unusual behavior herald a new ice age?
Are Global Warmists Pulling a Cool Fast One?
The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam
So is the planet warming or cooling? Either way, hysterical fear mongering only feeds irrationalism.