Wildfires
The Climate is fine, but climate science is a catastrophe - and Congressional Democrats demand a censorship plan from Google by tomorrow.
© Coles online shopping website, 20 January 2020.
The ongoing bushfires that have been ravaging the country since September 2019 - combined with a prolonged and severe drought in many areas - have weighed heavily on farmers and the delivery of fresh food and will result in short-term price increases on fruit and vegetables, according to vegetable industry association AUSVEG.
In fact, people who shop for their groceries online with Coles may have already noticed some items are unavailable due to "bushfires and subsequent road closures".
Industry experts and the government have said that in addition to fruit and vegetables, a number of other products such as honey, milk, wine and meat could go up in price as well.
And it doesn't come at a great time, given people are feeling less motivated to spend while their fellow Australians are suffering, according to AMP Capital Chief Economist Shane Oliver.
"The constant terrible news since October about the bushfires along with the smoke in cities is likely weighing further on the national psyche adding to weakness in consumer spending," Dr Oliver said earlier this month in an analysis of the bushfires' impact on the Australian economy.
Wild weather events have continued since he made that point, with widespread rainfall giving the fireys some reprieve, but also bringing massive hail, floods and dust storms.
AUSVEG and other groups have urged Australians who can afford to do so to keep buying produce to support farmers and regional communities in their recovery from these events. The Australian Government has so far made grants of up to $75,000 available for farmers and other primary producers who have been impacted by the fires.
© Aidan Morrison / @Quixoticquant/Reuters
A pyrocumulonimbus cloud formation is seen from a plane as bush fires continue in New South Wales, Australia, on Jan. 4, 2020.
A pyrocumulonimbus cloud formation is seen from a plane as bush fires continue in New South Wales, Australia, on Jan. 4, 2020.
More than 88,000 people were evacuated, and 2,400 homes and buildings were destroyed in the inferno. It would become one of the costliest and most destructive wildfires in the country's history, but scientists had other reasons to pay close attention to it.
As the fire raged and threatened to engulf the community, The Beast started to exhibit some odd behavior, growing so intense that it spawned "fire clouds" that created their own weather.
The rare weather phenomenon has most recently been observed in southeastern Australia, where unprecedented wildfires have burned more than 27 million acres of land and where more than 100 blazes are still active. And scientists say they're seeing fire clouds more often as climate change makes fire seasons longer and wildfires more intense.
Comment: Rather than attributing the dramatic increase in wildfires and fire clouds to 'climate change', could a significant factor in the escalation of these events be that they are fueled from outgassing, and then possibly 'sparked' by an increase in atmospheric electric discharge events, such as lightning strikes and other 'cosmic' ignition sources?
Researchers are only beginning to understand the consequences.
A fire cloud, known as a pyrocumulonimbus cloud, or pyroCb, can generate thunder, lightning and tornado-force winds, as well as belch out burning embers — all of which can help spread already fast-moving fires.
© NASA
Bushfire smoke as seen near the International Space Station
Bushfire smoke as seen near the International Space Station
Massive infernos have raged along the nation's east coast for months, pushing smoke across the Pacific.
Nasa said plumes from blazes around New Year's Day had crossed South America, turning skies there hazy, and moved "halfway around Earth" by 8 January.
"The smoke is expected to make at least one full circuit around the globe," the US space agency said.
Hundreds of bushfires have burnt across Australia, killing at least 28 people and destroying more than 2,000 homes.
Comment: Athletes participating in the 2020 Australian Open are struggling to breathe in the hazardous conditions. One player was forced to abandon her match after a coughing fit :
© BBC
Taal volcano in Philippines 'goes electric' January 2020
Taal volcano in Philippines 'goes electric' January 2020
© Reuters / Gene Blevins
Speaking at the annual conference of the National Council for Science and the Environment in Washington D.C., Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science at the University of California, Berkeley, said that perhaps 20 to 25 percent of the wildfire damage resulted from climate change, whereas "75 percent is the way we manage lands and develop our landscape."
Stephens noted that in past centuries, wildfires were far more widespread than they are today, and played a vital role in California's ecosystem by helping to thin forests, Thomas Frank reported for E&E News.
© Lisa Maree Williams / Getty Images
A large plume of smoke is seen over a sheep property in the Parndana region on Kangaroo Island, Australia, on Thursday. Residents of the Kangaroo Island township of Parndana and Vivonne Bay have been told to evacuate as fire threatens both areas.
A large plume of smoke is seen over a sheep property in the Parndana region on Kangaroo Island, Australia, on Thursday. Residents of the Kangaroo Island township of Parndana and Vivonne Bay have been told to evacuate as fire threatens both areas.
Temperatures were expected to shoot well above 104 degrees Fahrenheit in several parts of the country Friday, accompanied by high winds, threatening to inflame fires that have already left thousands of people homeless.
"If you can get out, you should get out, you shouldn't be in the remote and forested parts of our State," Andrew Crisp, emergency management commissioner for the state of Victoria, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Emergency alert text messages had been sent to 240,000 people in Victoria state alone, telling them to leave, Crisp said. People in high-risk regions in New South Wales and South Australia states were also urged to think about leaving, but authorities had not provided numbers.
© Matthew Abbott / New York Times / Redux / eyevine
A kangaroo rushes past a burning house amid apocalyptic scenes in Conjola, New South Wales
A kangaroo rushes past a burning house amid apocalyptic scenes in Conjola, New South Wales
Comment: See also:
- Paul Joseph Watson: The Truth About the Australian Bushfires
- Climate change? Nearly 200 people arrested across Australia for deliberately starting bushfires
- 25 plus locations across south Australia have just suffered their coldest January days ever - Mainstream Media Silent
- Smoke and deception blanket Australia
- Crikey. Australian military preps for major evac operation from fire-ravaged Victoria
- Thousands trapped on Australian beach by massive wildfire, turning skies RED and raining embers
- 'Uncharted territory': Out-of-control bushfires rage across Australia's eastern regions
Flames bear down on Harrington, some 335kms northeast of Sydney, 8 Nov 2019
Comment: See also:
- Climate change? Nearly 200 people arrested across Australia for deliberately starting bushfires
- Ice Age Farmer Report: AUSTRALIA: Burned on the altar of global warming
- Smoke and deception blanket Australia
- Crikey. Australian military preps for major evac operation from fire-ravaged Victoria
- Thousands trapped on Australian beach by massive wildfire, turning skies RED and raining embers
- 'Uncharted territory': Out-of-control bushfires rage across Australia's eastern regions
Sources
Comment: See also: