Multiple bushfires in the Clarence Valley began in August 2019.a bit further north, fires around the clarence valley pic.twitter.com/kQnZPsZ4wd— Nick Evershed (@NickEvershed) November 21, 2019
Showing posts with label New South Wales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New South Wales. Show all posts
Monday 25 November 2019
Map animation of fires in the NSW Northern Rivers region from 2 October to 20 November 2019
Labels:
bushfires,
climate change,
New South Wales,
Northern Rivers
Sunday 24 November 2019
In November 2019 NASA tracked smoke from NSW & Qld bushfires as far as the middle of the Pacific Ocean and beyond
NASA’s satellite instruments are often the first to detect wildfires burning in remote regions, and the locations of new fires are sent directly to land managers worldwide within hours of the satellite overpass. Together, NASA instruments detect actively burning fires, track the transport of smoke from fires, provide information for fire management, and map the extent of changes to ecosystems, based on the extent and severity of burn scars. NASA has a fleet of Earth-observing instruments, many of which contribute to our understanding of fire in the Earth system. Satellites in orbit around the poles provide observations of the entire planet several times per day, whereas satellites in a geostationary orbit provide coarse-resolution imagery of fires, smoke and clouds every five to 15 minutes. For more information visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/missions/index.html
Image possibly from 13 November 2019 fires.
NASA modelling has tracked black carbon travelling from Australia’s bush fires.— Greenpeace Aus Pac (@GreenpeaceAP) November 22, 2019
Black carbon is harmful to humans & it can accelerate ice melting. The thing about climate change is, the worse it gets – the worse it gets, creating feedback loops that speed up the #ClimateCrisis pic.twitter.com/keOrpZi2Od
Tuesday 19 November 2019
CLIMATE CHANGE: what can the NSW North Coast expect from 2020 onwards?
The NSW Baird Coalition Government's Dept. of Planning Industry and Environment published Climate Projections For NSW in November 2014.
It remains on the departmental website as current data.
Below are some of the mapping and observations within these Adapt NSW documents as they pertain to the NSW North Coast.
Given that:
a) Australia has already warmed by just over 1°C since 1910 with most of that warming occurring in the last 60 years;
b) in recent decades there has been the most sustained large-scale change in rainfall in the southern half of the continent since records began in 1900 and stream flows have been decreasing since the 1970s;
c) the number of high value Forest Fire Danger Index days have been increasing in recent decades; and
d) the number of bushfire days the North Coast has experienced since the August 2019 start of the fire season has resulted in well over 1 million hectares of forest and farmland being burned out;
add to this the fact that significant land loss in places like the Lower Clarence Valley is likely to begin at only a 0.5m rise above mean sea level and, possibly the Adapt NSW regionally specific projections need to be reworked to include Bureau of Meteorology/CSIRO data from 2014 onwards.
Perhaps then some uncomfortable questions can be resolved.
Is it possible that climate change is beginning to speed up across eastern Australia?
Is 2019 likely to be an anomaly which has no effect on the published climate change projections or is it the new norm and some of the 2020-2039 mapping is now just digital junk?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NSW North Coast 2020-2039 Change In Annual Average Number of Days With Temperatures
Greater Than 35 Degrees Celsius
By 2030 maximum temperatures are projected to rise by 0.7 ºC and continue to rise by 1.9 ºC by 2070.....By 2030 the North Coast is projected to experience an average of 3 more days above 35 ºC per year and continue to rise to 9 days per year by 2070.......Summer will see the greatest changes in maximum temperatures, increasing by 2.1°C in the far future.
NSW North Coast 2020-2039 Change In Average Rainfall
SPRING
SUMMER
In 2020-2039 rainfall is projected to decrease in winter [-6.1%] and to increase in autumn [+8.5%] and spring [+3.3%]. A raifall decrease of -2.8% is also predicted for summer rainfall.
NSW North Coast 2020-2039 Change In Forest Fire Danger Index
SPRING
SUMMER
The North Coast is expected to experience
an increase in severe and average FFDI
values in the near future and the far future. The increases are projected in summer and
spring. Although these
changes in severe fire weather are relatively
small in magnitude (up to one additional
day every two years) they are projected to
occur in prescribed burning periods (spring)
and the peak fire risk season (summer).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Labels:
climate change,
New South Wales,
NSW North Coast
Sunday 17 November 2019
Australian cardiologist Arnagretta Hunter: “On the coast of NSW this week we know there are more respiratory illnesses, heart attacks and strokes as a consequence of the terrible air pollution from the fires"
The Guardian, 14 November 2019:
Bushfire smoke blankets the morning sky in Glen Innes, NSW, on 11 November. Respiratory illnesses are rising as a result of air pollution from this week’s fires, cardiologist Arnagretta Hunter says following the release of the latest Countdown report on climate change and health worldwide. Photograph: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images
The federal government’s lack of engagement on health and climate change has left Australians at significant risk of illness through heat, fire and extreme weather events, and urgent national action is required to prevent harm and deaths, a global scientific collaboration has found.
On Thursday, international medical journal the Lancet published its Countdown report, a multi-institutional project led by University College in London that examines progress on climate change and health throughout the world.
Its first two assessments were published in 2017 and 2018, with annual assessments continuing until 2030, consistent with the near-term timeline of the Paris climate agreement. Findings relating to Australia were tracked and published by the Medical Journal of Australia.
Australia was assessed across 31 indicators divided into five broad sections: climate change impacts, exposures and vulnerability; adaptation, planning and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; finance and economics; and public and political engagement.
The report found that while there had been some progress at state and local government levels, “there continues to be no engagement on health and climate change in the Australian federal parliament, and Australia performs poorly across many of the indicators in comparison to other developed countries; for example, it is one of the world’s largest net exporters of coal and its electricity generation from low-carbon sources is low”.
“As a direct result of this failure, we conclude that Australia remains at significant risk of declines in health due to climate change, and that substantial and sustained national action is urgently required in order to prevent this … This work is urgent.”“We also find significantly increasing exposure of Australians to heatwaves and, in most states and territories, continuing elevated suicide rates at higher temperatures,” wrote the authors, led by Associate Professor Paul Beggs of Macquarie University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
Spokeswoman for Doctors for the Environment Australia, Dr Arnagretta Hunter, agreed Australia was poorly prepared for the health challenge of climate change.
“Doctors around Australia are already seeing multiple health effects from climate change,” Hunter, a cardiologist, said.
“On the coast of NSW this week we know there are more respiratory illnesses, heart attacks and strokes as a consequence of the terrible air pollution from the fires. Doctors see the mental health effects of drought in rural communities. Patterns of infectious diseases are changing.
“Average summer temperatures in Australia have risen by 1.66C in the past 20 years, with the intensity of heatwaves rising by a third. And with the increasing temperatures over summer we know there has been increased hospital admissions with ill health. Mortality rates are also affected.”“On the coast of NSW this week we know there are more respiratory illnesses, heart attacks and strokes as a consequence of the terrible air pollution from the fires. Doctors see the mental health effects of drought in rural communities. Patterns of infectious diseases are changing.
In 2014, Melbourne experienced temperatures over 41C from 14 to 17 January, as well as 167 excess deaths and a new record set for the highest number of calls for ambulance services ever received in a day, she said. Hunter described Australia as the developed country with the most serious vulnerability to climate change through heat, fire, water shortages and extreme weather events.
“Doctors for the Environment Australia joins the loud chorus across Australia calling for the federal government to acknowledge the risk and act in proportion to the magnitude of the threat,” she said. [my yellow highlighting]Read the full article here.
The 2019 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change, 13 November 2019, can be found here.
Labels:
Australia,
bushfires,
climate change,
drought,
health,
New South Wales
Thursday 14 November 2019
Australian Politics 2019: bushfire blame shifting is a tedious business which is intended to distract the electorate from considering the impacts of climate change
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Australia's
climate has warmed just over 1 °C since 1910 leading to an increase
in the frequency of extreme heat events….There
has been a decline of around 11 per cent in April–October rainfall
in the southeast of Australia since the late 1990s….There has been
a long-term increase in extreme fire weather, and in the length of
the fire season, across large parts of Australia….The year-to-year
changes in Australia’s climate are mostly associated with natural
climate variability such as El Niño and La Niña in the tropical
Pacific Ocean and phases of the Indian Ocean Dipole in the Indian
Ocean. This natural variability now occurs on top of the warming
trend, which can modify the impact of these natural drivers on the
Australian climate.” [Australian
Bureau of Meteorology, State
of the Climate 2018]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On
the morning of 13 November 2017 New South Wales awoke to a state
still under siege from climate change
and drought
induced bushfires.
The
NSW
Rural Fire Service
reported 79
fires at 4.13am, with 4 at Emergency
Warning
level (out of control), 12 at Watch
And Act
level
and
50 at Advice
level.
The
largest Emergency
fire
was
in the Clarence
Valley
local government area (148,120 hectares), largest Watch
And Act
fire in Kempsey local government area (223,047
hectares) and largest Advice fire in Armidale local government area (113,900
hectares).
Thankfully, changing weather conditions over the day saw the Emergency Warnings reduced to Watch And Act and the number of serious fires reduced to 69 sites.
Thankfully, changing weather conditions over the day saw the Emergency Warnings reduced to Watch And Act and the number of serious fires reduced to 69 sites.
What
the general public also awoke to that morning was a continuing
attempt to blame shift on the part of federal and state Liberal and
Nationals politicians.
They
quickly focused on NSW
hazard
reduction rules – conveniently forgetting that it was Liberal-Nationals
Coalition state governments which last amended the relevant
legislation.
They
blamed the National
Parks and Wildlife Service and
the
Australian Greens political party, - shockingly in one instance it
was
even implied that
victims of these fires were themselves
to blame
because
they likely voted for the Greens.
In this they have been aided and abetted by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp metropolitan and regional newspaper empire as well as members of that climate change denying lobby group the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).
In this they have been aided and abetted by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp metropolitan and regional newspaper empire as well as members of that climate change denying lobby group the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).
What
these
rightwing politicians
refuse to publicly admit is that in
Australia climate
change is intensifying heat, reducing
rainfall, increasing water
evaporation rates, raising
the severity levels
of drought,
lengthening
fire seasons
and
causing bushfires to morph into mega fires.
Nor
would these politicians admit that since 2013 the national response to
climate change has
become insufficient for the scale of problems now
facing
the country.
Here
is how media is presenting this issue. Leading the pack is a News Corp journalist who happens to also be an enthusiastic climate change denier…...
The Daily Telegraph, 13 November 2019, p.13:
The Guardian, 13 November 2019:
SBS
News, 12 November 2019:
The Daily Telegraph, 13 November 2019, p.13:
For eighty years, inquiries have found reducing hazards is the best, most immediate way to prevent bush fires, but green policies have led us to learned helplessness
Even a hippie in Nimbin knows that greenies are to blame for the power and intensity of NSW’s latest bout of tragic bushfires.
“The Greens have to cop it on the head — they have been obsessed with no fires and no burning,” Michael Balderstone told the Australian as bushfires engulfed the north coast.
Wiser words have never been spoken in that Northern Rivers town. Yet Greens leader Richard Di Natale and Melbourne MP Adam Bandt still insist that the culprit is climate change.
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. They oppose any sensible land management that is proven to reduce the severity of routine regular summer bushfires.
And when the inevitable happens they blame climate change.
Their aim is to scare people into buying their climate “emergency” hyperbole so that government is under pressure to enact suicidal policies which drive electricity prices through the roof.
But it is not climate change which turns fires into unstoppable lethal infernos. It is green ideology which blocks removal of fuel loads in national parks and prevents landholders from clearing fire hazards around their homes.The Guardian, 13 November 2019:
Bureaucrats
from the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment were
sent an email soon after the AdaptNSW 2019 Forum began, causing
consternation among some attendees who saw it as tantamount to
gagging them.
The
email said: “For those attending AdaptNSW today, public affairs has
issued advice not to discuss the link between climate change and
bushfires.
“Refer
questions in session and plenaries to bushfire reps.”
What
are the links between climate change and bushfires? – explainer
Read
more
Former
NSW fire commissioner Greg Mullins was one of the attendees.
But
the participants also included scientists and experts who are
developing policy and advising the Berejiklian government on adaption
measures the state could take in relation to land use, planning and
dealing with the risk of bushfires.
What does the science say?
The overwhelming scientific consensus is that Australia's fire season is growing longer and more intense due to the effects of climate change.
The overwhelming scientific consensus is that Australia's fire season is growing longer and more intense due to the effects of climate change.
The
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) stated
in a report last year that Australia's climate has warmed just
over 1°C since 1910.
The
report said climate change has seen an increase in extreme heat
events and increased the severity of natural disasters, such as
drought.
"There
has been a long-term increase in extreme fire weather and in the
length of the fire season across large parts of Australia since the
1950s ... Climate change, including increasing temperatures, is
contributing to these changes," it said.
Some
in the federal government have attributed the increased risk on
newly-imposed restrictions on hazard reduction burning -
low-intensity burns to remove vegetation so bush or grass fires are
less intense.
It
is different to backburning, which specifically refers to the
starting of small, controlled fires in the path of a bushfire to
reduce the amount of fuel available……
Are hazard reduction restrictions to blame?
Are hazard reduction restrictions to blame?
Some
in the federal government have attributed the increased risk on
newly-imposed restrictions on hazard reduction burning -
low-intensity burns to remove vegetation so bush or grass fires are
less intense.
It
is different to backburning, which specifically refers to the
starting of small, controlled fires in the path of a bushfire to
reduce the amount of fuel available.
But David Bowman, director of the Fire Centre Research Hub at the University of Tasmania, said restrictions on hazard reductions are not entirely to blame.
But David Bowman, director of the Fire Centre Research Hub at the University of Tasmania, said restrictions on hazard reductions are not entirely to blame.
"At
the very core, we have a climate signal. There's extreme drought,
extreme fire weather conditions - fire weather that you would expect
in summer, not in spring,” he told the ABC on Monday.
"Yes,
there is a role for managing fuels with hazard reduction burning -
but would hazard reduction burning programs on their own stem this
fire crisis? No, absolutely not."
What
can we expect now?
The
BOM said 2017 and 2018 were Australia's third and fourth-hottest
years on record.
In
April, a
group 23 former fire chiefs warned climate change is worsening
extreme weather and putting people in danger.
In
September, the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research
Centre (BNHCRC) released
its annual seasonal bushfire outlook, describing the east coast
of Australia as having "above normal fire potential".
"What
all the evidence is showing us (is) that the temperature is sitting
about one degree above long-term averages. That is leading to a much
earlier start fire season around the world. That is internationally
noted,” BNHCRC CEO Richard Thornton said.
"We
are also seeing the cumulative amount of fire danger during a fire
season going up - the time between these really extreme fire years
will get shorter and shorter and shorter.
"We
will see these conditions come around more frequently."
The
Guardian,
12
November 2019:
So
what are the claims?
The
chief accuser is Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce who says “greens
policy” gets in the way “of many of the practicalities of
fighting a fire and managing it”.
Among
Joyce’s claims, made in several interviews this week, are that
Greens policies have made hazard reduction activities more difficult.
This
claim, just to be clear, is about the policies of a party that has
never been in government.
Joyce
also blamed the Greens for “paperwork” that made it harder to
carry out hazard reduction activities….
“It’s
not burning because they burnt off, it’s burning because they
didn’t burn off,” Joyce told SkyNews.
According
to Bradstock, Joyce’s claims are familiar but “without
foundation.”
“It’s
simply conspiracy stuff. It’s an obvious attempt to deflect the
conversation away from climate change.”
A
former NSW fire and rescue commissioner, Greg Mullins, has written
this week that the hotter and drier conditions, and the higher fire
danger ratings, were preventing agencies from carrying out prescribed
burning.
He
said: “Blaming ‘greenies’ for stopping these important measures
is a familiar, populist, but basically untrue claim.”
The
Australian, 12 November 2019:
A
fierce feud has ignited between NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro and
the National Parks and Wildlife Service following revelations the
number of rangers, who perform hazard reduction burns, has been cut
by a third since the Coalition came to power in 2011.
The
Public Service Association has accused Mr Barilaro of gross hypocrisy
after the Deputy Premier blamed the department for contributing to
the state’s catastrophic fire conditions by failing to carry out
extensive hazard reduction in the lead-up to bushfire season,
labelling his comments “worse than an insult”.
Apart
from last financial year, the NPWS has not met its annual hazard
reduction target of 135,000ha since 2016.
PSA
industrial manager Nathan Bradshaw blamed the failure to meet targets
on severe cuts to staffing levels, saying that since 2011, the
department’s 289 rangers, including 28 senior rangers, had been
trimmed to 193.
Following
a restructure in 2017, the NPWS’s number of area managers was cut
from 50 to 37, he said.
Mr
Bradshaw said the Office of Environment and Heritage’s budget had
been further depleted by $80m this year, and the NPWS was absorbing
part of the cut.
He
said the cutbacks had directly affected the department’s ability to
operate efficiently.
In
2012-13, the NPWS was involved in 208,000ha of hazard reduction; in
2016-17, that was just 88,136ha, and just 95,589ha in 2017-18.
However, the government said the amount of hazard reduction had
increased in 2018-19, with “NPWS undertaking 137,500ha of
prescribed burns, which is above its target of 135,000ha”.
Crikey, 12 November 2019:
Crikey, 12 November 2019:
A new report has found Australia’s response to climate change is among the worst in the G20, noting a lack of policy, reliance on fossil fuels and rising emissions, The Guardian reports.
As politicians argue over whether the “unprecedented” bushfires ravaging NSW are linked to climate change — or whether it’s appropriate to bring it up at all — the latest Brown to Green Report ranked Australia third-worst in terms of progress toward meeting its Paris goals. The report states Australia is not even on track to meet its “insufficient” 2030 targets, and highlights a poor response on deforestation, transport, energy supply and carbon pricing. The international report was compiled by 14 NGOs, thinktanks and research institutes.
A STATE OF EMERGENCY
About 600 schools will be closed across NSW today, with a week-long state of emergency declared, as the east coast braces for an unprecedented and “catastrophic” fire risk, the ABC reports.
More than 60 bushfires continue to burn across the state, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting “hot, dry and gusty winds” that “will generate very dangerous fire conditions”. The NSW Rural Fire Service is warning that firefighters will not be able to help everybody if a fire takes hold, releasing a statement declaring “if you call for help, you may not get it”. NSW RFS deputy commissioner Rob Rogers says the situation is worse than he could have imagined, telling reporters: “If someone came to me and said ‘let’s do one of the scenario role-plays’, I would be saying, ‘let’s try to keep this a bit more realistic’”.
BACKGROUND
NSW
Rural Fire Service (NSWRFS), Hazard Reduction Standards:
Standards
for Asset Protection Zones.pdf (PDF, 471.8 KB)
Standards
for Pile Burning.pdf (PDF, 1.4 MB)
Standards
for Windrow Burning.pdf (PDF, 141.8 KB)
Fire
Trail Standards.pdf (PDF, 5.6 MB)
Terms used by NSWRFS:
Terms used by NSWRFS:
Emergency
Warning: An Emergency Warning is the highest level of
Bush Fire Alert. You may be in danger and need to take action
immediately. Any delay now puts your life at risk.
Watch
and Act: There is a heightened level of threat.
Conditions are changing and you need to start taking action now to
protect you and your family.
Advice:
A fire has started. There is no immediate danger. Stay up to date in
case the situation changes.
Labels:
bushfires,
climate change,
drought,
lies and lying,
media,
New South Wales
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