Terry McGee

[Chiffed]

Hope you and yours stay safe. Sending hugs and 50 more badass firefighters from the Frozen North. Some are my old instructors, and I hope it helps.

I remember when I did wildland and interface firefighting training. I asked the instructor how this training ranked internationally.

"It's pretty good. Better than most in North America. Better than Europe."

"What about Australia?"

"They teach this to 12 year olds in Australia."

"Oh."

[chas]

Glad to hear you're okay, Terry.

[Terry McGee]

Hi, again all.

Still safe after a few more "interesting" days. Can confirm that flutemaking is more fun than fighting fires...

Had power on for a few hours - sheer luxury! - and even Internet briefly, but they've been taken out by another fire north of here. Sitting in the sports car on the side of a hill trying to scrabble up some mobile coverage, from goodness knows where!

Will be back in touch when able. Thanks for the thoughts.

Now what we need is a government worth a cracker...

[pmcallis]

Terry, it's good to hear that you're safe.
I surmise your last comment means you don't think your Prime Minister should have gone on vacation to Hawaii while his country was burning up? ...Just asking...
take care,
Paul

[Terry McGee]

Heh heh, the holiday in Hawaii was just symptomatic - total failure to comprehend and lead is the root problem. He's a marketing man, and thinks he can keep everyone fooled by employing marketing approaches. I believe and hope his luck has just run out.

Australia under this government has become an international pariah in terms of action on climate change. We have the highest per capita emissions in the world, and export 1/3 of the fossil fuels. While Britain's use of coal for power generation has fallen to 2%, New South Wales stands at around 75%. Yet we are blessed with all the renewable resources you could wish for - abundant sun, wind and waves for harvesting. And lots of room to put them.

I sense the smelly brown stuff has impacted upon the rapidly rotating air-redistribution machine, and we will see the Government dragged into having to listen to the experts and knuckle down to the serious work.

Now have power back on, hoping for phone today, but not sure of where we are at with Internet.

[PB+J]

Heh heh, the holiday in Hawaii was just symptomatic - total failure to comprehend and lead is the root problem. He's a marketing man, and thinks he can keep everyone fooled by employing marketing approaches. I believe and hope his luck has just run out.

Australia under this government has become an international pariah in terms of action on climate change. We have the highest per capita emissions in the world, and export 1/3 of the fossil fuels. While Britain's use of coal for power generation has fallen to 2%, New South Wales stands at around 75%. Yet we are blessed with all the renewable resources you could wish for - abundant sun, wind and waves for harvesting. And lots of room to put them.

I sense the smelly brown stuff has impacted upon the rapidly rotating air-redistribution machine, and we will see the Government dragged into having to listen to the experts and knuckle down to the serious work.

Now have power back on, hoping for phone today, but not sure of where we are at with Internet.

Well said! We here in the States need to get the same message

[Nanohedron]

Okay, guys: Cut it out or I'll turn this car around, drive right back home, and nobody gets any flutes. Then you'll have something to cry about.

[an seanduine]

Nice impersonation of the ´Adult in the room´, Nano

Bob

[pmcallis]

Thank you, Nano, for guiding us back from the cares of this world onto the path to true nirvana. Sometimes we lurch off the chosen path and need your subtle (or is that not-so-subtle) guidance.
Paul

[Nanohedron]

Nirvana, Shmirvana. These are especially trying times for us all, and no question, so keeping our focus is sometimes not so easy. I get that. But let's keep working at it.

[Terry McGee]

Hey, things are looking up. Still no comms (phone or Internet) at home, but I came across a pair of chaps replacing a 24 fibre cable near our exchange that burnt out during the fires. Could you believe it - this cable was down in a "pit" - a hole in the ground with a concrete cover, and it burned!

I'm down at the local emergency centre where the National Broadcasting Network is setting up a satellite based WiFi system. Just watching the dish on the top of their van locking into the location of the satellite....

Locked and loaded, and I'm in... so cool.

I think it's time to go home and restore the workshop to flute making mode. It's been very useful fixing fire hoses, back-pack sprays, sharpening the chainsaw chain, and other fire-fighting activities. Hope to be back with you all soon and talking flutes!

[jemtheflute]

That's great news, Terry. Glad you and yours are safe.

[Nanohedron]

Could you believe it - this cable was down in a "pit" - a hole in the ground with a concrete cover, and it burned!

Crazy.

I've seen film footage, but I had no real grasp of the scope of things until seeing a map of Australia with the hotspots marked out (this one gotten from Newsweek today, so I assume it's reasonably current):



That's beyond words.

[benhall.1]

Could you believe it - this cable was down in a "pit" - a hole in the ground with a concrete cover, and it burned!

Crazy.

I've seen film footage, but I had no real grasp of the scope of things until seeing a map of Australia with the hotspots marked out (this one gotten from Newsweek today, so I assume it's reasonably current):



That's beyond words.

Yes-s-s … not wishing to belittle anything, but maps like that one, which I think is from MyFireWatch, have been criticised for giving a misleading impression, when read out of context, of both the incidence and spread of the fires. The symbols give no indication of the size and spread of the fires, they reportedly contain data over a period of time, as opposed to a snapshot, and many of the original flags, even some of the red ones, were warning flags, not necessarily actual fires. Apparently, though I don't understand how this can be, quite a few of the flags on such maps are not fires - or even fire risks - at all, but simply areas which are hotter than their surroundings.

Now, I'm not there, have never been there, and am acutely aware of the trauma which must have been suffered by the people affected. Still, it does strike me that we should look at the real picture - which is bad enough. For instance, many newspaper reports said that half a billion animals had been killed by the fires. It actually turns out that this is based on an academic estimate that 480,000 mammals, birds and reptiles will, eventually, be affected by these fires (i.e. not necessarily killed).

I can see me getting flak for this, but it really isn't for lack of empathy. I simply think that, to deal with an issue, it's as well to know the facts of the issue rather than hyperbole.

In the worst hit area, New South Wales, it's reported that fires have affected almost five million hectares - that's about a fifth of the size of the UK. I can get to grips with that. It's bad. In total, the area so far burned by the fires is about 10.7m hectares, or about 1.4% of Australia's land mass. What I don't seem to be able to find out is how relatively populous the affected regions are (though of course there are other considerations).

[Tunborough]

Here's another perspective, perhaps more specific to fires. You can read the associated story here: https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/world/map ... -1.4755403. The area burned in Australia dwarfs the area burned in recent fires in the Amazon, California, or here in Canada.



From the corresponding map of current conditions, https://esrica-marketing.maps.arcgis.co ... 56&level=6, it looks like things have settled down some in NSW and Victoria, but still very active in Western Australia.

Terry, I wish you and your country well in trying times.