Viv Forbes, Chairman, Re-build Muscle not Flab
In order to kill Corona-wasps in the ceiling, politicians have knocked our economic house down. Now they dream of rebuilding the house by driving at full speed into the borrow-and-spend swamp.
National Cabinet will soon find that Australia-after-Corona can’t afford a bloated public service, an overmanned and overpaid academia, throngs of able-bodied people on long-term welfare, too many tax-exempt foundations, endless donations to worthless UN fiefdoms and talk-fests, and a huge import bill to pay for all the things we once made here.
Nor can we afford all the resources being wasted on dysfunctional submarines designed in Canberra, power systems mandated by the UN, Snowy 2 Green elephants, climate alarmism, emissions targets and green energy molly-coddling.
We must re-build economic muscle not flab.
- Thursday, April 23, 2020
The Landscape and wildlife of Australia was shaped and then maintained by frequent mild burning for at least 40,000 years. This reality must be recognised and it dictates that there are only two futures for Australia:
Australian Fire-lighters come in six colours – yellow, black, white, blood red, dark green, and light green. All are relevant to bushfires and forest management.
“Yellow” is the Fire-lighter that has been with us forever. It is the yellow flash of lightning which has always ignited the Australian bush. We’re dreaming to think we can lock yellow fire out of parks, forests and heritage areas. But good forest management can reduce the ferocity and destruction of lightning-strike fires.
“Black” Fire-lighters came with the first Australians. Without matches or tinder boxes they probably captured the fire genie from a lightning fire. Or they carried it here on clay hearths on the floor of their canoes. They valued this magic tool for warmth, cooking, insect control, vegetation clearing, animal trapping and fighting enemies.
Politicians hide behind enquiries – their magic answer to all problems, especially bushfires.
Announcing enquiries give the impression of decisive action, they generate fees for armies of barristers, lawyers and bureaucrats, and provide momentary excitement for the media.
The proposed 2020 Australian Bushfires corrobboree will provide a grandstand for the Climate Rebellion Mob who will get starring roles on ABC/Fairfax. Big business willprobably propose a carbon tax to fight bushfires while foresters and land owners will hardly be heard.
Green Folly locked up 11% of Australia in a tinder-box of bushfire fuel, much of which is now burnt or burning.
There was a time when Australian foresters kept Australian forests safe and productive. They maintained access tracks, bridges and fire breaks, undertook prescribed burning, cleared flammable litter from the forest floor, cut suckers, manned fire lookouts and maintained their own fire-fighting crews in decentralised districts. University-trained professional foresters were supported by tough experienced rangers who learned their job in the bush.
The Fire-lighter was the most powerful tool that early humans brought to Australia.
Fires lit by aboriginal men and women created the landscape of Australia. They used fire to create and fertilise fresh new grass for the grazing animals that they hunted, to trap and roast grass dwelling reptiles and rodents, to fight enemies, to send smoke signals, to fell dead trees for camp fires, to ward off frosts and biting insects, and for religious and cultural ceremonies. Their fires created and maintained grasslands and open forests and extinguished all flora and fauna unable to cope with frequent burn-offs.
Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927) was a Swedish scientist who first claimed that the burning of hydro-carbons like coal, oil, gas, peat and wood may cause global warming.
In 1895 he calculated (incorrectly) that a doubling of the atmospheric CO2 concentration would lead to a 4-5o C rise in global temperature.
However, Arrhenius suggested that this increase could be beneficial, making the various climates on Earth “more equable" and stimulating plant growth and food production.
Too many recent headlines say: “A fierce new bushfire is burning in the XYZ National Park. Nearby residents should prepare to evacuate.”
Neglected, overgrown, weed and log infested, un-grazed, unburnt, government-protected parkland is a danger to all neighbours. All it needs is a fire-bug, a fearful neighbour attempting a too-late back-burn, or a lightning strike, and a wildfire is inevitable, especially when the weather is hot, dry and windy. Wild-fires will not stay in their National Park.
Never before in Australia’s long history of black and white occupation have such large areas of bush been quarantined from annual burn-offs, cultivation, slashing or grazing.
In a furious firestorm with high winds, extreme temperature and big loads of dry fuel, water bombing is usually just wasting water and avgas. In hot winds, water will evaporate quickly, embers will start glowing and blowing, and soon the fire will be raging again.
No one should be surprised that our bush is ablaze and our cities are smothered in smoke.
For decades now we have been locking up land, banning burn-offs and encouraging eucalyptus fire-trees.
On a hot day, the blue haze on distant timbered hills is caused by highly-flammable eucalyptus oil vapour, waiting for a spark.
Leaders of the Clintel Group of world scientists and professionals will attend the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) which starts in Madrid today (2 December) and runs for twelve long days. (The Climate Summit was shifted suddenly to Spain after Chile cancelled because of violent riots in Santiago.)
Clintel will present their “No Climate Emergency” petition at the Climate Reality Forum. This petition has already been presented to the UN Secretary General, the European Commission and the European Parliament.
Voting on a motion promoting a climate emergency declaration (in opposition to the Clintel statement), over one third of the members of the EU Parliament voted for “No Climate Emergency”. This shows there is a significant opposition to alarmism, even in the EU.
In the era before coal, oil and electricity, the environment suffered greatly.
Whales were slaughtered for lamp oil; forests were cleared for firewood, mine props, building materials, roofing shingles and sailing masts; London (“The Big Smoke”) and Pittsburgh (“The Smoky City”) were smothered in smog from open fires, charcoal kilns and iron smelters; horses powered public and military transport and city streets were layered with horse manure.
Listen carefully to a typical bush-fire warning: “A big fire in the XYZ National Park is now threatening adjacent homes and farms”.
For decades now politicians have been recklessly locking up more land in National Parks, Reserves and Heritage Areas. There are now over 500 national parks covering over 11% of Australia.
In addition to this huge area of nationalised parks, the Howard government, in cahoots with compliant States, created untouchable Kyoto forests on private land in order to meet silly carbon dioxide obligations imposed by the Kyoto Protocol. This conversion of private grazing land to protected “Kyoto Forest” was accelerated by state government tree-huggers who used aerial surveillance to identify “remnant vegetation” and “regrowth areas” on private land which were then subjected to preservation orders (without ground checking or discussions). Graziers were also prohibited from harvesting timber on their own land. Then some greedy landowners created private plantations of eucalypts to earn credits from carbon fairies in Canberra. This vast area of “protected” land soon became a tinder box of unburnt weeds and flammable scrub.
The Saltbush Club today called for the immediate resignation of Mr. David Littleproud from his position as Minister for Water on the grounds of incompetence in his management of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority.
The call was made by Mr Ron Pike, the Saltbush Club Water Adviser with a lifetime of experience and information on Murray Darling Basin water supply, storage and use.