Comments on: How will the fires affect Victoria’s water supply?

By: skeptic

skeptic — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

conspiracy theory hysteria!

perlease... facts and figures, not emotive and inventive hypotheticals.

Lionel Elmore - Crikey's answer to Dan Brown, same approach, same talent, different coloured religion

By: fehowarth

fehowarth — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I am a little confused but after 12 years of drought, would not the so called fuel be reduced by nature. Grass and undergrowth needs water to grow. I know in my water starved garden, the lawn is brown but nearly non existent, most plants hardly surviving. My trees are losing a lot of their leaves. Weeding is not so much of a problem.

By: Venise Alstergren

Venise Alstergren — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Lionel: Please understand there is no way on earth that I would wish to be unkind to you. Not at all. But, I would like to ask you how much you’ve had to do with governments, especially state governments? The first thing a guilty government does is to call a royal commission. Also, it is the last thing they have any intention of listening to. They don’t like unpleasant truths.
Already the Brumby is busy covering the Bracks government’s backside, and by the first sitting the commission will have been totally nobbled. The greatest lie constantly invoked by any government is the three word phrase ‘A royal commission’. And you sound as if you are a bit shocked. It is easy to judge how corrupt a government is by the speed with which the royal commission is called.
I was brought up listening to stories about the Great Depression and about bushfires. It was a grim learning curve.
I believe all our previous bush -fires have been questioned by a so-called royal commission. The Ash Wednesday fires had some sort of inquiry. Please tell me the revolutionary steps taken to avoid another bushfire. Bugger all? Exactly. People don’t want to hear the truth. Don’t you realize that? Not even to save their own lives.
Anyway, I enjoy reading your articles. If I was a betting person I would offer you odds of 1000-1 against the state government doing anything.

By: Prophet of Gloom

Prophet of Gloom — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

This is an article which poses many difficult questions. Points to ponder: The Dwellingup bushfire in WA in 1961 burnt over 1.1 million hectares and displaced 500 people despite the prescribed burning programme. All fires release dangerous chemical emissions which contaminate ecosystems. Natural fires emit polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins, carbon monoxide carbon dioxide etc , destroying the carbon sinks of forests. The Victorian fires will have desecrated the biodiversity culminating in local extinctions.

When and if the Victorian drought breaks, shall we see that wet winters produce wet fuel, too damp to burn back in winter and too damp to burn back in spring?

Those homes and farms which have recently burnt down in Victoria will have released to air, soil and water, hazardous chemicals from pesticides, insecticides, synthetic compounds (such as plastics,) asbestos, paints, solvents, fuels, wood preservers etc. Those chemicals which are organic and persistent, such as endosulfan, have the potential to contaminate the entire food chain. Endosulfan is sprayed on fruit and vegetables in Australia but has been banned in more than 55 countries. Endosulfan is persistent and bioaccumulative. We shall pay the price for our economic management of this fragile environment.

With successive governments' penchant for increasing the population in these arid lands, we will see more encroachment into forests from residential development - more loss of biodiversity - more pressure on our fragile life sustaining resources.

Today' mass murderers are arsonists but tomorrow's mass murderers? Our economic Liberals who abuse our environment for:

"All things are bound together - all things connect!"