Sure, but like Igor says, they’re either distractions — or those other factors would make them look bad, because they’ve also been mishandling policy on those f

Sure, but like Igor says, they’re either distractions — or those other factors would make them look bad, because they’ve also been mishandling policy on those fronts. So we are getting these feeble talking points attempting to blame fire on the policies of the Greens party (who have never held office), a cancelled dam project (which would have been built just in time to lie empty in the worst drought in the area’s history), and ... no joke ... “self-combusting manure.” It’s a sort of hapless denial / self-consistency thing they’ve trapped themselves in, to the point that the subject of climate change is taboo, and so is any adjustment to policy that would respond to it. It might not be in HN memory, but the guy who is currently PM came into the House cuddling a lump of coal not long ago. The factors driving these fires are of course manifold, but the warming climate is making most of them worse. Fire seasons are longer, the seasons when it’s safe to conduct fuel reduction burns are shorter. Rainfall is scarcer, winds are stronger and hotter. We’ve just had the four hottest days on record in the last week. But anything that might address those factors is climate-adjacent, and even risk-mitigation strategies can’t be discussed. The extremely permissive land clearing policies stay [1], the ruinous water management for the Murray-Darling river system that allows cotton farmers to pay peppercorn-rent for practically unlimited water while downstream towns run dry stays, firefighting resources are cut and / or left to volunteer crews. It’s pretty outrageous to refuse to acknowlege the major driver of severe fire conditions and try to blame flaming horse shit instead. Or comical, I don’t know any more. [1] Counterintuitively, clearing is worsening fire conditions https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/to-reduce-fire-risk-and-meet-climate-targets-over-300-scientists-call-for-stronger-land-clearing-laws-113172 https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/to-redu...