TonyP Loc: New Zealand

Australian bush fire season.
The 2019–20 Australian bush fire season has burned an estimated 5,900,000 hectares (15,000,000 acres).
That's more than in any one year in the US since Harry Truman was president.
Destroyed over 2,500 buildings (including over 1,300 houses) and killed at least 24 people, with a further 28 missing in the state of Victoria.
And over 100 wildfires are still out of control. https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/118588071/two-dead-in-bushfire-on-south-australias-kangaroo-island

Climate change, global warming?
Whatever the label, we need to acknowledge things arent what they used to be.

dancers Loc: melbourne.victoria, australia

I read today that our Aussie fires are worse than the Amazon and the Californian fires. combined............and worse is yet to come. 480 million wild animals and birds dead so far. the stuff of nightmares.

Bob Mevis Loc: Plymouth, Indiana

I pray for the Australians.

Swamp-Cork Loc: Lanexa, Virginia

So very sad and definitely in our prayers!

cascoly Loc: seattle

prayers won't do anything - we need to get rid of the troglodyte climate deniers in govts that prevent positive actions to control the rate of climate change - the paris protocols were a decent start until trump sabotaged it by pulling out unilaterally.

Apocalypse Becomes the New Normal :

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/02/opinion/climate-change-australia.html

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Prayers and best wishes to them.

Besides the very hot dry windy weather Australia is also handicapped by a small population in relationship to the land area. And that means fewer firefighters and less equipment. The fire fighters announced as going there from the US and other places will help but they really need hundreds if not thousands with gear. To include water bombers, dozers etc. And all that takes time and money.

I am not sure how the system for prison trustees who train and fight fires here in California and other places works but due to our huge prison population - many for "possession" and other relatively low level offenses - I would be in favor of training hundreds more to fight brush/forest/grass fires and use military transport to get them to our friends and allies who need the help. Let them earn 2x to 4x the days off their sentences for each day fighting fire or disaster relief and increase it if they qualify for advanced skills in many types of disasters and ways to help people - heavy equipment operation, EMT etc. They gain skills and earn respect, get time earned, maybe even turn their lives around through becoming emergency respondents. Perhaps run it through the Army Corps of Engineers and/or Navy Seabees. Even have provision for those who do well to transition to the regular military or jobs with the Forest Service and Parks Department - federal or state.

And people and nations get help they desperately need.

I know if I was a young healthy prisoner or in court about to be sentenced I would rather train as an emergency respondent for disasters like floods, fires and earthquakes and go do some good. Being seen as a rescuer and hero beats sitting in prison any day.

I would even go so far as to let those with some types of nonviolent felonies earn their full rights back through something like this.

After all it has often been done with young offenders being told "Jail or the military". I trained with one in 1966 - caught joy riding in someone's car- his slightly older brother-in-law who enlisted for the GI Bill to go to college had a contract with the Army that the two of them would train together and be stationed together. Sort of a built in minder to help keep him on the straight and narrow. The older guy's wife had told him "Take care of my baby brother." Well I think he said it was "...idiot baby brother."

TonyP Loc: New Zealand

Some good ideas there Robert.
New Zealand has sent about 180 qualified firefighters over and I think the US has sent some along with others from other countries. But I think they also need more heavy equipment such as fire bombing planes etc. Not easy to get at a moments notice.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I know one company has a 747 water bomber that has deployed to at least 3 continents that I know of from an article a while back.

Bill 45

You say it all, I still waiting to hear back from a friend of my, who live in NSW. What would trump do if a bad brush fire hit one of his golf place?

SteveR Loc: Michigan

An Australian photograper has been alerting me to the dire conditions in Australia for months. Amazing that the U.S. media is just now picking up on it.

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

Okay, let's try to figure out how we can blame PRESIDENT Trump for the fires in Australia. Oh wait, apparently you two idiots already have. Let's see what else we can blame him for.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Revelation 9 predicts that 1/3rd of mankind will be killed during the Tribulation by fire, smoke and sulfur. Could it be that we're in times leading up to the Tribulation? Could global warming be part of the judgment of the Tribulaton?

TonyP Loc: New Zealand

Maybe if your President had a better childhood education he might understand how 'our' environment actually works. Stuff like the weather and carbon. Stuff like that. His continuing attempts at rolling back everything that Obama achieved is just silly.
e.g Coal policy https://www.ft.com/content/0da01384-92b0-11e9-aea1-2b1d33ac3271 (“He’s trying to bring coal back,” said Mr Schneider.
“This requires an investment in old, dirty coal plants, so they can run more, so the mining companies can sell more coal.”)

And the New York Times headline explains how your President seems it is his call to bring the world closer to a war that will affect us all. As Tensions With Iran Escalated, Trump Opted for Most Extreme Measure.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/04/us/politics/trump-suleimani.html?login=email&auth=login-email

Your beautiful country, under the rule of this ill educated maniac, who is only interested in how many dollars he can skim off in to his own pocket, is making America a pariah in the eyes of the international community.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

The U.S. has a fairly small carbon footprint compared to places like China and India. Bringing back coal had more to do with poverty in Appalachia than the use of coal.

Iran has been highly provocative. After it was responsible for the death of a U.S. contractor, the U.S. knocked out Iranian weapons storage sites in Iraq. Now what do you suppose those were meant for. They responded by ordering an attack on the U.S. embassy. Trump responded by taking out the individual orchestrating much of this. It began with Iran and they decided to continue to escalate. Don't blame Trump for not being a wuss like Obama. However, look at where we are compared to the beginning of his Presidency. We are in a much more peaceful situation that what Obama left him. Isis was on page one. It's not today. Afghanistan is dying down, although we still lose men on a regular basis. Trump is determined to keep Iran in check, which they understand. These skirmishes don't mean war. They mean we don't back down to bullies and thugs.

cascoly Loc: seattle

first, no need for ad hominem attacks - but since you have no ACTUAL response, guess name-calling's the best you can do

trump IS responsible for making climate change worse, as are all the other right wingers who refuse to accept the SCIENCE showing human caused climate change. TRUMP's unilateral decision to pull out from paris accords; his gutting of EPA, NOAH and other science agencies; his cutting of regulations for coal oil, et al, ALL place a significant part of the blame at his feet; and it's only going to get worse