Epic Fail: Edited

 

This is a 'prescribed burn', the name of which would almost be amusing if the results weren't so tragic. Prescribed for what? Against what? Fear. This is a hot burn, carried out in summer - the 'prescribed' antidote for a collective fear that has taken hold of many, maybe the majority, of Australians. The expression of this fear is a type of psychological transference, not onto an individual, but onto the bush we claim to love so much. Fear of nature, fear of the wild, fear of chaos, fear of death. The antidote to being burnt in a wildfire is to burn the hell out of the country. 'Baby' and 'bathwater' spring to mind*.

Edit: In view of a reader's comments re the veracity of content, I have substituted the photo of burnt kangaroos on Kangaroo Island (as a result of wildfire) with this screen shot of a video posted on the Prescribed Burns? Facebook page by Nancy Jones on the 26 January 2021. This karda has had its back right foot burnt off. I have included Nancy's comments to provide context and validate the photo. I have also provided a link to the page so you can check the 2 videos for yourself - the screenshot is poor quality: 

'It appears Mersea forest was ignited last week and was the unattributed cause of the smoke warnings last week. The ignition was not listed on the site. So while fire fighters were dealing with lightening fires they were igniting this. I went today to see the damage. Found two injured giant lizards. One had a foot burned off. The other was having a hard time moving. This is not right . And to disguise it by putting up it was not being ignited when it was gives me great concern about why was it covered up?'

The PB? group has since ascertained that this fire was in fact a reignition by DBCA and we have email proof of that below. The author of the email was Michael Chan from DBCA:

Below is a map of the Walpole Wilderness. I Photoshopped it to better represent the truth. The tiny areas circled in green are the ONLY areas in this BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT, WORLD HERITAGE WILDERNESS that are protected from prescribed burning. That means the areas in orange can, and are, being burnt. Some of these include 6000 year old peat. This is irreplaceable. But the department responsible has continued to light fires in pockets of these peat grounds during summer. They edge burn around the perimeter, then drop incendiary fire bombs into the centre. If they find a pocket unburnt, they burn that too, which is counter to best practice where burning is carried out in a mosaic pattern (as Aboriginal people did) to maintain habitat and provide places for wildlife to escape. This department is intent on burning as much of the vegetation in some of these blocks as they can. FaBWA has email proof from the department themselves that they are lighting fires in summer, since 17 November to be precise. (Edit: See video of 2 injured kardas (racehorse goannas) - one with a back leg burnt off - limping along a bush track. There is no food for them to eat so they will probably, mercifully, die). 

Edit: One reader thought that the chart above was misleading, so I have provided the original below. Make up your own mind about the visual message this is sending, and whether the original map is actually the one misrepresenting the reality of the situation i.e. marking the areas in red seems to suggest these are the only areas being burnt, when in FACT, the remainder can, and IS being systematically burnt. And we have evidence of that too. THIS IS WILDERNESS FFS!!!!!! 

A WILDERNESS BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT.

And if you think I am using red deliberately, you'd be right.

If you think there is a note of impassioned frustration in my words you are correct. I am outraged. It's why I offered my graphic design services free to the recently formed FaBWA group (Fire & Biodiversity WA). This is madness. While we continue to argue about climate change policy in this stupid country, our forests and animals are burning and, because of the added effects of climate change, they are unlikely to return.

Our 'leaders' have failed us. Australia is one of the most vulnerable continents in a world facing radical climate change. We can't hold global warming to 1.5 degrees, which is already having a devastating effect. We are now looking at 2 degrees warming which will have catastrophic outcomes. This is what we are facing - this WILL be our future. 

Laura Tingle of the ABC's 7.30 report did a 5 minute interview with Dr Will Steffen - he's REALLY worried about this, and everyone else should be too.

'LAURA TINGLE: Finally, what would Australia look like with temperatures that were 3-degrees higher than they are now?

WILL STEFFEN: A 3-degree world is a pretty frightening one when you actually start looking at it in any detail.

Extreme heat would be beyond anything we're experiencing now. A lot of what we call "extreme heat" - between 35 and 40 - might be considered a cool day during a summer with a 3-degree temperature rise.

The Great Barrier Reef would be gone.

Forests would probably burn as soon as they grow back. In fact, we probably wouldn't have many forests - they would be converted to savannahs or grasslands.

The drought - the drying trend we're experiencing in the south-west and the south-east in our major agricultural zones - is very likely to be much more severe and that means we may become a food importer rather than exporter. It'll be really tough to grow the food that we need.

When you think about it, this is a world where you can actually plausibly say a collapse scenario could not be ruled out. This is going to be a really, really tough world just to live in, let alone survive in any sort of reasonable sense'.

Photo credits:

Bart Lebbing, FaBWA

Video screenshot taken from one of 2 videos posted by Nancy Jones on 26 January, 2021 on Prescribed Burns? Facebook page

Screen shot from a pdf of an email written by Michael Chan of DBCA to Karyn O'Connor in response to her queries about ongoing fires in the Walpole Wilderness over summer. Full pdf of exchange available on request.

Map - unsure of source, could be WAFA - WA Forest Alliance or DBCA. I have Photoshopped the top one to show that 95% of this wilderness hotspot has been approved for prescribed burns.

* 'Throwing the baby out with the bathwater' - when counter-productive actions deliver an undesired outcome.