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Humphreys posted:
Her name is Celeste Barber and everyone should follow her instagram @celestebarber because she's loving hilarious. Also because we all need some humorous interludes to help lift spirits during this disaster.
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Jan 6, 2020 21:13
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Oddly enough the smoke in Melbourne is supposed to be coming from the Tasmanian wildfires rather than the closer ones to the east. weird.
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Jan 6, 2020 21:15
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Synthbuttrange posted:Oddly enough the smoke in Melbourne is supposed to be coming from the Tasmanian wildfires rather than the closer ones to the east. weird. Yeah I was wondering if it was Tassie or SA as usually the weather doesn't travel to Melbourne from the east.
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Jan 6, 2020 22:25
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Synthbuttrange posted:Oddly enough the smoke in Melbourne is supposed to be coming from the Tasmanian wildfires rather than the closer ones to the east. weird. EPA says it's both. https://www.epa.vic.gov.au/for-community/airwatch E: well, it says Tasmania and Gippsland
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Jan 6, 2020 22:36
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Over the weekend Melbourne was copping smoke from the Gippsland fires, as it was being pushed down into Bass Strait by NE winds, and then getting picked back up by the SW winds that came with the change. I saw a cool gif somewhere on twitter, I'll see if I can find it again.
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Jan 6, 2020 22:37
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ah so the smoke took a detour
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Jan 6, 2020 23:40
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Looks like the train line out to Lithgow will be hosed for another couple of months at the very least after the fires destroyed most of the signaling equipment. It’s also both windy and raining today so I don’t think they’ll be getting anymore backburning completed today. Hopefully they get it completed before the temperature kicks off again on Friday.
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Jan 6, 2020 23:51
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https://twitter.com/paragenetics/status/1214231892691738626
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Jan 6, 2020 23:58
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Jfc are those larger animals kangaroos?
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Jan 7, 2020 00:02
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Synthbuttrange posted:ah so the smoke took a detour https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/australian-bushfire-cloud-visible-in-chile-and-argentina.phtml https://twitter.com/jjbarriac/status/1214283784004292608
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Jan 7, 2020 00:05
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Burt Sexual posted:Jfc are those larger animals kangaroos? 
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Jan 7, 2020 00:05
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Burt Sexual posted:Jfc are those larger animals kangaroos? I think it's livestock, cows, as there have been articles about how farmers are having to quickly dispose of their dead animals for biosecurity reasons. There could well be kangaroos there too though. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-06/dead-animals-bushfire-biosecurity-emergency/11843428 Helith fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Jan 7, 2020 |
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Jan 7, 2020 00:12
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good thing we have wedgetail eagles to help dispose of the carrion- oh, sorry, the farmers poisoned them all good thing we have dingos to h- oh oh well at least we still have crows
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Jan 7, 2020 00:22
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Australia burns - in photos
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Jan 7, 2020 00:26
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nankeen posted:good thing we have wedgetail eagles to help dispose of the carrion- oh, sorry, the farmers poisoned them all A feast for crows.
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Jan 7, 2020 00:27
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How do Australians feel about the focus on animals suffering/dying compared to people? I feel like it's getting a lot of play in the international media and on social media, and it is indeed horrific, but is there at all a feeling of "yes, it's sad about the koalas but also people are dying and lives are being destroyed, could we talk about that?"
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Jan 7, 2020 00:28
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Burt Sexual posted:I can move this back to gbs, op. Just give me the signal. Interesting that dnd had 80 more browsers than gbs when I checked this am though. Aye that's why I shifted it in the first place. I consistently saw more browsing D&D than GBS. 
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Jan 7, 2020 00:32
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PT6A posted:How do Australians feel about the focus on animals suffering/dying compared to people? I feel like it's getting a lot of play in the international media and on social media, and it is indeed horrific, but is there at all a feeling of "yes, it's sad about the koalas but also people are dying and lives are being destroyed, could we talk about that?" Personally? It's sad that people have died. It always is when people die in avoidable tragedy. However I'm conscious of the fact that these burns are destroying unprecedented amounts of land and weakening ecosystems. The consequences are more far reaching than the current human body count. It's also a matter of perspective. Yes, some people have died, however it's relatively few compared to the hundreds killed a few years ago, so the "lives lost" component feels smaller this time... For now.
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Jan 7, 2020 00:37
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Picture of Roos dancing in the rain for good vibes
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Jan 7, 2020 00:38
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PT6A posted:How do Australians feel about the focus on animals suffering/dying compared to people? I feel like it's getting a lot of play in the international media and on social media, and it is indeed horrific, but is there at all a feeling of "yes, it's sad about the koalas but also people are dying and lives are being destroyed, could we talk about that?" I feel that in the media I read that it's been about equal, maybe even a little more focused on people at the start of the crisis. I think more articles are starting to appear on the animal causalities because we are in a quiet period for the fires for a few days and people are actually being able to get into those areas and are now finding the animals.
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Jan 7, 2020 00:38
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I don’t think the animals vs people thing is exclusionary either. Most people who live here, even the vicious dumb cruel ones, have a base respect for the insane ecosystems and flora/fauna here, even if they cull Roos to protect wheat farms, a certain kind of fuckhead Australian is still likely possessing some kind of credibly human-like awe of their existence.
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Jan 7, 2020 00:44
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Carth Dookie posted:Personally? It's sad that people have died. It always is when people die in avoidable tragedy. However I'm conscious of the fact that these burns are destroying unprecedented amounts of land and weakening ecosystems. The consequences are more far reaching than the current human body count. It's also a matter of perspective. Yes, some people have died, however it's relatively few compared to the hundreds killed a few years ago, so the "lives lost" component feels smaller this time... For now. Yeah, I feel the same way. It's a catastrophic event for the ecosystems and for a lot of unique and beloved species that are uniquely Australian, and thinking of all the animals who are caught up in this makes me very sad, I was just wondering as a foreigner if "Oh look at the poor exhausted little koala begging water from a cyclist, that's so sad! Also some guy's house burned down but he's got insurance, hasn't he?" was a major rear end in a top hat move on my part. Obviously the impacts to both people and wildlife/ecosystems are awful and I wouldn't want to diminish either one.
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Jan 7, 2020 00:48
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I still vividly remember the picture of a dude carrying a Joey through floodwater in 2011 and remember thinking it was so cool and it evoked a lot of sentiments similar to those in my above post and then it turned out he worked for a trucking company (road freight being disrupted by smacking into big packs of Roos is a major reason for the push to keep their numbers under control in a lot of non coastal areas) and his life and career was ruined bc of it so take my optimism with a grain of salt, or at least being representative of a very superficial ‘love’ for animals imo
Jezza of OZPOS fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Jan 7, 2020 |
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Jan 7, 2020 00:49
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Helith posted:I feel that in the media I read that it's been about equal, maybe even a little more focused on people at the start of the crisis. I'm feeling it's this. A lot of focus is on the number of displaced persons a number of which have quite literally lost everything. But now RDA teams are getting into burnout areas they can see the animals. The other scary part of course is the people still listed as Missing. They will start finding them too.
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Jan 7, 2020 00:50
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PT6A posted:How do Australians feel about the focus on animals suffering/dying compared to people? I feel like it's getting a lot of play in the international media and on social media, and it is indeed horrific, but is there at all a feeling of "yes, it's sad about the koalas but also people are dying and lives are being destroyed, could we talk about that?" While it's terrible that people have lost their lives in these fires, we as a species can and will rebuild. Also human life losses have been mercifully low compared to historical bushfires - Black Saturday resulted in 180 fatalities. On the other hand, there is a very real chance that the fires could seriously deplete our native fauna. Koalas are already functionally extinct, and with the isolated population on Kangaroo Island suffering severe losses, there's a good chance they may never recover. The other part of this is the damage to property and infrastructure, which may not be getting as much coverage overseas but it gets talked about quite a bit over here. The federal government recently announced they'd tip in an extra $2 billion for disaster recovery, which I guess is what they estimate the current property damage to be - this is on top of our existing natural disaster relief fund.
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Jan 7, 2020 00:50
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No arson involved in the current fires in vic. https://twitter.com/JarrodWhittaker/status/1214309782728785920?s=19 PT6A posted:How do Australians feel about the focus on animals suffering/dying compared to people? I feel like it's getting a lot of play in the international media and on social media, and it is indeed horrific, but is there at all a feeling of "yes, it's sad about the koalas but also people are dying and lives are being destroyed, could we talk about that?" People have a choice to evacuate and most deaths have been people protecting their property (or firefighters) not to mention that suburbs or towns are expanding into bushland and high risk areas. Animals don't get that choice. Both are bad. drunkill fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Jan 7, 2020 |
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Jan 7, 2020 01:19
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The human death count is mercifully low this time. So if an absolutely insane number like half a billion mammals/reptiles/bird deaths get people overseas invested instead, it's fine.
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Jan 7, 2020 01:25
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Thread is going to go back to living in GBS for a bit with linking threads posted in some other forums/sub-forums so people can find it if they don't frequent D&D. I'd suggest putting it on your favourites list even if it makes me sound egotistical.
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Jan 7, 2020 02:26
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Im feeling for those affected by the fires but not really that much. humans can and do rebuild and survive, and there is already a gigantic outpouring of support from communities far and abroad for those affected. the imagery of animals affected by these fires is cutting straight to my loving core though. Even the ones that are okay like the koala hanging out in the fire truck is making me well up. These animals are dealing with a catastrophe far beyond that of the human population. This is on top of all the other pressures on them like disease (wombats get mange real bad), invasive species, roadkill etc. for my birthday Ive donated and asked my friends to donate to these guys http://www.cedarcreekwombatrescue.com/donations/ While the 2m+ donated to the koala hospital is fantastic (I donated to them when the port macquarie fires started) I think its a good idea to spread it around, plus I fuckin love wombats. This hospital is lucky to not have to evac during the fires a week or two ago and have been working tirelessly on keeping spot fires under control, treating injured animals and putting out food and water in the affected areas. It seems the word is spreading as they are getting more and more wild animals on their property each day for food and water (which in turn is great as they get a chance to treat them for burns and other injuries) Ive been following them on facebook for a while now (wombat wednesday is a thing) and its been giving me hope in what has otherwise been a very bleak time. They have one wombat called Mr Magoo, who regularly lets himself into the food container (operating the latch), climbs into a drum of food and then proceeds to eat so much he cant climb back out of the drum. truly the gooniest marsupial.  but yeah as a hopeless feeling Sydney-sider throwing money at animal hospitals is kind of helping me feel like I am helping the best I can.
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Jan 7, 2020 02:35
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Woden posted:The human death count is mercifully low this time. So if an absolutely insane number like half a billion mammals/reptiles/bird deaths get people overseas invested instead, it's fine. I think one of the reasons for the low death count relative to the size and intensity of the fires is lessons learned from Black Saturday. Those fires were a bit of a game changer in terms hammering home the need to leave early and I think fewer people now are inclined to stay and defend having seen on that day just what a bad fire is capable of.
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Jan 7, 2020 02:37
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for those not from here, Black Saturday refers to the massive 2009 fires that burned through the state, until now the worst bushfires Victoria had seen. 173 people died and 400+ were injured. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Saturday_bushfires
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Jan 7, 2020 02:44
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Tomberforce posted:I think one of the reasons for the low death count relative to the size and intensity of the fires is lessons learned from Black Saturday. Those fires were a bit of a game changer in terms hammering home the need to leave early and I think fewer people now are inclined to stay and defend having seen on that day just what a bad fire is capable of. Yeah Black Saturday was definitely a lesson in us learning how to manage human lives better in bushfires, I think we're doing our best in that department. But with animals our entire ecosystem is hosed with the amount dead at this point, it's going to have long term effects on human life. Once things become a bit under control we then need to immediately start thinking of the long term. We won't of course, but we should.
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Jan 7, 2020 02:46
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Spudd posted:We won't of course, but we should. Narrator : They did not.
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Jan 7, 2020 02:48
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It also sounds like we'll have to invest a whole bunch in re-veg, if what I've heard about the soil and seeds being killed as well is true. Have a mate who works in the field and who I've talk with quite a bit about it, and the most important thing is to do it proper. Apparently a lot of re-veg sites have no idea what their doing, go for planting the most seeds in the shortest amount of time, often not choosing the right mix of species for the area, and not doing a proper job planting or follow up so a large percentage of the stuff planted dies, and you basic comes of it is pretty garbage. I'd have a chat with her now about it, but she's also in the CFA so I figure it's pretty likely she's out doing good work right now. (Also I know the conversation would make her pretty distraught, as yeah she obviously loves the bush quite a bit... so actually will probably wait until she ready to to bring it up. )EDIT: tithin posted:A feast for crows. At least the crows have something to look forward. Good for them, the craft buggers well deserve it. 
dr_rat fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Jan 7, 2020 |
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Jan 7, 2020 02:50
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Just on the communication part: I was down in Warrnambool over new years and the local radio for the south east coast (Coast fm) were playing warning announcements that went for 3-4 minutes every 20 or so minutes when the Budj Bim National Park fire started. Coast FM is the official emergency broadcaster for that region. They would announce where the fire was, where it was expected to head and the towns that should evacuate. They'd update the message as info came in or at a minimum two hourly intervals. For one of the towns they switched to 'it's too late' and had nearly 5 minutes worth of information on how to shelter in place in your house for the next three hours worth of updates saying how to shelter down, how to pick the best room in the house, what to do to windows / doors, what else to prepare, etc. I wasn't near the fires nor in any risk so I'm unsure how useful that communication was, but it seemed very well thought out and organised.
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Jan 7, 2020 02:52
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dr_rat posted:It also sounds like we'll have to invest a whole bunch in re-veg, if what I've heard about the soil and seeds being killed as well is true. Have a mate who works in the field and who I've talk with quite a bit about it, and the most important thing is to do it proper. Apparently a lot of re-veg sites have no idea what their doing, go for planting the most seeds in the shortest amount of time, often not choosing the right mix of species for the area, and not doing a proper job planting or follow up so a large percentage of the stuff planted dies, and you basic comes of it is pretty garbage. I have an acquaintance who sells seeds and seedlings to farmers and when I spoke to them at a New Years party they said they're preparing for a bumper year!
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Jan 7, 2020 02:53
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dr_rat posted:It also sounds like we'll have to invest a whole bunch in re-veg, if what I've heard about the soil and seeds being killed as well is true. Have a mate who works in the field and who I've talk with quite a bit about it, and the most important thing is to do it proper. Apparently a lot of re-veg sites have no idea what their doing, go for planting the most seeds in the shortest amount of time, often not choosing the right mix of species for the area, and not doing a proper job planting or follow up so a large percentage of the stuff planted dies, and you basic comes of it is pretty garbage. I will tell you right now if the feudal gov gets to plant anything, it will be coal with the slogan "See coal is not bad?"
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Jan 7, 2020 02:53
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Laserface posted:Im feeling for those affected by the fires but not really that much. humans can and do rebuild and survive, and there is already a gigantic outpouring of support from communities far and abroad for those affected. You realise that a shitload of people are under-insured or couldn't afford sufficient insurance, and regardless have had their lives totally turned upside down with their homes and jobs destroyed?
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Jan 7, 2020 02:58
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GotLag posted:You realise that a shitload of people are under-insured or couldn't afford sufficient insurance, and regardless have had their lives totally turned upside down with their homes and jobs destroyed? There's something fundamentally painful about how humans ruined things so these fires would be so bad, and koalas cannot evacuate or otherwise try to prepare for devastating fires. This doesn't negate the horror of people having their lives destroyed. It's more like a multiplier effect where everything sucks and keeps getting worse.
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Jan 7, 2020 03:04
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hambeet posted:I have an acquaintance who sells seeds and seedlings to farmers and when I spoke to them at a New Years party they said they're preparing for a bumper year! Haha, yep anyone selling seeds and seedlings is going to be doing well! One worry will probably be seeds for some less well known native plants, or just native plants that seeds are quite hard to get for whatever reasons. Their are seed banks and places that sell them, but yeah apparently often supplies of some species are just usually hard to find/in short stock. If you get a whole bunch or re-veg going at once, need to hope the supplies will have a chance to catch up on demand. I'm trying to be really optimistic here that we do actually do start some good re-veg programs. I at least have some trust Dan Andrews will as you know, not a heartless idiot, not to sure about the others....
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Jan 7, 2020 03:04
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