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@jegga said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
Read that some time ago and it's a frightening read.
Decades ago I lived near the Blue Mountains and bad fires would start kilometres in front of the major fire started by embers carried by winds created from the ferocity of the fire itself. Didn't help having eucalypts everywhere which could explode. That sort of thing makes containment near impossible.
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@antipodean said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@NTA said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@antipodean AFTER flying long haul in Business.
That's where the damage started for me, Qantas upgraded me and I've never been able to go back. Much to the wallet's dismay.
I keep telling the wife we should grab an upgrade, but she has some bullshit concern over leaving the kids in economy
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@NTA said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@antipodean said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@NTA said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@antipodean AFTER flying long haul in Business.
That's where the damage started for me, Qantas upgraded me and I've never been able to go back. Much to the wallet's dismay.
I keep telling the wife we should grab an upgrade, but she has some bullshit concern over leaving the kids in economy
Yours are teenagers aren't they? You might want to mention that you're not flying in a C5 Galaxy, so the helicopter parenting can't come aboard - it won't fit.
If she gives you the silent treatment, you wouldn't be able to notice in business anyway.
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@antipodean said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@NTA said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@antipodean said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@NTA said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@antipodean AFTER flying long haul in Business.
That's where the damage started for me, Qantas upgraded me and I've never been able to go back. Much to the wallet's dismay.
I keep telling the wife we should grab an upgrade, but she has some bullshit concern over leaving the kids in economy
Yours are teenagers aren't they? You might want to mention that you're not flying in a C5 Galaxy, so the helicopter parenting can't come aboard - it won't fit.
If she gives you the silent treatment, you wouldn't be able to notice in business anyway.
Silent treatment is not a punishment
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@antipodean said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
Yours are teenagers aren't they?
Lad 15 & lass 12. So basically adults if I was allowed to raise them the right way
You might want to mention that you're not flying in a C5 Galaxy, so the helicopter parenting can't come aboard - it won't fit.
That's good - I will use that at my peril.
If she gives you the silent treatment, you wouldn't be able to notice in business anyway.
The puzzling bit: on our trip to Fiji last year, I offered to upgrade her seat to Business class on our way to Fiji, as we'd been going through a bit of shit with her family and I thought she needed to relax* - no dice.
*Subtext: go drink wine in Business and get toey for our arrival at the hotel
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Interesting to look at the areas involved in the NSW mid/north coast fires, compared to the area of the Greater Sydney basin:
Nothing happened in the basin at this point, but here in Western Sydney the wind is just picking up and temp is almost 34C as we approach midday. A few aircraft getting around.
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Genuine concern that Coffs Harbour could be wiped from the map. Red in the image below is predicted fire path today.
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@antipodean said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@booboo said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
My personal opinion is that climate change has something to do with it.
That's a widely held sentiment and given the IPCC reports, extremely difficult to argue against. There's a difference between exacerbated and caused, not that it really matters much in the final analysis.
Ultimately Australia needs to better determine its land management, building codes and zoning. Without wishing ill on anyone, I can't help but point out if you build in or next to a forest, what do you expect to happen?
Building standards in general need a looking at for energy efficiency and safety, but labour costs of installing advanced features make it pretty unattractive.
On the earlier points about "capitalism" - it is just another thing with no moral compass. It can be used for bad shit (profit seeking at the expense of everything else) or good (driving innovation and efficiency).
In Australia, it is highly amusing that a liberal government who are supposed to lean toward free markets will prop up fossil fuels rather than let them compete (as they can) in the market against other sources. The balancing act is how to run a modern grid, and that isn't going to happen in a stable transition without policy direction.
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Some great stories coming out of such trying circumstances
NSW firefighters leave humble note on kitchen bench of house they saved
A NSW man has shared a humble and heartwarming note left by the firefighters who saved his home.
Paul Sefky, from Yarranbella in the state's mid-north coast, returned to his home on Friday, and found the note written by the Uranga RFS sitting on his kitchen bench.
Mr Sefky took to Facebook to thank the firefighters, saying the note was, "The best note on my kitchen bench since the morning after my wedding".
The grateful Facebook post has since been shared thousands of times and even managed to reach the firefighter who hastily scrawled the note, Kale Hardie-Porter.
"Paul Sekfy you have made my day! Im happy to know that my note got to you in one piece (knowing that the house survived once we had to leave)," Mr Hardie-Porter wrote in reply.
"Our crew of 4 did the best we could with what we had but unfortunately your two sheds didn't last a second. We took refuge in your house for a moment and that's when we discovered the fridge."
Mr Hardie-Porter went on to explain that his handwriting was so messy because it was late and he "couldn't see a thing".
Mr Sefky said while his house was saved, it was still uninhabitable.
"We have no power, no poles, no water, all dirty, and just too smoky for the next week," he wrote.
"It got big quickly and then seemed to come from everywhere."
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@NTA Great story, love it, thanks for sharing
What a day here in Sydney. Was actually fairly clear skies until that Turramurra fire, then it looked like armageddon to the north. Thank fck the cold front has arrived, now 19 outside. Still windy though, and it might have arrived too late for the firefighters to rip into the current fires tonight.
Those guys are deadset legends. My kids are too young right now, but I made a promise to myself today that I'm joining the volunteer firefighters as soon as they're old enough for me to take off with short notice - reckon 4 years from now. Even if it means spending time with Tony Abbott.
You cnts can hold me to this commitment post the next RWC.
Doesn't feel right to debate climate change on a day like today, when lives were lost and homes were destroyed. But regardless of whether you feel that it played a part in this event, it seems impossible to argue that more effort and funds are not required to address the impact of events like this. And that's where capitalism, IMO still our best baseline choice for an economic/political system, falls short when left alone. It just does not encourage the type of behaviour society will need without significant oversight and regulation.
We may have huge resources (dare I say "unlimited" as the @Baron-Silas-Greenback would hyperbolate (yes, I think I made that word up)), but how do we ensure they, along with their associated wealth, are directed in the right places? As an example, we currently produce an abundance of food in the world, yet we have not come close to eliminating hunger and malnutrition. We are inherently lazy and selfish. So why would we be confidant that technological advances will come to the aid of the poorest and most climate-affected amongst us?
Feels like this year is a bit different here in Sydney, like the mood is changing. When the flood levy was imposed a few years ago, it was met with derision - "why should we fund their choice of living location?" - but this seems to be hitting closer to home, and I think people are more willing to give something up to help. Feels like the time is right for some political capital to be spent without repercussions.
Anyway, hope all my fellow NSW-men and their families are safe tonight
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@antipodean said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@NTA said in Climate Change #3 & Other Environmental Issues:
@antipodean AFTER flying long haul in Business.
That's where the damage started for me, Qantas upgraded me and I've never been able to go back. Much to the wallet's dismay.
Husband of the year! Do you call her that to her face?
Climate Change