As recently reported on The BFD, the latest climate muppet show, the “Emergency Leaders for Climate Action”, has been exposed as just another publicity stunt from the world’s least-reliable soothsayer, Tim Flannery. Naturally, the Great Predicto’s new collection of sock puppets spout the usual, discredited talking-points.
But the actual, boots-on-the-fireground volunteers were quick to rebut their alarmist nonsense.
Former NSW fire chief Greg Mullins has been scolded by some colleagues for singling out climate change as the “driving force” behind intense bushfires, ahead of high combustible fuel loads and other problems linked to land management […]Mick Holton, president of the Volunteer Firefighters Association, said he believed Mr Mullins had “lost his way” in highlighting climate change above all other factors behind fires raging along the east and west coasts […]
Mr Holton said he worked for Mr Mullins for many years as a member of the NSW Fire Brigade and had a high regard for him, but he could not understand his apparent conversion to the climate change argument on bushfires. “I can’t work it out,” he said…“It is disappointing to me when he would have learned about fire science and isn’t discussing the fuel load issue.”
One of the first things every volunteer firefighter learns about is the “fire triangle”: the three ingredients necessary for any fire to burn. They are: heat, oxygen, fuel. A piddling 1°C temperature rise cannot be blamed for the bushfires (which themselves, while unusual, are far from unique in Australia’s history). What has made the difference is the sheer amount of fuel available – thanks to ever-increasing restrictions on vegetation clearing and fuel reduction burn-offs.
Mr Holton said the bushfire crisis was related not to “ambient temperature” but heat generated when dangerously high fuel loads caught fire. He agreed with Mr Mullins that a strategy was needed to combat fires, but said it required a land-management focus that would include hazard reduction and the advice of indigenous Australians. “To me, it doesn’t seem right to blame climate change when we’ve dropped the ball on other issues,” Mr Holton said.
Other firies agree.
Roger Underwood, chairman of the Perth-based Bushfire Front with 60 years of bushfire management, said the Mullins group’s blaming climate change for bushfires was flawed because it took no account of fuel loads or practical measures to help with the immediate bushfire threat…“Blaming climate change for the current spate of bushfires ignores the fact that these bushfires have proven almost impossible to control once they got going,” he said. “This is because they are burning in heavy fuels dried by drought.”
theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/colleagues-turn-on-climate-firefighter-greg-mullins/
But Mullins is a creature of Flannery’s alarmist “Climate Council”. The narrative must be adhered to, no matter what the facts.