robert blu
quiet photographer
What happens in Australia is scaring and I have no words to comment it. Due to the proportions of the fires it's even difficult for me to imagine it. The picture help, thanks for the links.
I didn't know about the "cultural burning" and it is an interesting topic, thanks fot the link.
I didn't know about the "cultural burning" and it is an interesting topic, thanks fot the link.
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
Just last month the IUCN made mention that the Koala is functionally extinct in the wild. The fires certainly can't be helping that.
Phil Forrest
Phil Forrest
raid
Dad Photographer
So sad. I wish that it all ends quickly and that recovery will start.
d__b
Well-known
The smoke from the Australian bushfires even made it all the way to Auckland in New Zealand across the Tasman Sea.
This was on Sunday around 3 pm in Auckland. It's daylight white balance and I didn't add any saturation. It really was THAT orange. It was so dark that it felt like dusk as well...
Auckland Apocalypse by David B, on Flickr
This was on Sunday around 3 pm in Auckland. It's daylight white balance and I didn't add any saturation. It really was THAT orange. It was so dark that it felt like dusk as well...
Auckland Apocalypse by David B, on FlickrCharlesDAMorgan
Veteran
I really have no words, I do so hope for a miracle of sorts.
I said to my father today, when he mentioned that the area in flames is now the size of Belgium, that while I've seen terrorism and violence in the Middle East on the news as long as I can remember, I can't ever recollect hearing that country-sized areas are in flames.
ChrisN
Striving
Only a few small outbreaks inside the ACT borders so far, but a large fire is burning in the Snowy Mountains to the west, and will probably reach our southern ranges in the next week or two, depending on winds. Unless we get widespread rain I can’t see any significant patch of bushland escaping. Yes - staying inside as much as possible, and getting cabin fever. The skies cleared yesterday, and this morning was not too bad, so I did manage to get out for a few walks. We have been very lucky here so far.
Michael Markey
Veteran
Today
Police are now working on the premise arson is to blame for much of the devastation caused this bushfire season. A strike force will investigate whether blazes were deliberately lit, and bring those responsible to justice. http://7NEWS.com.au
@ebatten7
#NSWFires #7NE
Police are now working on the premise arson is to blame for much of the devastation caused this bushfire season. A strike force will investigate whether blazes were deliberately lit, and bring those responsible to justice. http://7NEWS.com.au
@ebatten7
#NSWFires #7NE
markjwyatt
Well-known
What is happening in Australia is terrible. Living in California, I have seen some really big fires in the last 15 years, one that came within blocks of our house. I hope everyone stays well and get through the worst of this.
@Peterm1 : I spent a fair amount of time in and around Adelaide the first 5 years of this millennium. I have a lot of memories of the area, and hope everyone pulls through this. I am sorry for your losses.
@Peterm1 : I spent a fair amount of time in and around Adelaide the first 5 years of this millennium. I have a lot of memories of the area, and hope everyone pulls through this. I am sorry for your losses.
nickthetasmaniac
Veteran
Do you have a link for the actual article? That just goes to the 7News homepage and I can’t see anything about arson.
lynnb
Veteran
Readers' pictures and stories in today's NYT.
KEH
Well-known
Thank for sharing, Lynn.
And very best wishes to you and Keith and all our Aussie friends.
Best regards,
Kirk
And very best wishes to you and Keith and all our Aussie friends.
Best regards,
Kirk
Bingley
Veteran
Thanks, lynn, for posting all the links. My heart goes out to all RFF members down under. I'm in Northern California and have an inkling of what you all are going through. The mother of a close friend of mine lost her house and all her possessions in the town of Paradise during the Camp Fire on Nov. 8, 2018, and my friend (who was visiting her mother at the time) barely escaped with her life (she got stuck in the traffic trying to get out of town). Her iPhone photos of the fires on either side of her car are horrific. The smoke in Sacramento and the Bay Area from the Camp Fire and the fires in Napa this year was very bad. To RFF'ers in Australia dealing with similar conditions, stay safe!!
johnf04
Well-known
And then there's this:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12298981
A quote "Queensland University of Technology researcher Timothy Graham has probed more than 300 Twitter accounts that have been posting about the bushfires using the hashtag #ArsonEmergency.
He found that one-third displayed bot-like behaviour – the automated spread of inauthentic information about how the bushfires started.
The idea that most, if not all of the fires were started by firebugs is false. While police have charged dozens of arsonists, the figure is much lower than the "hundreds" being cited."
lynnb
Veteran
Thanks guys for the kind thoughts. The major population centres - Greater Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane - have had a lot of smoke, sometimes consecutive days at "extreme" levels. Where I live on the coast in suburban Sydney, where the sea breeze can help clear some of it, visibility was down to around 1km yesterday and I wore a P2 smoke mask, though many people didn't. The fires have burnt out huge areas in the national parks surrounding Sydney, including many houses in the semi-rural urban fringes.
The major damage has been (and continues to be) in rural communities. The forests and farming country are bone dry following prolonged drought. The scale and intensity of these fires has led to forced evacuations of many small communities and villages and also several larger towns. Some coastal communities cut off by road have been fleeing to the beaches and into the water to escape the fire fronts. Pictures of this have gone viral. Away from the coast escape has been difficult as the fires are so large and rapidly moving that the few escape routes are easily blocked by fire or falling trees. Evacuate early is the message, which thankfully most are heeding, in part because there’s still memory of the Black Saturday fires of 2009 in which 180 people died. Damage so far has been very significant - I think the last count is over 2,000 homes destroyed and a staggering number of native animals, as well as farming stock.
Much of Australia’s farming country is vulnerable. Fires are racing through farming country sometimes as fast as you can drive a car, fanned by fire-generated weather that produces 60-100kph winds, carrying embers that create spot fires well in advance of the fire fronts. Lightning from pyro-cumulus also creates new fires.
We've had some cooler weather on the east coast the last few days but it's been windy and temps are expected to rise again to 40C tomorrow. Australia is a big continent, the size of the contiguous US States, so not everywhere has the same weather.
My sister in law lives on the south coast of NSW close to the town of Eden, which was evacuated. She tells me it's been dark during the day due to the smoke, and they're packed and ready to evacuate at any moment. A few days ago it was black as night in the middle of the day.
I'm feeling a big shift in public perception about climate change due to the constant barrage of dramatic (and often frightening) pictures and video of the fires. Climate deniers cannot avoid the evidence of these abnormal events appearing nightly on TV news and other media. Everyone asks "is this the new normal?" Photography and video are a powerful medium to change public opinion.
I was reading yesterday that the conditions around Kinglake, close to Melbourne, the site of the Black Saturday fires are now identical to those that preceded the Black Saturday fires. The vegetation around Kinglake has regrown and is now as dried out as it was then. There is a heavy fuel load in the countryside. This new reality is not going to go away no matter how many lumps of coal our Prime Minister brandishes in our Parliament with declarations that coal is still important for Australia’s future. I think (and hope) the conversation has moved on, and that change will happen. I hope for our children’s sake.
There is a disinformation campaign trying to attribute these fires to arson. Most of the fires originated from lightning strikes in remote, rugged country difficult to access even on foot. Some were started by damage to electricity cables. Yes there have been some arsonists but they are not the primary cause. These fires would not have propagated so widely nor been so intense had the country not already been dried out, the result of documented increases in average temperatures along with the drought. Some industries stand to lose billions of dollars if investment and demand is channelled towards renewables. Those industry lobby groups have worked hard to maintain access and influence to government. You have to wonder who is behind the disinformation. These fires are different from those that have become before by an order of magnitude in both scale and intensity.
There’s lots of stories and pictures of these fires appearing in world media now but I’ll add links in this thread to any outstanding ones that catch my eye. Please feel welcome to contribute.
Meanwhile here's the latest must-have accessory - selling out everywhere:
The major damage has been (and continues to be) in rural communities. The forests and farming country are bone dry following prolonged drought. The scale and intensity of these fires has led to forced evacuations of many small communities and villages and also several larger towns. Some coastal communities cut off by road have been fleeing to the beaches and into the water to escape the fire fronts. Pictures of this have gone viral. Away from the coast escape has been difficult as the fires are so large and rapidly moving that the few escape routes are easily blocked by fire or falling trees. Evacuate early is the message, which thankfully most are heeding, in part because there’s still memory of the Black Saturday fires of 2009 in which 180 people died. Damage so far has been very significant - I think the last count is over 2,000 homes destroyed and a staggering number of native animals, as well as farming stock.
Much of Australia’s farming country is vulnerable. Fires are racing through farming country sometimes as fast as you can drive a car, fanned by fire-generated weather that produces 60-100kph winds, carrying embers that create spot fires well in advance of the fire fronts. Lightning from pyro-cumulus also creates new fires.
We've had some cooler weather on the east coast the last few days but it's been windy and temps are expected to rise again to 40C tomorrow. Australia is a big continent, the size of the contiguous US States, so not everywhere has the same weather.
My sister in law lives on the south coast of NSW close to the town of Eden, which was evacuated. She tells me it's been dark during the day due to the smoke, and they're packed and ready to evacuate at any moment. A few days ago it was black as night in the middle of the day.
I'm feeling a big shift in public perception about climate change due to the constant barrage of dramatic (and often frightening) pictures and video of the fires. Climate deniers cannot avoid the evidence of these abnormal events appearing nightly on TV news and other media. Everyone asks "is this the new normal?" Photography and video are a powerful medium to change public opinion.
I was reading yesterday that the conditions around Kinglake, close to Melbourne, the site of the Black Saturday fires are now identical to those that preceded the Black Saturday fires. The vegetation around Kinglake has regrown and is now as dried out as it was then. There is a heavy fuel load in the countryside. This new reality is not going to go away no matter how many lumps of coal our Prime Minister brandishes in our Parliament with declarations that coal is still important for Australia’s future. I think (and hope) the conversation has moved on, and that change will happen. I hope for our children’s sake.
There is a disinformation campaign trying to attribute these fires to arson. Most of the fires originated from lightning strikes in remote, rugged country difficult to access even on foot. Some were started by damage to electricity cables. Yes there have been some arsonists but they are not the primary cause. These fires would not have propagated so widely nor been so intense had the country not already been dried out, the result of documented increases in average temperatures along with the drought. Some industries stand to lose billions of dollars if investment and demand is channelled towards renewables. Those industry lobby groups have worked hard to maintain access and influence to government. You have to wonder who is behind the disinformation. These fires are different from those that have become before by an order of magnitude in both scale and intensity.
There’s lots of stories and pictures of these fires appearing in world media now but I’ll add links in this thread to any outstanding ones that catch my eye. Please feel welcome to contribute.
Meanwhile here's the latest must-have accessory - selling out everywhere:
fraley
Beware of Claws
Thank you, Lynn, for this thread. We have a dear friend, John Haigh, in Sydney, and are receiving reports from him of the catastrophe. Our prayers for everyone & everything in Australia.
lynnb
Veteran
Some modest attempts to capture the bushfire smoke around my local area in Sydney over the past few days. All taken with IIIf and I-61 on HP5+ in ID11:
Dee Why beach, Sydney 09 January 2020, visibility about 1km in bushfire smoke
Curl Curl beach 08 January 2020, visibility about 1km
HP5+ in ID11
looking out to sea, Sydney 08 January 2020, visibility about 800m
HP5+ in ID11
Dee Why beach, Sydney 09 January 2020, visibility about 1km in bushfire smoke
Curl Curl beach 08 January 2020, visibility about 1km
HP5+ in ID11
looking out to sea, Sydney 08 January 2020, visibility about 800m
HP5+ in ID11
lynnb
Veteran
New photo gallery on the Sydney Morning Herald site. Powerful images!
lynnb
Veteran
Dramatic photo by The Age photographer, Eddie Jim @ejimphoto from today. Two large fires straddling the NSW / Victorian border have merged creating a 600,000ha "mega-blaze". There are currently over 100 fires in NSW, Victoria and South Australia. 40C+ temps and winds gusting over 90kph overnight are making life difficult and unpredictable for firefighters.
Today 30,000 people protested in central Sydney demanding action about the climate emergency.
Today 30,000 people protested in central Sydney demanding action about the climate emergency.
