Baptism of bushfire

[phantom power]

The Black Saturday fires in Victoria revealed people aged 70 or over were twice as likely to die in a bushfire.

''A lot of elderly people had experienced fires before and thought that they would be able to deal with it,'' Handmer said. ''[An ageing population] means that there's more people who have various forms of disabilities and who are on medication.''

Historically, flooding had killed more people than fire but that could be changing, Handmer said.

One of the controversial recommendations from the Black Saturday interrogation was that properties in areas of unacceptably high risk should be bought back by government.

''People shouldn't be living in areas of unacceptably high risk by definition,'' Handmer said.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/baptism-of-bushfire-20130111-2clc0.html

[pscot]

1. Oz is rapidly becoming rhe Poster Child

of Anthropogenic Global Warming. More should be made of it.

[phantom power]

2. I'm not sure they're the only poster child

[pscot]

3. But fire provides such spectacular graphics

Obviously the best example would be methane firestorms raging across the tundra, but we'll have to wait a while for those.The thing about Australia is the juxtaposition of a vibrant, coal fueled economy threatened by heat death as a direct consequence of the way they meet their energy needs. Add to that the fact that Australian coal is largely responsible for the brown haze choking much of Asia and you have a model that even James Inhof might understand.

[GliderGuider]

4. Think of it as evolution in action

''People shouldn't be living in areas of unacceptably high risk by definition.''
"People aged 70 or over were twice as likely to die in a bushfire."

Honey, does this attitude make my world-view look callous?