Elenmmare said:
Eh, like I said, none of this would happen if people lived 'respected' nature... don't live in a area prone to massive fires every year. Just like people living too close to the coast in China, and people clearcutting in other parts Southeast Asia. Australia has more than enough space for 20 million people without burning them off.
Actually, the main cause of this is people respecting nature. Because we are not allowed to do "fuel reduction burning" (aka, burning off), in state forests, or, heck, even our own forested land without a permit and fire crews present, fuel is allowed to build up in state parks to a level big enough to cause this Conflagration. Now, why did this happen now? well, in the last few decades, there's been a move towards "greener" policies of non intervention in state forests.
This is bad. why? Before Europeans came, the aborigines used to burn off all of the bush every few years, during winter, to clear old growth, dead leaves on the ground, and to drive game into their traps etc. This prevented fuel from building up to the extent that we have now. They reached an
equilibrium. (its worth noting though, that the natural state of the land is not eucalyptus forests at all, however, but the arrival of humans all those 40000+ years ago, bringing fire, changed the forests into what we had when Europeans arrived. But, dammit, it was
stable)
Yes, a lot of the people who lost their houses appear to have had many trees to close to them, and i agree that we need to take a serious look at some of these forest communities. However, it is
very ignorant of you to say that "you have plenty of space, build elsewhere". Yes, Australia is large. Just remember that the entire of North of South Australia, South of the Northern territory, and East of Western Australia is a ****ing
desert. You don't build cities in desert.
Tl:dr?
Only reason the area is prone to massive fires every year is mismanagement of the forests.
