Edit* now 16 million hectares in Australia gone. Estimated over 30% of our koalas dead💔

rhanishane

Bushfires raging on the NSW east coast of Australia have decimated an area of prime breeding ground for koalas. Its estimated 350 are feared burned alive in an intense bushfire near Port Macquarie.
https://www.facebook.com/koalahospital/videos/454215911743882/

brianlux

This is very sad and hugely tragic.  It's especially disturbing knowing, as the woman interviewed said, that this was a prime area for genetic diversity (a highly important factor in species survival) and now so much of it, and the koalas themselves, have been lost. 

Further evidence (not the we need any) of the devastation now beginning to take place as a result of climate change. 

rhanishane

brianlux said:

This is very sad and hugely tragic.  It's especially disturbing knowing, as the woman interviewed said, that this was a prime area for genetic diversity (a highly important factor in species survival) and now so much of it, and the koalas themselves, have been lost. 

Further evidence (not the we need any) of the devastation now beginning to take place as a result of climate change. 

exactly its beyond upsetting. Especially when deforestation is leaving only small pockets of bushland for them. This creates other massive problems as they are territorial and populations starve out and die from disease. Teams have gone in locally and found a few that have managed to escape the brunt of the fires which is good news but now with so much burnt they will need to be on the move to find food. The ground is still burning and hot and leaves them vulnerable to predators and more burns being unable to climb. The local rescues are doing a fantastic job and also the fire fighters who have worked tirelessly to contain the mass wildfires plaguing us for months now. Heartbreaking to hear stories of kangaroos, wallabies, goats running out of the flames on fire in turn creating flare ups as they run through the bush in agony. Our local fire last weekend burned to the ocean in a fireball in a couple of hours and the beach was full of injured wildlife. People were sitting in the water with them and some took kangaroo joeys home to nurse them. Just total devastation when our bushland is packed with a range of native species. The donations coming in for both fire stations and wildlife is staggering and people now signing up to be volunteers in all aspects is enough to give you some hope. Pity our government is as useless as a pile of turds but the people power is where its at  

brianlux

rhanishane said:

brianlux said:

This is very sad and hugely tragic.  It's especially disturbing knowing, as the woman interviewed said, that this was a prime area for genetic diversity (a highly important factor in species survival) and now so much of it, and the koalas themselves, have been lost. 

Further evidence (not the we need any) of the devastation now beginning to take place as a result of climate change. 

exactly its beyond upsetting. Especially when deforestation is leaving only small pockets of bushland for them. This creates other massive problems as they are territorial and populations starve out and die from disease. Teams have gone in locally and found a few that have managed to escape the brunt of the fires which is good news but now with so much burnt they will need to be on the move to find food. The ground is still burning and hot and leaves them vulnerable to predators and more burns being unable to climb. The local rescues are doing a fantastic job and also the fire fighters who have worked tirelessly to contain the mass wildfires plaguing us for months now. Heartbreaking to hear stories of kangaroos, wallabies, goats running out of the flames on fire in turn creating flare ups as they run through the bush in agony. Our local fire last weekend burned to the ocean in a fireball in a couple of hours and the beach was full of injured wildlife. People were sitting in the water with them and some took kangaroo joeys home to nurse them. Just total devastation when our bushland is packed with a range of native species. The donations coming in for both fire stations and wildlife is staggering and people now signing up to be volunteers in all aspects is enough to give you some hope. Pity our government is as useless as a pile of turds but the people power is where its at  

What a heartbreaking story.   What you're showing us is a side that all to often gets overlooked- the fact that these wildfires, be they in Australia or The Amazon or California or British Columbia or wherever, that the impact is not just on us humans.  Wildlife is impacted hugely and we should be very upset about this.  We are part of a bigger whole than just humanity and yet we too often only look at our own kind when it is the entirety of the loss- plants, animals, insects, reptiles and amphibians, birds and humans- that affects the whole cycle of life. 

Fire is a natural and often important part of that life cycle.  Redwoods and manzanita here in California, and no doubt some of your own native plants, rely on fire to propagate.  But what you folks seem to be dealing with (like many of the rest of us), is fire on an unprecedented large and overly destructive scale.  California's wild lands used to have fairly frequent smaller fires that actually helped revitalize forests and keep them healthy.  Now, because of human impact and climate change, they rage far and wide and do more harm than good. 

I'm really sorry to hear what's happening in your homeland.  Thanks for sharing that- tough though it may be to speak of.

JPPJ84

This is heartbreaking. Fires seem to be getting worse and worse and people still claim climate change is a myth. It’s terrifying. 

rhanishane

The fires are too hot. We actually need fire to open our native seeds to regenerate our bushland but the fires are actually scarring the landscape and its not even summer here.
This is the harsh reality when bushfire crowns the tree tops and koalas cant escape. This beautiful boy was rescued the other day from a local bushfire he may or may not survive 😢
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10221178486111536&id=1226810538

rhanishane

I cant even get into the political bullshit as to what is happening in Oz i would be here for weeks trying to explain it. Lets just say absolute corruption into our land and water management country wide and we all know Australia has an enormous land mass!!

brianlux

rhanishane said:

I cant even get into the political bullshit as to what is happening in Oz i would be here for weeks trying to explain it. Lets just say absolute corruption into our land and water management country wide and we all know Australia has an enormous land mass!!

That's a shame because in earlier years, it seemed like your political system was much less corrupt.  Ours was as well, at times.

rhanishane

brianlux said:

rhanishane said:

I cant even get into the political bullshit as to what is happening in Oz i would be here for weeks trying to explain it. Lets just say absolute corruption into our land and water management country wide and we all know Australia has an enormous land mass!!

That's a shame because in earlier years, it seemed like your political system was much less corrupt.  Ours was as well, at times.

well the nation is certainly hearing about it now. Stupid religious pompous prime minister of ours has his dumb head up his arse sending out thoughts and prayers that his imaginary gods will save the day. Omfg the people running this country need their heads checked. Think the only thing god did was spill a jar of arseholes in Parliament. 

brianlux

rhanishane said:

brianlux said:

rhanishane said:

I cant even get into the political bullshit as to what is happening in Oz i would be here for weeks trying to explain it. Lets just say absolute corruption into our land and water management country wide and we all know Australia has an enormous land mass!!

That's a shame because in earlier years, it seemed like your political system was much less corrupt.  Ours was as well, at times.

well the nation is certainly hearing about it now. Stupid religious pompous prime minister of ours has his dumb head up his arse sending out thoughts and prayers that his imaginary gods will save the day. Omfg the people running this country need their heads checked. Think the only thing god did was spill a jar of arseholes in Parliament. 

They need a good dose of this maybe play it before every meeting of Parliament:

Thoughts_Arrive

All our stupid PM can offer is 'thoughts & prayers'.

Thoughts_Arrive

JPPJ84 said:

This is heartbreaking. Fires seem to be getting worse and worse and people still claim climate change is a myth. It’s terrifying. 

Yep. And these people bully Greta Thunberg on social media. Sick society.

Annafalk

Fires like this is so horrific, also drought.

rhanishane

well pretty much since this post the landscape has been obliterated.  looks like a bomb went off literally!

Thoughts_Arrive

Thoughts_Arrive

brianlux

Thoughts_Arrive said:

I'm curious- what's Morrison's take on climate change? 

Also, I honestly don't know- is there a connection between what we in the U.S. refer to as a "liberal" and what a member of the Australian Liberal Party stands for?

Thoughts_Arrive

He has no stance, just thoughts and prayers. He is a Pentecostal freak.
Him and his government think we do not need to do more because other countries are not coming to the table.
His government are coming down hard on climate protestors.
The word liberal is an oxymoron. They are a bunch of fascists slowly eroding our freedoms by threatening protestors, silencing journalists.

Thoughts_Arrive

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/deputy-pm-slams-woke-capital-city-greenies-linking-bushfires-to-climate-change?fbclid=IwAR2jhD07wgCDnaAyE2ONvsUYaaFqTMgbKp1pCd4yOwfxIFmyrGYOTQpnzGY

brianlux

Thoughts_Arrive said:

He has no stance, just thoughts and prayers. He is a Pentecostal freak.
Him and his government think we do not need to do more because other countries are not coming to the table.
His government are coming down hard on climate protestors.
The word liberal is an oxymoron. They are a bunch of fascists slowly eroding our freedoms by threatening protestors, silencing journalists.

Bummer.  That's the shits!

Thoughts_Arrive

Our PM is such a POS, he spent $190,000 on empathy coaching for him and his government so they could better deal with those communities affected by drought.