Australian Fires 2020

[Jerry Freeman]

Worried that the Australian fires could bankrupt many in the nation! This is quite serious and heartbreaking.

[Rick Plant]

Yeah, it truly is a disaster and is only going to get worse as time goes by. Record temperatures of 118 that they never seen before. Then we have right wingers who mock the climate crisis and call it a hoax refusing to do anything about it.  The weather is changing all over the world and this is going to be an epidemic for everybody. Not just fires, but extreme weather and drought that will destroy crops and lead to lack of water in many areas.   

[Dan DAlimonte]

Sickening, isn't it?  When I was in high school in the early '70's I wrote an essay on Global Warming.
Even then, the projections were well known.  I wish I could remember who said this but ...
The only time mankind reads the writing on the wall is when their backs are to it.   True.

[Richard Rubio]

Although, I am for doing anything we can via climate change,  we need to acknowledge that apparently, arson is responsible for some of the fires.

Now, some media has reported nearly 200 people have been arrested for starting the fires. Wrong, though, there are a number of offenses involved.

Those claims about nearly 200 arrested for arson in the Australia bushfires are wrong
By Tom Kertscher on Friday, January 10th, 2020 at 12:25 p.m.

...

The 180 figure is wrong.

New South Wales police reported on Jan. 6 that it has taken "legal action" against 183 people for bushfire-related offenses since Nov. 8. But that number includes 24 people charged with deliberately setting bushfires, 53 people cited for allegedly failing to comply with a total fire ban and 47 people cited for allegedly discarding a lighted cigarette or match on land. Not all of these people were arrested, as the Starnes article claims.

More at: https://www.politifact.com/facebook-fact-checks/statements/2020/jan/10/facebook-posts/those-claims-about-nearly-200-arrested-arson-austr/

[Richard Rubio]

If anything would be worse than those fires, famine might be. Here, they say people in Africa are facing "hunger", so maybe that is not as bad as a "famine" per se. UN is blaming climate.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The United Nations World Food Programme said on Thursday that a record 45 million people in the 16-nation Southern African Development Community faced growing hunger following repeated drought, widespread flooding and economic disarray.

Southern Africa is in the grips of a severe drought, as climate change wreaks havoc in impoverished countries already struggling to cope with extreme natural disasters, such as Cyclone Idai which devastated Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi in 2019.

Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of southern Africa, is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a decade, marked by soaring inflation and shortages of food, fuel, medicines and electricity.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-01-16/record-45-million-people-across-southern-africa-face-hunger-un-food-agency

Some of that in Zimbabwe seems to be mismanagement too. I'm sure the causes are complex.

Southern Africa in throes of climate emergency with 45 million people facing hunger across the region
https://reliefweb.int/report/world/southern-africa-throes-climate-emergency-45-million-people-facing-hunger-across-region

Hunger stories out of Africa seem to come out with regularity, so we will see where this goes.