61 replies to this topic

[FPV GTHO]

If it's what it takes to do more work each year, it's inevitably going to be brought up. The volunteers are already at breaking point just getting through the fire season.

[potmotr]

I think the bigger question is the threat to the Bathurst 12 hour from the bush fires.

Also, blaming the media is insane. Blame the coal industry and Australia's insanely tone deaf prime minister!  

[AustinF1]

I only got close familiy in Australia, never lived there myself, but are these kind of jobs also done be the volunteers, and not the actual fire departments?

In the U.S. they're done by the various Forestry and Park services, and by individual landowners, often with the help and advice of these agencies, and they're legal only under certain conditions (usually after big rains, etc. Not in severe drought conditions). I'd imagine it's much the same in Australia.

[AustinF1]

The Alfred is the best hospital I’ve ever been to.
In 2000 I was on tour with The Cure and our lovely catering girl chopped her finger off ... I drove her straight there in a golf cart.

She was whisked in and sewn up in 15 mins. They saved the finger and gave me all her meds and instructed me as to what to look for trauma and shock wise.

Tremendous service.
Jp

I have questions:

 

- What did they do with the girl's finger?

- What did you do with her meds?

 

[AustinF1]

I don't really see the need for this thread to be political, either. Australia, like Texas and much of the U.S. has a long history of severe droughts and disastrous wildfire issues. Chalking this drought and these fires up to climate change is simplistic and myopic at best imho, and ignores the history. Maybe we could stick to the fires themselves and how they may or may  not affect the GP and other races?

Edited by AustinF1, 10 January 2020 - 17:46.

[BalanceUT]

Even as a 1 month compilation, it's damned sobering. Australia is burning. 

 

This is interesting to me as a firefighter and especially as an Austinite, since we helped with the Bastrop County fire that burned nearly 1700 homes a few miles outside Austin, near COTA. Simultaneously, other large fires burned hundreds more homes in Travis County (where Austin sits). These fires burned for about 5 weeks in 2011, as COTA was still being built. At no point, though, were major events considered to be under threat -  like Texas Football games that draw over 100k people or ACL Fest, which draws 150k people across 2 weekends. The fires were 20 to 30 miles away from these venues on the east, and less than 10 miles away to the west and southwest.

 

These Australia fires are obviously very, very bad, but the exaggerating or misleading interpretations of images being published don't help matters ... like this one that has gone viral, being portrayed by many as a "live" shot rather than the one-month visual compilation of fire data that it really represents:

 

[pdac]

I don't really see the need for this thread to be political, either. Australia, like Texas and much of the U.S. has a long history of severe droughts and disastrous wildfire issues. Chalking this drought and these fires up to climate change is simplistic and myopic at best imho, and ignores the history. Maybe we could stick to the fires themselves and how they may or may  not affect the GP and other races?

 

Agreed.

 

It doesn't really matter whether the fires were a result of climate change or something else (and, if the former, whether or not it's human-created climate change). The fact is the fires have happened and they have effects. So is the current situation in Aus going to put the 2020 GP in jeopardy?

 

(BTW, the human activities that are sited as causing climate change are not going away. So just get used to the changes that are happening - they will be continuing)

Edited by pdac, 10 January 2020 - 18:01.

[goldenboy]

Good on ya LuLu


Jp

THAT'S putting your money where your mouth is.

[PayasYouRace]

Flipping hell guys. Can't we trust any of you to just stick to a topic?

 

Right. I've had to remove a lot more than was probably necessary, but it seems some people only need a small incentive to start pontificating about their pet peeves. Please take it elsewhere and leave this thread to those who are concerned about the fires and how they'll affect the Australian Grand Prix.

[midgrid]

Australian Open update: Maria Sharapova's warm-up event match cancelled due to poor air quality; another player withdraws after suffering coughing fit during qualifying match.

[pdac]

Australian Open update: Maria Sharapova's warm-up event match cancelled due to poor air quality; another player withdraws after suffering coughing fit during qualifying match.

 

Those tennis players are wimps.

[Stephane]

And now the rain has come. THat should help a lot