Bureau forecasts heatwave while fire authorities say dozens of fires will burn across Australia for weeks
• How big are the fires burning on the east coast of Australia?
• ‘Get the hell out of Dodge’: the fight to save homes from the NSW central coast inferno
Dec. 7, 2019
Dozens of fires will burn across Australia for weeks, fire authorities say, including a “mega-fire”, already the size of greater Sydney, that is too big to put out.
As is well known, the state of the forest industry and the forests themselves in British Columbia has deteriorated in the last 20 years, a culmination of longstanding bad policies and practices. Big corporations have shut down dozens of mills devastating workers and communities across the province. And there are many other problems.
The forests are unhealthy, plagued by insect infestations, decimation of old growth trees, poor planting practices, environmental deregulation, and so on.
While many Canadians are looking to the October 21st federal election for solutions to global climate disruption, the climate plans from the four major parties offer none.
Any genuine solution will require reining in an economic system that demands eternal growth in a finite ecosystem, mitigating or adapting to multiplying environmental and social disasters, and drastically reducing consumption. Deadline: yesterday!
Ted Hogg’s research usually takes him much deeper in Canada’s boreal forest — but on a chilly day strolling through Edmonton’s river valley, it doesn’t take long before he sees examples of the damage he’s looking for.
Pointing to several of the snow bearing trees, he indicates the deaths he’s already witnessing from climate change.
Two Oregon lawmakers want to protect public drinking water sources by banning clear-cuts, pesticide and fertilizer applications, and new logging roads on private forestland in those watersheds.
The aim is to prevent disasters such as last year’s Detroit Lake algae bloom, which shut down drinking water supplies in the state Capital for more than a month.
World’s biggest protected area would stretch across borders from Andes to Atlantic
Indigenous groups in the Amazon have proposed the creation of the world’s biggest protected area, a 200m-hectare sanctuary for people, wildlife and climate stability that would stretch across borders from the Andes to the Atlantic.
[Our politicians, under the influence of big business, have failed us. As they take the planet to the brink, it’s time for disruptive, nonviolent disobedience - Guardian headline]
