coolmelbourne.org

Andrew Campbell, 10 February 2009

I was asked by a friend in America what I thought of some of the media and web
stuff circulating about the Victorian fires.

As a Victorian forester with professional training in fire behaviour, fire suppression
and fire management, and with experience as a sector boss in fires leading up to
and including Ash Wednesday (Feb 1983), I have maintained an on-going interest in
fire management in Australia. The way we handle fires for me is one of the key
indicators for how well we are learning to live in this ancient continent. The
Victorian fires, and in particular some of the media since the fires, suggest that we
have a long way to go in improving the ecological literacy of Australians and the
body politic.

There has been lots of rabid stuff coming out since 7 February, pushing long-held
anti-green agendas. Suggestions that ‘it’s all the greenies’ fault’ and headlines
like “will the real arsonists please stand up” claiming that conservationists, tree
protection policies and green groups’ opposition to hazard reduction burning are to
blame for the fires — and by implication, the tragic loss of life and on-going
suffering for people and wildlife — have been particularly offensive.
Claims that fuel reduction burning would have prevented these fires are a
nonsense.

Two crucial facts: 47 degrees temp (115 Fahrenheit) and 120km/hr winds. That
these conditions followed 2 weeks of >40 degrees heat wave, that in turn followed
an unusually wet November-December and lots of late spring-early summer growth,
after a decade of drought, made for an explosive tinderbox.

Click here to dowload full article.