Bush fires and mass shootings: a parallel
Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 3:03 pm
Do you recall the NRA ploy after every mass shooting? "People have died, and people are grieving, and you are talking about gun control? You should be ashamed of yourself for bringing politics into this tragedy! THIS IS SIMPLY NOT THE TIME!"
Well, it seems it is equally bad taste to talk about global heating due to climate change when vast areas of Australia seem likely to be on fire for months to come, in an unprecedented national disaster:
Australia fires could be out of control for months, says fire chief
Concern grows over wind changes and high temperatures forecast for later this week
Well, it seems it is equally bad taste to talk about global heating due to climate change when vast areas of Australia seem likely to be on fire for months to come, in an unprecedented national disaster:
Australia fires could be out of control for months, says fire chief
Concern grows over wind changes and high temperatures forecast for later this week
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, whose conservative coalition government has been consistently criticised over its support for coalmining and power plants, inaction on climate change, and Australia’s rising carbon emissions, has refused to answers questions on climate change worsening fires.
His deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, from the country-based Nationals party, said concerns over climate change while fires were burning were a “disgrace”.
“They don’t need the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies at this time.”
But critics – some of whom had lost homes in the fires – argued the fires presented the reality of the impact of the climate crisis.
As Morrison visited a fire command site in northern NSW, a protester heckled: “Climate change is real. Can’t you see?” before he was escorted out of the building.
The opposition Labor party has also been condemned over its climate policies. In the wake of a general election defeat this year, it appears set to soften the 45% emissions reduction target that was party policy.
The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, was confronted by by Ginger O’Brien, a resident of Nimbin, a famed counter-culture retreat on the north coast of NSW, who told him: “Shame on you.”
“Your house is not burning. My house is burning down,” an incensed O’Brien said. “What are you doing? Nothing. You’re laughing. You’re having a circus. You’re playing with fire.”