Climate Change Models Predicted Devastating Australian Wildfires

New Scientist:

AUSTRALIA may have just had a horrifying preview of what climate change has in store for its people. Even early warning couldn't stop last weekend's bush fires in Victoria claiming 170 lives and over 700 homes.

Climate models based on figures from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predict more frequent - and more extreme - fires for southern Australia over the next few decades. Yet the role of climate change in recent fires has been downplayed, suggests John Handmer of the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre at RMIT University in Melbourne.

Read the whole story: New Scientist

Comments

[doriath22]

05:41 PM on 02/16/2009

Large areas of Australia are prone to brush fires. This happens regardless of whether "greens" bar the clearing of brush, etc. Rather like with fire-prone areas of southern California, this is simply the nature of the area. If people insist on living in these areas, they should be prepared to deal with the consequences. Likewise if you live someplace with frequent hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, etc. The fundamental problem with Australia, (as with other disaster areas) is too many people. Ecosystems tend to be elastic (up to a point), and more importantly, self-correcting. The biosphere has no politics, it just is what it is.

[NCRDIBULL]

10:09 AM on 02/16/2009

The Aussies are out of their minds ticked off taht GANGGREEN passed putrid laws to ban clearing grasses and undergrowth and trees that turned this into people and animals dying horrific deaths...

[CanadaStan]

10:32 AM on 02/16/2009

The greens, whether they want to admit it or not, have a lot of blood on their hands after this one.

But what's new?
Banning DDT caused the deaths of millions.
Their idiotic plan to use food for fuel caused hunger from higher food prices for millions.

Why do they seem to get it wrong so often?
Is it because they make decisions based on emotion instead of using common sense and logic?

[doriath22]

05:41 PM on 02/16/2009

The greens are not the ones who shat the nest

[research]

06:19 PM on 03/02/2009

Could you point me to the actual rules and regulations the Greens passed concerning clearing brush? and controlled burns?

It's hard to believe they would be that stupid.

Of course, we learned that ourselves in Yellowstone.

[Splasher4444]

01:00 AM on 02/16/2009

Goulburn Drought-Breaking Assembly

In January 1983, 400 "Meditation Experts" (practitioners of Transcendental Meditation and the TM Sidhi Program) gathered together for a 2 week assembly in Goulburn, NSW, Australia. This was the number calculated from super-radiance laser technology, to create coherence in the national consciousness and restore balance in nature.

At the time, Australia was crippled by one of the severest droughts in its history and 1983 was shaping up to be the worst year for Australians since the Depression. The intention of the assembly to break the drought was reported to the media and published in the leading newspapers prior to its commencement.

As was predicted, the rains started at the time the group first gathered to practice their Transcendental Meditation and continued to fall over the proceeding months. On January 5, 1983, The Australian stated: "Rainfalls save cotton growers from big losses"

On 11th July 1983 The Australian reported that, “Climatically the 1979 – 80 drought is finished, after above average rainfall across much of the continent in the first half of 1983.”

Enlisting a group of meditation experts to solve the climate problems may sound far fetched but published scientific studies have repeatedly confirmed the effectiveness of this approach... The cost of such a group is peanuts compared to any other proposed solution and the benefits will reach all areas of the society including the economy!

Visit http://permanentpeace.org for more info on the scientific evidence...

[LiberalBuzz]

11:02 PM on 02/15/2009

OH well, here come the Flat Earthers and their swarming of any site that mentions Global Climate Change.

Must be nice to be able to just completely discount those things the Flat Earthers don't want to believe and maintain a blank space between the ears.

[CanadaStan]

10:22 AM on 02/16/2009

You mean like discounting the fact that the greens policies of not allowing home owners to remove flammable brush from their properties to create fire breaks was a key factor in the severity of the fires?
Are those the kinds of facts that are being discounted?
You did hear about the guy who was fined $50,000.00 for cutting down a few trees but ended up being the only guy whose house didn't burn in 2 miles, didn't you?
The idiotic green policies are largely responsible for the deaths, not some tiny increase in C02.
Australia has had droughts long before the latest chicken little theory came into vogue.

[wordvarc]

09:03 PM on 02/15/2009

Mathematical models aside, biologists, archeologists, geologists, climatologists, based on plant, animal, and recent geological have speculated since the 1960's that we we were in a century of unusually peaceful weather.

[ceasenake]

08:28 PM on 02/15/2009

A stopped clock is right twice per day. They also predicted warmer temps, bigger, badder hurricanes, droughts, receding ice, dogs and cats sleeping with each other and the total destruction of mankind.

With so many "predictions" they are bound to be right once in a while.

[Gasparilla]

08:37 PM on 02/15/2009

And we have had bigger badder hurricanes. They have grown in size and intensity in the past decade.

[ceasenake]

08:53 PM on 02/15/2009

Top Ten Hurricanes:

http://www.epicdisasters.com/index.php/site/comments/the_ten_strongest_hurricanes/

Sample: #1 Labor Day storm 1935!

[CanadaStan]

10:23 AM on 02/16/2009

And according to real scientists there is no evidence that global warming causes increased hurricane activity.

[bookbuck2000]

07:50 PM on 02/15/2009

So did Nostradamus you green idiots.

[brigadere]

07:23 PM on 02/15/2009

I think the Australian government should investigate this model, given that they identified the fire as an act of arson. I guess global warming cause people to burn up more of their neighbors stuff also.

Who writes this stuff?

[1liberalconspirator]

07:47 PM on 02/15/2009

Didn't read the article or did not understand it?

[Gasparilla]

08:44 PM on 02/15/2009

He also said "the" fire. There was more than one and some were likely set, but the conditions were ripe for how widespread they became.

[Gasparilla]

07:50 PM on 02/15/2009

They've had record temperatures, the worst fire index threat on record and a record drought. They wrote that, but you didn't read it.

[1liberalconspirator]

07:52 PM on 02/15/2009

Of course they did not read it and of course they did not understand it. They have a narrow view of the world and it favors their preconceptions.

[1liberalconspirator]

07:58 PM on 02/15/2009

It's standard "ditto head" fare-have the argument that they want to have by misrepresenting what is said/written by others and then trying to demean them. It's a tactic of bullies and small minds.

[plantguy]

07:10 PM on 02/15/2009

My car overheated today and quit running. Must be from global warming.

[1liberalconspirator]

07:45 PM on 02/15/2009

I doubt it-why don't you ask Rush or another paid blogger?

[UbiVeritas]

08:44 PM on 02/15/2009

I think you have feelings for this Rush fellow -- you seem to be obsessed with hi.

[ConservativeHippie]

12:59 AM on 02/16/2009

"I doubt it-why don't you ask Rush or another paid blogger?" Said the wingnut!
I'm here of my own accord. My only compensation is the comfort I receive from pointing out when "the pot calls the kettle black".

[Ghost of Mother Jones]

05:18 AM on 02/16/2009

Or you fail to understand basic mechanics.

Hmmm . . .

[UbiVeritas]

05:47 PM on 02/15/2009

I heard that Al Gore, just after inventing the internet, was talking in his sleep one night and he predicted 98% of the street addresses of homes lost in the Australian wildfires! Tipper wrote them all down and sent them to the IPCC. What a guy!

[research]

06:07 PM on 02/15/2009

Just can't let go of the GOP smear lie that Gore said he invented the internet.

Gore never said it. It's just another GOP lie.

Gore was instrumental in getting the early internet funded.

Starting you comment with an old lie, pretty much invalidates the rest of your post.

[Gasparilla]

07:47 PM on 02/15/2009

Correct. They act like Gore wired every house in America. What he did claim was that he introduced bills in the Senate that provided funding. Even the guys who did actually "invent" it say that Gore was far ahead of anyone else in government.

[Ned Bruce]

08:29 PM on 02/15/2009

ALGORE:

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

source: http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/03/09/president.2000/transcript.gore/index.html

[wordvarc]

09:14 PM on 02/15/2009

Psalm 1.

[kid5rivers2]

05:33 PM on 02/15/2009

Presently, in my native Trinidad and Tobago, we ought to be experiencing what we call "crop time". It's supposed to be the Dry Season -we only have two seasons, being a tropical country: Dry and Wet.
But, guess what? Torrential rains day in day out, except for maybe four days thus far for 2009.

The weather all over the world is all screwed-up, isn't it? And we know why, don't we? That's why we're so glad that the right one became POTUS last November. He has his work cut out! But, never worry, together we can!

[MyTake]

04:59 PM on 02/15/2009

I wonder who coordinates this spin control.

Who funds this panel, who funds the magazines that carry this spin and who coordinates the transnational corporate media in publishing this on TV and print media around the globe. I hope the BB's/CFR/RIIA/TC organizations are not involved! The Rockefeller's donated the land for the UN. Daivd runs a climate modeling lab in his University and speaks regularly before the UN on sustainability. Hmmm, I wonder if there is a connection here since he belongs to all of those powerful interlocked organizations.

And I hope none of these fires can be traced back to the CIA as they have a tendency towards causing events for the media to spin.

This panel would have a hey day with the drought of the dirty thirties or that highly unusual Great Lakes storm in 1913 that saw hurricane force winds that killed over 200 people, sank several ships and destroyed coast line properties.

This panel never talks about the Sun. Strange, it is that body that controls weather patterns. There was little sun spot activity this past summer which indicates we are in a cooling period.

Now since the Climate Change panel met recently in Poland to coordinate a new round of spin, BMW donated 19 of their Hydrogen 7 vehicles for transport of these delegates. Yes, they rode around in the technology that eliminates pollution from fossil fuel and yet they never told a soul about this.

Spin and scam!

[Pharos]

05:25 PM on 02/15/2009

It's not possible to coordinate something that does not exist.
The right wing talking points, however, do exist and are coordinated by fax and email.

[1liberalconspirator]

07:31 PM on 02/15/2009

Well said.

[NL207]

10:55 PM on 02/15/2009

What exactly is it you claim does not exist?

[USJones1941]

04:44 PM on 02/15/2009

Hurricane Katrina = climate change
Greek and Australian wildfires = climate change
2008 tornado season = climate change
Southern California snow storms = climate change
Galeras volcano eruption = climate change ...

...Lies. Lies. Lies.

Now, every single natural event on planet Earth will be blamed on the evil carbon emissions. When are people going to wake up?

[Pharos]

05:11 PM on 02/15/2009

Name one climate scientist that claimed any of those events were caused by climate change.

[research]

05:26 PM on 02/15/2009

And they would have to know it was false for it to be lies.

They may be wrong, But most nearly all of them are sincere.

[NL207]

10:47 PM on 02/15/2009

You're just too easy.

""The terrible events of the past couple of weeks are, without doubt, partly the result of global warming and the greenhouse effect," said Neville Nicholls, an expert on climate change and wildfires at Australia's Monash University."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/10/AR2009021001582_pf.html

And who exactly is Neville Nicholls?

http://arts.monash.edu.au/ges/staff/nnicholls.php

I just named one. How would you like your crow served?

[goodgravy]

03:57 PM on 02/15/2009

according to reports this was an act of arson.

[research]

04:25 PM on 02/15/2009

Apparently, that was predicting in this particular model. :)

Since there are some 1000 different climate models,

What did most of them say?

[jesuswazasocialist]

05:55 PM on 02/15/2009

Some arson some nature one even started due to a downed sparking powerline (already a class action brought against the power company on this one).

[cayuse]

03:54 PM on 02/15/2009

Look at the ice caps melt. It will take years to get back and it may never

But rushing off into Rich get Richer is worse: This is who is advertising for GREEN CASH alternatives

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http://www.energytomorrow.org/About/

[CanadaStan]

10:27 AM on 02/16/2009

Years?
They are already getting bigger.
The 2008 Arctic ice pack was much larger than 2007.