Bushfires

For friends overseas who have concerns for us here in NSW, I attach a map. Right now, we are in the 'eye of the storm here in Sydney--smoke haze for a week, the sun appears orange especially late afternoon, everyone coughing and trying to keep in the house.

The dangers are of course heavily wooded areas, like our local national park, now one third burned out and the risk of fires jumping or starting into heavily wooded suburban areas, which has happened before, notably 2000 on Christmas day when we literally had burning leaves falling out of the sky! This time the fires are truly across all states and the climate council had previously warned us that the next round of fires would be 'catastrophic' and they are. The only people surprised by it all is the government which doesn't accept climate change. That's why the PM  says (in inset) that his thoughts are only with those who have lost someone or property. He's not thinking how do we stop all this. He lives near here too.

Mercifully so far I think only two people have died --still tragic but we lost well over 100 some years ago, when no-one was prepared at all.

NSW is big, bigger than the whole of the UK, so it isn't all 'on fire' of course, as the media sometimes says, but the fires are fiercer and there are many more of them, like in the Amazon jungle this year. There's a massive loss of wildlife as well, of course.

Here in our suburb, I have never thought of us being 'heavily wooded' but there some enormous gum trees lining our streets and giving good shade, but if they caught fire , then we would indeed be in trouble. If it reaches that level of spread the authorities would have no plan other than total evacuation of 5 million people. People would take to their boats for a few days while it lasted, I expect. There's no islands around here. We could go and live on a beach, I suppose, with a kayak or two plus tents etc.

My cousin John in the Blue Mountains was under evacuation alert a few weeks ago and planned to come here if it happened. We might have to go there!

The wind is a critical factor as well daytime temperatures. Today it reached 29 C and tomorrow is expected to be 33--unbearable for me.

The PM had a big win today, with his fellow cabinet 'Voldemorts'. A new bill prevents immigrants held in detention on Nauru from  ever getting critical medical help if seriously sick, so they'll just die . Quite a few have been there 5 years or more with no end in sight.  So, flushed with that success, the weekend pic will be of the PM on Sunday wildly clapping and lustily singing along in his charismatic Assemblies of God church a  couple of suburbs from here. A happy, clappy chappy while the Harry Potters of our  society (economy?) try to work out what do with him and his cronies, who of course,  must not be named.