Fires in Australia, my opinion
Once again, the tragedy strikes Australia, and our souls feel as sad as guilty to some extent as we failed once more to provide enough science, equipment and management capabilities to stop the disaster.
My deep condolences to the affected people and the Aussies for the hard moments they are going through.
In my reflections my thoughts go in the following directions:
- Wildfires are more energetic, fast and devastating each time. High temperatures, strong winds and accumulation of forest fuel are the factors behind, but it seems that we are not prepared for what is coming.
- Extinction capacity is quickly overwhelmed by the size and intensity of initial fires, consolidation of wildfires are quicker and quicker
- Communities still settle amid the forest, knowing the consequences in previous years. Vegetation is meeting houses more and more frequently and in vast territories where thousands live permanently
- People do not perceive the real level of risk they are exposed to, most of the victims are trapped by fire in their attempt to escape, frequently inside their cars
- Still we have many of the fires started on-purpose by the hand of other people
We always say that we can accept some degree of risk, until disaster knocks in our own door, then is too late. I wonder, we know that if we live in a coast hit by tsunamis, we are putting our lives at risk; if we build a house in a earthquake prone area, we put our lives at risk; if we erect our housings in flood plain, we are putting our lives at risk, and so on. These are identified as high-risk areas and we assume that, in some cases we even delimitate some areas of exclusion or restrictions for territorial development. But, what about wildfires?
We love to live amid wild nature, but in the times we are living some safe things we are given for granted are not anymore. Communities have to seriously acquire the responsibility of their lives and start thinking: living in the forest is not as safe as it was supposed to be; properties are NOT more valuable than our lives, to the point of leaving our homes too late and get trapped by fire; we are facing a deadly phenomenon which is directly affecting our way of life, our health and our lives, we altogether must take steps to stop this disaster.
But the episode is repeating once and again, much in the way the almost yearly tragedy in Bangladesh or China with floodings, or other similar natural disasters around the world.
I always was excited by the idea of broadcasting information about the fire front position and possible evolution on the GPS and navigation systems that people have in their cars, so these systems could easily calculate safe escape routes, required time of reaction and safe points where to shelter in case of entrapment. Many of the people killed in these fires were got “by surprise” by a fast-moving fire, that they clearly underestimated in intensity and speed, or which fire front position and evolution was wrongly calculated. In my view, mass-media could also provide this important information to the affected people in a very efficient way.
Anyway, the lost of a single human live is totally unacceptable.
Let’s put hands to work, maybe the scientific community has to look in other direction, that of social and economic aspects and human behaviour, instead of just modelling fire spread and stuff.
I wish you all the best and offer all my support and will to help you
All the best
David Caballero - Gnomusy
Once again, the tragedy strikes Australia, and our souls feel as sad as guilty to some extent as we failed once more to provide enough science, equipment and management capabilities to stop the disaster.
My deep condolences to the affected people and the Aussies for the hard moments they are going through.
In my reflections my thoughts go in the following directions:
- Wildfires are more energetic, fast and devastating each time. High temperatures, strong winds and accumulation of forest fuel are the factors behind, but it seems that we are not prepared for what is coming.
- Extinction capacity is quickly overwhelmed by the size and intensity of initial fires, consolidation of wildfires are quicker and quicker
- Communities still settle amid the forest, knowing the consequences in previous years. Vegetation is meeting houses more and more frequently and in vast territories where thousands live permanently
- People do not perceive the real level of risk they are exposed to, most of the victims are trapped by fire in their attempt to escape, frequently inside their cars
- Still we have many of the fires started on-purpose by the hand of other people
We always say that we can accept some degree of risk, until disaster knocks in our own door, then is too late. I wonder, we know that if we live in a coast hit by tsunamis, we are putting our lives at risk; if we build a house in a earthquake prone area, we put our lives at risk; if we erect our housings in flood plain, we are putting our lives at risk, and so on. These are identified as high-risk areas and we assume that, in some cases we even delimitate some areas of exclusion or restrictions for territorial development. But, what about wildfires?
We love to live amid wild nature, but in the times we are living some safe things we are given for granted are not anymore. Communities have to seriously acquire the responsibility of their lives and start thinking: living in the forest is not as safe as it was supposed to be; properties are NOT more valuable than our lives, to the point of leaving our homes too late and get trapped by fire; we are facing a deadly phenomenon which is directly affecting our way of life, our health and our lives, we altogether must take steps to stop this disaster.
But the episode is repeating once and again, much in the way the almost yearly tragedy in Bangladesh or China with floodings, or other similar natural disasters around the world.
I always was excited by the idea of broadcasting information about the fire front position and possible evolution on the GPS and navigation systems that people have in their cars, so these systems could easily calculate safe escape routes, required time of reaction and safe points where to shelter in case of entrapment. Many of the people killed in these fires were got “by surprise” by a fast-moving fire, that they clearly underestimated in intensity and speed, or which fire front position and evolution was wrongly calculated. In my view, mass-media could also provide this important information to the affected people in a very efficient way.
Anyway, the lost of a single human live is totally unacceptable.
Let’s put hands to work, maybe the scientific community has to look in other direction, that of social and economic aspects and human behaviour, instead of just modelling fire spread and stuff.
I wish you all the best and offer all my support and will to help you
All the best
David Caballero - Gnomusy
posted by Gnomusy | 10:54 AM
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