Bundarrah Days

Mark of Moorabbin takes today's award for the World"s Most Ignorant Green. Here's what he wrote on the Andrew Bolt Blog.

How about some more facts instead of emotional outbursts?

Kinglake fire:

Fire started with powerline in cleared farmland.

Then hit pine plantations and jumped Hume Hwy.

Back into farmland.

Hits more plantations.

Back into farmland with pockets of forest.

(all privately owned so far)

Fire enters publicly owned forest that is managed for timber production (featuring lots of clear-fells and regrowth).

Hits Kinglake National Park. Mainly ‘39 regrowth with some old growth.

(back into privately owned land)

Exits park and hits more plantations.

Enters more farmland with scattered trees and pockets of bush scattered with houses.

Hitting, en route, Clonbinane, Wandong, Humevale, Kinglake West, Strathewen, Kinglake and jumping a 150 metre powerline fire break.

So where does the fuel reduction help here?

It’s a beat-up. Fuel reduction will not stop bushfires and, as I have shown with earlier comments on Marysville, is of limited value. Even with fuel reduction burns the bush will still monster up like last Saturday.

The myth and misinformation you are pedalling will only result in a false sense of security leading to more disasters of this kind. That’s more children, women and men who will eventually die if reactionaries gain any purchase over public policy. It’s populist drivel.

As for David “eco-terrorists waging jihad” Packham, Athol Hodgson and Peter Attiwell, they are fossilised ‘39 relics who need to move with the times and stop grandstanding. Once things have settled down, I expect that plenty of experts with both sensitivity to the moment and a more considered approach to the science will make their cases.

Now, how about looking at some of the facts instead of shrill and emotional, ill-informed rhetoric?
Mark of Moorabbin (Reply)

Firstly, there is no proof the fire started on cleared farmland. Secondly, the fires that killed people were not the same fires that burned in cleared farmland. Only a fool would suggest that a fire in cleared farmland is as deadly as a fire in bushand with an almost inexhaustible supply of fuel. A fire can start anywhere but there are different categories of seriousness and firefighting prospects.

Fuel reductions helps because burning bush creates radiant heat which causes a fire to burn even hotter.

Fire enters publicly owned forest that is managed for timber production (featuring lots of clear-fells and regrowth).

For publicly owned forest read state forest which is managed by the Department of Sustainability and Environment. Takes the claims of clear felling and regrowth with the contempt it deserves. Logging coups and regrowth make up a tiny area of the forests in question.

Hits Kinglake National Park. Mainly ‘39 regrowth with some old growth.

Remember Mark asks where does fuel reduction help here? The fuel burden in Kinglake National Park was massive. If the public land had been managed as it should have been Kinglake would still exist. I know what I'm talking about and so does David Packham, Athol Hodgson, Peter Attiwill, Simon Patton, Phil Cheney and many others. They predicted this, as did I. Mark did not and nor did his experts. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and the shrill and emotional rhetoric belongs to Mark himself.

As for Marysville I speak now from personal experience. The forest was overdue to burn. The fuel load was incredible. I've run horse tours through it for eight years and there have been several occasions in summer when I have cancelled rides due to the danger of wildfire.

Mark's hasty and ill-informed apologia is a disgrace and a monumental insult to all those who died.