[Taxacom] Extinction by fire

[JF Mate]

They are massive fires but it is not clear yet what the long term
effects will be. In QLD (bar the SW) the situation is finally
returning to normal after an extremely dry winter in SQLD. The problem
is the NSW mid Coast which has had the worst drought on record
followed by the bulk of the fires. Now that the IOD and the SAM have
gone back into neutral (the former from the strongest values in 6o+
years) moisture will be coming back at least to coastal areas. Inland
NSW and QLD will have to wait til april. As atrocious as the fires are
they are a drop in the bucket compared to the land clearing in the
preceding decades. The focus is on the fires but in truth many of the
habitats were already highly degraded save for slivers here and there.
Hoping that little bits would fare OK was naive (or grossly
incompetent, your choice). Australia has been running a strip-mining
version of agri and land management that would make Brazil blush, and
people mostly didn´t give a toss. Now that houses are burning and
people are dying they may change their managemente practices (or not
and just blame it all on GW or God, who knows).

My two cents from down under

Jason

On Wed, 1 Jan 2020 at 08:31, John Grehan via Taxacom
<taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:
>
> Lately there has been a lot of attention given to the deliberate burning of
> forests in Brazil, but it seems that the fires in Australia may also be
> having an immense destructive impact on species survival. There may be
> Australians on this list who are much better versed on the situation than
> I, but I am receiving some rather horrifying communications from Australian
> colleagues to the effect that major habitats are just disappearing up in
> smoke and all the species with it. More worrying is the seeming
> indifference at certain quarters that this may well be a new situation of
> unprecedented loss going into the future. Still, apparently did not put off
> major fireworks (and more smoke) for the New Year. She'll be right mate - I
> guess.
>
> John Grehan
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