[Outcast (Carlton)]

Lets talk about these things then shall we?

1. Lets talk about the budget slashing of Parks & Wildlife across pretty much every state & territory in the country, I'm not blaming any particular flavour in politics, they've all done it.

2. Lets talk about how due to those budget cuts, instead of vast tracks of bushland that in the past were managed by a large department with sufficient numbers of rangers to monitor where hazard reductions (inexcess of hundreds of thousands or hectares in each area) now rely on one person to manage it all in that one area. Think I'm joking; I'll produce the evidence if you like but, I suspect you're not interested.

3. Let's talk about how, in a country that is in the middle of severe drought, the windows for doing hazard reduction burns is getting shorter & shorter.

4. Let's talk about how the average punter whinges about the inconvenient smoke generated through backburning during those limited windows of opportunity has led to countless councils holding back on what burns they do. Not the greenies, the average member of a community; don't believe me, then go & watch several interviews with the mayors of communities wiped out by bushfires this past month & listen to what they are saying about the lack of back burning. They aren't blaming the greenies that's for sure.

5. Let's talk about fire season after fire season leading up to this catastrophic event where successive governments (again, pick your flavour, it's largely irrelevant) still don't properly resource numerous departments to actively manage the fire hazard or at the very least, put the resources in place to allow the RFS to have half a chance of mounting a halfway effectively combatting such an event.

6. Let's talk about a country in prolonged drought & what that means to just how dry & ready to burn it is.. but, still we do nothing to resource the very agencies that might, just might mitigate the hazards or at the least stand a fighting chance to control it when it goes pear shaped.

7. Sure, I agree actually, let's talk about aboriginal land management, it was extremely effective we believe (hey, even the science acknowledges that).. now before leaping into a conversation about how we should just do what they did; we actually need to examine the difference in cliimate (wow, shouldn't go there eh.. no such thing right??), difference in population, difference in the way that communities were structured, the fact that we live in cities, fixed towns with permanent structures & there's more if you like; before we just start implementing strategies that worked fine for thousands of years, until we got here & changed the landscape in the manner we have.

8. Let's talk about the tremendous amount we could learn from history but, generally choose not to because, you know, we are all smarter than the last generation, yet here we are... still fighting wars, still f....g over the vulnerable, still whingeing about contributing taxes to the betterment of the entire country, still complaining that someone's getting something I'm not & I'm pretty sure I could go on for hours with more examples if I felt like it but, yeah, sure we are so much smarter!!

Nope.. far better to talk about the Greenies & point those fingers at blame at the lefty loony tree huggers... You'd think, that folk into Astronomy would be somewhat into science, you would, wouldn't you?? However, it seems that in today's society, somehow opinion clearly trumps scientific evidence, statistical data & quite frankly, that which is in front of your own eyes should you care to actually look but, is somehow inconvenient.

But, yeah... its the f....g greenies, they're the problem.. sure...