Quote:
Originally Posted by el_draco
... And at what point does individual reponsibility kick in?
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Use your common sense....your responsibility to make sure you have good governance and properly managed laws and other measures is ongoing, all the time. If the authorities aren't doing right by everyone, then say so and make it known to them that change needs to be made. One person can't do it all, alone. It's everyone's job to see things being done. If a council isn't doing what's needed and what the community wants, boot them out. You don't have to wait until an election to do so. Same with any government. The general public is too lax in this respect and those that gain power play on this for all it's worth. Remember, they have their jobs on our sufferance, not because they have any right to them.
In so far as your own personal responsibilities, they should be all too obvious. Especially when the safety of yourself, your family and your community is concerned. Claiming ignorance of these is no excuse, nor is it a defence for anything that may occur because of your own negligence.
The whole comparison between Tasmanian forest and fires occurring in the bush is a furphy. I have no problems with wanting to keep those ancient forests intact...and so they should be. But the reason for clearing undergrowth out of those areas near habitation is to reduce the risk of a conflagration occurring in those areas. My father was a state firewarden for the Sutherland Shire in the 60's. The reason why they used to do controlled burnoffs (like the Aborigines, but for different reasons) is to reduce that risk of having a wildfire go out of control, like all the major fires that have happened where the undergrowth had built up to such an extent (due to the mismanagement by local/state government and misguided people in those areas) that the fuel load on the ground was prime for a conflagration to occur. A grassfire is nothing....wait till you've gone through a full blown forest fire where the fire crowns through the trees at 200mph and the temp underneath the flames is hot enough to melt a fire tender. You'll then know why that undergrowth and fuel can't be allowed to get too thick and why it needs to be periodically cleared.