The End of Australia As We Know It

[marmar]

SYDNEY, Australia — In a country where there has always been more space than people, where the land and wildlife are cherished like a Picasso, nature is closing in. Fueled by climate change and the world’s refusal to address it, the fires that have burned across Australia are not just destroying lives, or turning forests as large as nations into ashen moonscapes.

They are also forcing Australians to imagine an entirely new way of life. When summer is feared. When air filters hum in homes that are bunkers, with kids kept indoors. When birdsong and the rustle of marsupials in the bush give way to an eerie, smoky silence.

“I am standing here a traveler from a new reality, a burning Australia,” Lynette Wallworth, an Australian filmmaker, told a crowd of international executives and politicians in Davos, Switzerland, last month. “What was feared and what was warned is no longer in our future, a topic for debate — it is here.”

“We have seen,” she added, “the unfolding wings of climate change.”

Like the fires, it’s a metaphor that lingers. What many of us have witnessed this fire season does feel alive, like a monstrous gathering force threatening to devour what we hold most dear on a continent that will grow only hotter, drier and more flammable as global temperatures rise. ........(more)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/02/15/world/australia/fires-climate-change.amp.html

[guillaumeb]

1. And the Australian PM insists that he is doing all he can

to combat a problem he insisted did not exist as recently as last year.

[canuckledragger]

9. Doing all he can to lie about it

And try to blame 'arsonists' for the fires instead of the actual climate change that's driving it.

He has polluting corporations and such to protect, and doesn't give a fuck about the people, wildlife, etc he harms while doing it.

[yaesu]

2. Our new reality where I live, too much rain, it never dries out, a permaswamp. nt

[democratisphere]

3. The new boogeyman is global warming and climate change

that too few are taking seriously. Extinction is inevitable but we can make a huge attempt at slowing it down. We owe it to our younger generations to get serious quickly.

[denem]

4. Australia is the No.1 exporter of coal in the world,

and run by a government of climate change deniers.

you're going to reap just what you sow

[patphil]

5. The warning signs of catestrophic climate change are becoming more and more prevalent.

It takes determined ignorance, or deliberate denial to refuse to see how this affects humanity, and what it will do to our future.
No amount of denial can prevent the Sunrise, or, in humanities case, the Sunset.

[DemocracyMouse]

6. This post should have more than 37 recs....

[DemocracyMouse]

7. In fact, it has 1/4 of the recs of another post in today's DU which is a fairly...

dumb cartoon of AG Barr and the Dumbass Conman playing with puppets.

If DU cares more about a snarky cartoon:

1) Shame on us all.

2) Time to get our heads screwed on tight, stop seeking entertainment and become adults.

158 recs: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212992855

[ornotna]

8. That's in GD

More eyes means more recs. Not really a fair comparison. Not discounting the importance of this post, it's just reality.

[Hekate]

12. Post this over in GD and you'll have no end of comments & Recs

Shaming us all for not seeing a post in the hinterlands of discussion groups is kind of dumb. I'm only here because I saw it on the front page.

[DemocracyMouse]

16. I'm shaming us all in the sense that collectively humans have let the corporate energy...

industry — and our unnecessary reliance upon it – destroy the planet for our grandchildren. From monstrous hurricanes, to fires devastating California and Australia, to frightening decimation of species, we are f*g up royally

[Prof.Higgins]

10. I reside near Sydney, Au. Our P. M. is a coal mine lover and evangelical church member.

P. M. Morrison never has to accept responsibility for any blunders, crimes or disasters because Rupert Murdoch owns 75% of Australia's newspapers as well as the only corporate 24 hour television channel which has recently become available on free-to-air television after 25 years of propaganda spewing on Murdoch's cable company which is itself a monopoly.

It's not a surprise that Morrison and Trump had a cordial confab in the White House. Their diabolical actions and blatant duplicity make them an existential threat to democratic institutions and the future human habitation of our planet.

[pansypoo53219]

11. evangelics only think about moses & the rainbow & not about being a good steward to god's creation.

[Hekate]

13. "God gave Noah the rainbow sign: no more water, the fire next time"

I believe that's from an old spiritual -- back when people actually believed in something besides the "prosperity gospel."

[ThoughtCriminal]

14. On the Beach

[Thyla]

15. And here y'all are bickering over....

....dumb crap like age, socialism and stupid things said decades ago.

Seriously what will it actually take?
Greenest Dem wins, end of.