Henry Payne for January 23, 2020

Did the Australians begin to neglect their forests only recently? Or has something else changed?

The fires have nothing to do with excessive use of coal or climate change,

say the right wing deniers.

All those millions of years that forests survived without people there to “manage” them… how ever did they survive.

I guess Payne didn’t read about the insane heatwave that hit Australia… average temperature for the whole continent was 105.6 degrees, and records being broken with temperatures in one place hitting 121.8… but hey it is just “forest management” that’s the issue.

Lies like yours are a threat to the planet and all life living on it.

WOW… I just feel this statement is so incorrect and really, really mean toward Australia… Weren’t people arrested for starting the initial fires? It wasn’t natural scenarios. And when 17% of the land is natural forest with record setting heat and dry spells, it doesn’t seem realistic to assume forest management could fix that. Very sad to see this…https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=2ahUKEwjd3OXCmprnAhURa80KHX5dAlEQFjACegQIDBAG&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.agriculture.gov.au%2Fabares%2Fforestsaustralia%2Faustralias-forests&usg=AOvVaw1la-w6tHYglFlh5t5O0LJR

Do you mean like Australian scientists predicted climate change would cause increase in fires (length and intensity) years and years ago?

Payne is right; the Republicans have the solution of proper forest management. We must cut down all the trees (and put ’em in a tree museum) and then there would be no forest fires ever again.

They neglected to rake the forests./s

In the spirit of fairness and science, I say we give the Trumpists a chance to prove their Dear Leader’s claims. Give each of them a rake and drop them into the forests, where they’ll remain until the job’s done. Since they’ll do such a good job, we can go ahead and furlough the firefighters as they surely won’t be needed. Then at the end of the year, we can review and see how it went.

Pro-tip: You’ll really want to get in those areas where the grizzly bears and mountain lions live. It’s a real tinder box there!

This is H. Payne, so of course he’s got it backward, wrong, and in a mean spirit (though he’s not usually as mean spirited as, say, Stiglich). And of course this is right wing, so of course Payne’s pretending that no effect can possibly  have multiple causes. Because “too dumb to draw while chewing gum” I guess.

Henry’s ignorance is astounding.

Smokey the Bear does not live in Australia, sheesh.

This is not new. Some ecologists, a growing number these days, warned us about the practice of trying to fight every fire. Especially naturally started fires. Do any of you remember the Yellowstone fires of 1988? The lessons learned there drove the creation of a total reversal on fire policy that is tremendously successful. Unfortunately the “new” policy of allowing natural fires to follow their own course have not been widely extended to other areas.

Yosemite used this “new” strategy starting back in the 70’s with equally successful results. The habit is now far more resistant to major fires, has better soil and water quality, etc, etc, etc. By just allowing nature to do its own thing.

https://news.berkeley.edu/2016/10/24/wildfire-management-vs-suppression-benefits-forest-and-watershed/

Payne considers science to be an invasive species, not just in Australia, but everywhere!

Well, you can trust the opinions of right-wing cartoonists and their christian-conservative right-wing friends or the actual climate Scientists who have the expertise and the data.

Andylit is full of sh!t, doo dah, doo dah.