Australia needs to grow up politically. It has been ever thus - damming rivers, selling off assets, cutting forests, uranium mining, drilling in protected reefs etc. The Australian electorate (collective) is receiving back what it has politically supported for 50 years now. I am mindful of an optimistic Peter Garret when he first joined the Australian Conservation Foundation when I was in my 20s.
The only thing that has changed in Australia is the consequences are becoming more obvious.
A viable political alternative is required, and a FAR MORE educated electorate which will hold its elected representatives to account when mismanagement occurs. I'm hoping for political lobbying, protests and people taking the government to court, rather than endless facebook posts stating "I didn't vote for this".
Appreciating you shining the spotlight on what is needed. Hugs and hoping for more rain, more care and more collective political responsibility a la the successful Franklin Dam protests.
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Glad to say this is starting to happen. It takes catastrophes to rile people up enough, though. Hoping it's not too little too late.
When we first arrived in Australia I was gobsmacked at how badly managed the water was, particularly considering how dry the country is. The UK manages theirs better and they get way more rain. They still get low on occasions and have to enforce hosepipe bands. Probably due to the population density. All sewage and storm water gets taken to sewage plants, cleaned and put back into the river systems. When I queried why that wasn't done here, there said that people didn't want to use recycled water. Yet the rivers that the water is taken from are probably just as polluted to start with.
I think EU legislation had a lot to do with the UK cleaning up their waterways, too.
I want to believe you're right about catastrophes, but I'm not sure. Far more people died in Ash Wednesday than the recent fires, and far more homes were lost .... and that was 40 years ago.
It will be interesting to see how the UK's environmental position changes without the EU rules in force anymore.
Hmm, it's a tough one. Were there more deaths because warning systems weren't as good back then or because more has been learnt? Also, we wouldn't have been as aware of how much people have exacerbated the conditions and would likely have just put it down to natural events back then.
Same issue as now in some ways - people waited till the last possible moment to leave and then the wind changed and it was suddenly too late to leave. There WERE plenty of warning, then and now. Back then it was attributed to poor back-burning and firebugs, much the same as now. I remember it like it was yesterday and the smell of gumleaf smoke takes me back instantly.
EVERY Australian rural home within known fire regions should have an underground fire bunker. Really. We talked about it back then. With adequate drinking water and supplies. Lord knows the Americans manage this quite well in hurricane areas and have it sorted.