By Paul Burgess B.Sc., M.Sc., C. Eng, Spokesman for the Environment.

8th January 2020

I so wish there was no need for this but there is a need to start to provide a truthful news outlet to the mainstream media distortion.

I am currently in new Zealand sitting under an amber haze as a result of the bush fires in Australia so in this news article I am dealing with the truth behind those fires and just who is responsible for them.

Today there are many very brave firefighters battling the fires in Australia. There is no doubt the fires are huge and widespread.

The fire chiefs in Australia blamed climate change but this has baffled the bush fire experts. It seems to have also confused the actual fire fighters themselves. They published this:-

David Packham is an expert on bush fires and was frankly staggered by the ignorance of the fire chiefs.

You can listen to what he has to say – a link is posted at the end of this article. Much of what I write here comes from that source.

First what is this ‘fuel load’. The answer is very simple – it is the amount of combustable material on the ground. If you look at the videos of the fires spreading you will see they spread through the ground cover. Not always, but most of the time they pass the trees just charring them. Only intensive fires damage the trees. Fires are a natural occurrence in nature and without going into detail many plants rely on the occasional fire to propagate and stay healthy.

So why is this expert backed the actual fire fighters, claiming that this fuel load is the problem?

The answer is because green movement has pushed and pushed to introduce legislation that has now stopped frequent, controlled burning to reduce fuel load and they have succeeded. It is called ‘Green Tape’. Even before Europeans arrived the aborigines did controlled burning and always in the wet season. So these fires are simply down to lack of land management.

Look at what David Smith a resident fighting the stupidity of the ‘green tape’ has to say:-

“I have a small 60 acre property in central Vic and the local CFA told me I could not do any hazard reduction burning and they had no resources to supervise a burn. I will re-apply this winter when cooler heads might prevail. I have two fire pumps and a 1,000 ltr tank mounted on a pallet, plus a backpack, clothes and shovel. I was told not to do anything and a permit would not be approved. slashing and bulldozing are my only resources apart from poison and ploughing. All have draw backs, all are harmful one way or the other, most are too expensive. Very frustrated small holding farmer wanting to reduce fuel loads”

David Packham points to the well established science on this matter and what he has to say really make the cause crystal clear.

The science has been worked out. The fuel load is well understood and the limits of fire fighting control are equally well understood.

Hot, dry, windy conditions, ignition and fuel are needed to start a fire. Without the fuel you cannot start a fire. In central Australia you have very hot, dry and windy conditions but little to no fuel. It can take years to build up enough fuel to have a fire. 37% of the land area above the tropics in Australia burns every year.

Of those five factors for a fire to begin the only things humans can control is the fuel. Fuel was controlled well by the aborigines but they did not have the ‘green tape’ to cope with. They had frequent small fires that never reached the crown of the tree and it made the land very healthy. They also always left spaces for the wild animals to go to to, in order for the fire to pass. Insects and bugs simply bury themselves a bit and let the fire pass. Intensive fires however, burn all the carbon in the soil and kill animals by the hundreds of thousands. There is a huge difference between controlled burns and what is happening in Australia today.

The Ability to Control Bush Fires
A Douglas DC6, bulldozers or any other method of putting out brush fires can only do so, to a maximum of up to 3 to 4 megawatts of fire per metre. Ignore those units, just think of them as a number. Yet the fires in Victoria are 70 megawatts per metre and in New South Wales about 30 megawatts per metre – ten times greater than the limit of any fire fighting method. The only thing that can stop the fires is rain or running into the ocean! That is just a physical fact. There is only a show at fire fighting the fires are not controllable but those in charge do not want to admit it.

This fact is simple – you should never allow a fuel load to pass the point where, when on fire, it cannot be controlled. Australia like much of the western world has been brainwashed by a green movement that often does much more harm than good. It is no longer a science but a cult religion.

The green movement in Australia campaigned against these small, frequent
controlled fires. There is so much ‘green tape’ in the way that effective fire control is no longer possible.

We have a responsibility to care, not just for humans but for wildlife that has been slaughtered by their millions because of ignorance by those who claim that they have our interests at heart.

There is a history of ignoring these facts so the fire chiefs have to blame someone and who? Well, climate change is the scapegoat. Previous inquiries into massive bush fires wiping out towns and cities have concluded that the reason was simply too much fuel load and not enough controlled burning. Lessons have not been learnt. Top officials are not telling the truth. Climate change has nothing to do with it. The fuel load was allowed to build up pure and simple.

In response to fire chiefs stating climate change was the issue, David Packham stated:-

“I find it incredible that such dedicated intelligent people can talk so much stuff that is absolutely dangerously wrong.”
Had the fuel not been allowed to build up and had there been a proper land management policy carried out ,this tragedy could have been avoided.

If you wish to listen to an expert explain what I have just written, here is the podcast.

As the For Britain spokesman on Climate Change and the Environment my job is to keep up with the news and provide the truth behind the torrent of misinformation and simple lies that we are all subject to every day. It does not require degrees or anything other than common sense to appreciate the real truth behind a story. The fuel load should not have been allowed to build up pure and simple.

Paul Burgess B.Sc., M.Sc., C. Eng (retired)