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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/09/barrington-tops-farm-climate-change
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| Bushfires in September: voting while the planet burns | Bushfires in September: voting while the planet burns |
| (8 days later) | |
| "The Caros have been urban since the 12th century", I protested when my until then fairly reasonable wine-marketer husband declared that he wanted to breed stud cattle. It was a farm he wanted and, thanks to a small inheritance, it was a farm he (and I) got. | "The Caros have been urban since the 12th century", I protested when my until then fairly reasonable wine-marketer husband declared that he wanted to breed stud cattle. It was a farm he wanted and, thanks to a small inheritance, it was a farm he (and I) got. |
| We've owned our small property on the edge of Barrington Tops, the only temperate rainforest in the southern hemisphere, for almost 20 years. Rainforests, as the name suggests, are very wet and so generally don't burn. It also gets very cold in winter; it used to snow occasionally, particularly on the Tops, but we haven't seen that in years. | We've owned our small property on the edge of Barrington Tops, the only temperate rainforest in the southern hemisphere, for almost 20 years. Rainforests, as the name suggests, are very wet and so generally don't burn. It also gets very cold in winter; it used to snow occasionally, particularly on the Tops, but we haven't seen that in years. |
| On Saturday, after casting our votes, my daughter and I left the city behind us and headed to the farm. As farmers will know (not that I really lay claim to being a farmer – it was my husband's dream, after all) the weather takes on a new significance when the difference between a good year and a bad year relies on it. And the weather has certainly been behaving very strangely, at least around here. | On Saturday, after casting our votes, my daughter and I left the city behind us and headed to the farm. As farmers will know (not that I really lay claim to being a farmer – it was my husband's dream, after all) the weather takes on a new significance when the difference between a good year and a bad year relies on it. And the weather has certainly been behaving very strangely, at least around here. |
| We still get more or less the same rainfall but it now seems to come down in huge torrents, rather than weeks of slow drizzle, so we get more raging floods and then it stops completely, like it has now. It hasn't rained a drop up here for almost three months and the place is dry – very dry. It's also getting much hotter much earlier. My husband used to complain bitterly that we didn't see even a hint of spring until October at the earliest. | We still get more or less the same rainfall but it now seems to come down in huge torrents, rather than weeks of slow drizzle, so we get more raging floods and then it stops completely, like it has now. It hasn't rained a drop up here for almost three months and the place is dry – very dry. It's also getting much hotter much earlier. My husband used to complain bitterly that we didn't see even a hint of spring until October at the earliest. |
| In the last few years, however, the daffodils are finished already and the wisteria is in full bloom – and it's only just September. And as we drove along the narrow dirt road towards our place yesterday, my daughter and I observed something much more sinister. The valley was in flames. Now don't get me wrong, spring is the traditional time when farmers up here burn to keep down weeds and ticks, so the grass fires we passed didn't worry us unduly at first. Though, as we commented, at 30 degrees (in September!) and with everything so tinder dry, it seemed high risk to do even a controlled burn. Then we got to our own property, and it was on fire too. Which couldn't be a controlled burn because we had not been there to either light it or control it. And, as well as breeding cattle, we grow trees as a commercial plantation – so when we burn, we watch it very carefully. | In the last few years, however, the daffodils are finished already and the wisteria is in full bloom – and it's only just September. And as we drove along the narrow dirt road towards our place yesterday, my daughter and I observed something much more sinister. The valley was in flames. Now don't get me wrong, spring is the traditional time when farmers up here burn to keep down weeds and ticks, so the grass fires we passed didn't worry us unduly at first. Though, as we commented, at 30 degrees (in September!) and with everything so tinder dry, it seemed high risk to do even a controlled burn. Then we got to our own property, and it was on fire too. Which couldn't be a controlled burn because we had not been there to either light it or control it. And, as well as breeding cattle, we grow trees as a commercial plantation – so when we burn, we watch it very carefully. |
| As a neighbour explained, the fires had been burning for three solid weeks, slowly eating their way up the valley. They hadn't done any real damage, sticking to the undergrowth and not getting into the canopy at all. To be honest, they've probably done us a favour by getting rid of the built up fuel that might be a real danger once summer hits, particularly if it stays this dry. Nevertheless, it spooked us a bit. In 40 years of visiting this valley, we had never seen or heard of such a slow fire, especially in August and September. Nor can anyone remember spring coming quite so early or being quite so hot. In fact, the world has just experienced its 342nd consecutive month of hotter-than-average temperatures. | As a neighbour explained, the fires had been burning for three solid weeks, slowly eating their way up the valley. They hadn't done any real damage, sticking to the undergrowth and not getting into the canopy at all. To be honest, they've probably done us a favour by getting rid of the built up fuel that might be a real danger once summer hits, particularly if it stays this dry. Nevertheless, it spooked us a bit. In 40 years of visiting this valley, we had never seen or heard of such a slow fire, especially in August and September. Nor can anyone remember spring coming quite so early or being quite so hot. In fact, the world has just experienced its 342nd consecutive month of hotter-than-average temperatures. |
| In the evening as we watched Australia elect a government sworn to repeal the carbon tax, we couldn't help remarking on the irony, particularly as we watched the results come in while listening to the fire in the paddock across the river crackle and burn. As darkness fell, we could see little red pockets of fire scattered amongst the thick woodlands to our north and hear the crash of the occasional burnt out tree as it fell – in early September, on the edge of a temperate rainforest. We may have got a little drunker than we'd intended listening to the fire while watching Australians decide that what we could see, smell and hear either didn't matter or, if it did, wasn't important enough to truly do anything about it. | In the evening as we watched Australia elect a government sworn to repeal the carbon tax, we couldn't help remarking on the irony, particularly as we watched the results come in while listening to the fire in the paddock across the river crackle and burn. As darkness fell, we could see little red pockets of fire scattered amongst the thick woodlands to our north and hear the crash of the occasional burnt out tree as it fell – in early September, on the edge of a temperate rainforest. We may have got a little drunker than we'd intended listening to the fire while watching Australians decide that what we could see, smell and hear either didn't matter or, if it did, wasn't important enough to truly do anything about it. |
| According to leaked details from the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, the world's ice sheets are melting rapidly as the planet warms. Greenland's ice added six times more to sea levels in the decade up to 2011 than in the previous 10 years and the Antarctic melt produced a five-fold increase. | According to leaked details from the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, the world's ice sheets are melting rapidly as the planet warms. Greenland's ice added six times more to sea levels in the decade up to 2011 than in the previous 10 years and the Antarctic melt produced a five-fold increase. |
| But, hey, at least our new prime minister is going to honour all his promises – including repealing the carbon tax, whether its the right thing to do or not. | But, hey, at least our new prime minister is going to honour all his promises – including repealing the carbon tax, whether its the right thing to do or not. |
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