LETTER TO THE EDITOR Alan Lappin Response to Fire Proponents Burning 5% of forest every year adds up to 100% of our entire forest burnt every 20 years. Before Europeans settlement this sort of insane burn off regime never occurred on this sort of hideous short time scale. Aboriginals burnt small areas under the exact right conditions for food gathering. If aboriginals burnt the forest like we do and destroyed the forest like we do, they wouldn’t have survived for 50,000 years or more on this continent. If Aboriginals had been as stupid as we white fellows they would have burnt themselves alive; they had no sophisticated communications systems, satellites, trucks and aeroplanes to stop fires and yet they managed fires and survival of fires extremely well. Aboriginals did not cut down 80% of Australia’s forest in 220 years meaning they lived in among a much greater forested Australia. The White man’s Aboriginal burn offs argument is plain deceitful and dishonest, they did not ever burn the forest for fuel reduction purposes. Fuel reduction burns have been out of control many times leading to massive bush fires. Fires don’t just burn the bush they destroy; incinerate alive millions of animals, birds and micro organisms essential for healthy ecosystems within forest environs. Those people who advocate burning forest without consideration or empathy towards burning animals alive need to grow up and become human. Forest fires add millions of tonnes of Green House Gasses accelerating Global Warming. Accumulated natural forest litter, leaves, sticks, limbs and hollow logs all form invaluable nutrients, seed banks and habitats among the lower forest understory with shrubs and grasses; this is where bacteria’s and micro organisms essential for forest life and health survive; aero bacteria which seeds rain clouds lives here. This is where moisture is trapped keeping the forest more resilient to fires starting from lightning strikes. This understorey is not as espoused by some, useless scrub that must be burnt to reduce fuel loads. Aboriginals did not destroy this habitat and their 50,000 year survival tells us so! Now I know these facts and logical arguments will fall on deaf and politically motivated ears, but for those who think things through and use common sense, you don’t have to be environmental science educated as I am, to realise we are doing it wrong! The fires are becoming more frequent and worse accelerating Global Warming which threatens our future children’s existence. Would you rather believe 95% of world scientist including NASA, British Aerospace and the CSIRO or the delusional politically motivated sceptic’s, it’s your choice. Alan J Lappin
Posted on: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 21:30:29 +0000
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