Create accountLogin

Recent searches

No recent searches

Search options

Only available when logged in.
techhub.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A hub primarily for passionate technologists, but everyone is welcome

Administered by:

Server stats:

4.9K
active users

techhub.social: AboutStatusProfiles directoryPrivacy policy

Mastodon: AboutGet the appKeyboard shortcutsView source codev4.3.8

#megafires

0 posts0 participants0 posts today
Public
O=C=O

Capitalism Eating Itself by Fueling Climate Mayhem, Warns Capitalist

If humanity stays on current course, warns top insurer, the "financial sector as we know it ceases to function. And with it, capitalism as we know it ceases to be viable."

According to GüntherThallinger, a former top executive at Germany's branch of the consulting giant #McKinsey & Company and currently a board member of #Allianz SE, one of the largest insurance companies in the world, the #ClimateCrisis is on a path to destroy #capitalism as we know it.

"We are fast approaching temperature levels—1.5C, 2C, 3C—where #insurers will no longer be able to offer coverage for many" of the risks associated with the #climate crisis, Thallinger writes in a recent post highlighted Thursday by #TheGuardian.

There is no way to "adapt" to temperatures beyond human tolerance. There is limited adaptation to #megafires, other than not building near #forests. Whole cities built on flood plains cannot simply pick up and move uphill. And as temperatures continue to rise, adaptation itself becomes economically unviable.

Once we reach 3°C of warming, the situation locks in. Atmospheric energy at this level will persist for 100+ years due to carbon cycle inertia and the absence of scalable industrial carbon removal technologies. There is no known pathway to return to pre-2°C conditions. (See: #IPCC AR6, 2023; NASA Earth Observatory: "The Long-Term Warming Commitment")

At that point, risk cannot be transferred (no insurance), risk cannot be absorbed (no public capacity), and risk cannot be adapted to (physical limits exceeded). That means no more mortgages, no new real estate development, no long-term investment, no financial stability. The financial sector as we know it ceases to function. And with it, capitalism as we know it ceases to be viable.

commondreams.org/news/capitali

Common Dreams · Capitalism Eating Itself by Fueling Climate Mayhem, Warns Capitalist | Common DreamsIf humanity stays on current course, warns top insurer, the "financial sector as we know it ceases to function. And with it, capitalism as we know it ceases to be viable."
Public *
BellingenNSW

Community Efforts to Care for Animals During Climate Disasters:
Experiences and Recommendations from an Australian Bushfire Affected Region

"Formal disaster prevention, preparation, risk management, and response remain highly anthropocentric, with non-human animals afforded minimal attention, resourcing, and support. This article reports on informal community efforts to care for non-human animals during and after the 2019/2020 “Black Summer” bushfires in Australia, when over three billion animals were killed, injured, or displaced."

"Key findings are that:
human communities understood and treated non-human animals as part of their communities; humans went to extraordinary lengths to care for and rescue animals; these efforts were largely invisible to, and unsupported—even condemned—by formal emergency management agencies. We conclude that human-centric emergency and disaster management policies are at odds with community values and behaviors. We argue that disaster management must evolve to accommodate and support the realities of community-based rather than individual-based approaches, and must simultaneously expand to consider communities as multispecies."
>>
Sturman, A., Celermajer, D., MacDonald, F. et al. Community Efforts to Care for Animals During Climate Disasters: Experiences and Recommendations from an Australian Bushfire Affected Region. Int J Disaster Risk Sci (2025). doi.org/10.1007/s13753-025-006
#bushfires #fires #FossilFuels #ClimateBreakdown #care #biodiversity #wildlife #NSW #megafires #2019Bushfires #BlackSummer #disaster #preparation #pets #property #livestock #anthropocentrism #multispecies #community #values

SpringerLinkCommunity Efforts to Care for Animals During Climate Disasters: Experiences and Recommendations from an Australian Bushfire Affected Region - International Journal of Disaster Risk ScienceFormal disaster prevention, preparation, risk management, and response remain highly anthropocentric, with non-human animals afforded minimal attention, resourcing, and support. This article reports on informal community efforts to care for non-human animals during and after the 2019/2020 “Black Summer” bushfires in Australia, when over three billion animals were killed, injured, or displaced. We conducted 56 in-depth interviews with community members, government officials, and experts, and ran four full day workshops with community members to investigate: how communities sought to protect and care for domesticated, farmed, and wild animals; the factors that facilitated and impeded their efforts; and the changes they believed would lead to better outcomes for animals in disasters in the future. Key findings are that: human communities understood and treated non-human animals as part of their communities; humans went to extraordinary lengths to care for and rescue animals; these efforts were largely invisible to, and unsupported—even condemned—by formal emergency management agencies. We conclude that human-centric emergency and disaster management policies are at odds with community values and behaviors. We argue that disaster management must evolve to accommodate and support the realities of community-based rather than individual-based approaches, and must simultaneously expand to consider communities as multispecies.
Public *
BellingenNSW

Care for non-human animals during and after the 2019/2020 “Black Summer” bushfires in Australia

"In fighting these fires, authorities focused almost entirely on protecting human lives and property...The role of rescuing and caring for domesticated and wild animals fell almost entirely to community groups and individual carers, who stepped up to fill the gap at significant cost to themselves – financially, emotionally and sometimes even at a risk to their safety.The standard view in Australia is that only humans matter in the face of bushfires. While some guidance on disaster preparation talks about how to protect pets such as cats and dogs, wildlife carers, farmers and horse owners often found themselves facing incoming fires with little or no information or support."
>>
theconversation.com/as-the-bla

"69% of Australian households own a pet.">>
theguardian.com/australia-news
#bushfires #fires #FossiFuels #NSW #megafires #2019Bushfires #BlackSummer #disaster #preparation #property #IntroducedPets #livestock #pets #dogs #cats #menagerie

The ConversationAs the Black Summer megafires neared, people rallied to save wildlife and domestic animals. But it came at a real costWhen authorities fight fires, they focus on human life and property. But animals are part of communities too – and disaster preparation should reflect this
Public *
BellingenNSW

Are industrial scale burns incinerating Australian biodiversity?

"The “industrial” scale burns which are designed to “process landscapes as efficiently as possible” are known to frequently kill – in 2022, Victorian authorities accidentally incinerated several koalas when they set a forest alight, and evidence suggests fires set in Tasmania have killed endangered devils."

"A complete “rethink” of fire management practices by state authorities" is needed.
>>
au.news.yahoo.com/rare-aussie-

Driscoll, D.A., Macdonald, K.J., Gibson, R.K. et al. Biodiversity impacts of the 2019–2020 Australian megafires. Nature (2024). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-081
#Biodiversity #bushfires #fires #megafires #PyroConvectiveStorms #incineration #pileburning #sprawl #destruction #wildlife #birds #GlossyBlackCockatoos #koalas #CulturalBurning #ExtinctionCrisis #FossilFuels

Yahoo News · Rare Aussie bird under threat over common tree practice: 'Catastrophic'By Michael Dahlstrom
Public *
BellingenNSW

Megafires - A rethink is needed

"We should not forget that Australia’s 2019-20 megafires were the predictable consequence of climate change.The alternative fire management approaches we suggest will likely fail if climate change continues unabated.

"Bushfire management agencies aim to reduce fire risks through frequent fuel-reduction burning...But our research suggests this practice, which increases fire frequency, may create larger disruptions to ecosystems when big bushfires occur...Alternative approaches to large-scale prescribed burning are required.">>
theconversation.com/catastroph
#bushfires #megafires #BlackSummer #incineration #biodiversity #FossilFuels #ClimateEmergency #PrescribedBurning #RightWay #fire

The Conversation‘Catastrophic declines’: massive data haul reveals why so many plants and animals suffer after fireFrequent fuel-reduction burning appears to prime ecosystems for major disruption when the next wildfire hits.
Public
michael

31-Oct-2024
Indigenous population expansion and cultural burning reduced shrub cover that fuels megafires in Australia

#Indigenous burning practices in #Australia once halved shrub cover, reducing available fuels and limiting #wildfire intensity for thousands of years, but the removal of these practices following European #colonization has led to an increase in the tinder that has fueled today’s catastrophic #megafires, researchers report.

eurekalert.org/news-releases/1 #science #ecology

EurekAlert!Indigenous population expansion and cultural burning reduced shrub cover that fuels megafires in AustraliaIndigenous burning practices in Australia once halved shrub cover, reducing available fuels and limiting wildfire intensity for thousands of years, but the removal of these practices following European colonization has led to an increase in the tinder that has fueled today’s catastrophic megafires, researchers report. The findings suggest that reintroducing cultural burning practices could provide a strategy to curb future fires. “Through detailed histories of Indigenous burning regimes across the world and Indigenous-led collaborations in contemporary wildfire management projects, we can inform sustainable and healthy solutions that ‘tame the flames’ threatening global socioenvironmental systems,” write the authors. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires in many regions, particularly the forests of western North America and southeastern Australia. In addition to anthropogenic climate change, human forest management and fire suppression have led to a buildup of shrubby vegetation that fuels more intense fires. This dense shrub layer allows ground fires to spread to the forest canopy above, resulting in destructive and difficult-to-control crown fires. For millennia, humans have used fire as a tool, with Indigenous groups worldwide practicing “cultural burning” to promote biodiversity, improve hunting, and reduce fuel loads through frequent, low-intensity burns. This approach creates spatial diversity in vegetation and helps to prevent severe wildfires. In fire-prone regions like southeastern Australia, colonial suppression of Indigenous burning practices has caused fuel loads to increase, resulting in more frequent high-intensity fires. However, while traditional Indigenous burning practices in Australia have recognized benefits, data on vegetation structure under Indigenous management is limited. To address this gap, Michela Mariani and colleagues analyzed 2833 archaeological and palaeoecological records of vegetation cover, climate, fire activity, and human population size, spanning from the pre-human landscapes of the Last Interglacial to the post-colonial period. Mariani et al. found that Indigenous population expansion and cultural burning practices during the mid-late Holocene (6,000 to 1,000 years ago) coincided with a roughly 50% reduction in shrub cover (from ~30% from the early to mid-Holocene to 15% during the late to mid-Holocene). However, since British colonization in the 18th century, shrub cover has surged to an unprecedented 35% - surpassing levels seen even before human presence on the continent – contributing to modern megafires.
Public
BellingenNSW

Lessons from another settler society about current fire practices, land management and logging practices: With more good fire comes less feral fire.

"To understand modern fire policy in California requires an analysis of California’s settler attitude toward the more-than-human world. This attitude relies heavily on the invented concepts embedded in the words nature and wilderness."

“The white man sure ruined this country, it’s turned back to wilderness.”
Sierra Miwok elder James Rust, quoted by M. Kat Anderson

Excerpts of The State of Fire: Why California Burns by Obi Kaufmann. Heyday Books, in Los Angeles Review of Books September 15, 2024
>>
lareviewofbooks.org/article/wh
#bushfires #CulturalBurning #FossilFuels #MegaFires #gigafire #arson #ClimateBreakdown #Cryosphere #droughts #smoke #loggingIndustry #LoggingImpacts #NSWLogging #FCNSW #harm #WUI #sprawl #cars #extractivism #denial #IndigenousPeoples #ecosystems #biodiversity #SettlerSociety #mindset #BelloBook

What, Then, Is Natural?
Los Angeles Review of Books · What, Then, Is Natural? | Los Angeles Review of BooksObi Kaufmann considers the coming of the modern megafire and many deeply entrenched misconceptions about California’s land, in an excerpt from “The State of Fire.”
Public *
BellingenNSW

As summer heat arrives in August and they are expanding fossil fuels.
It is time to be prepared for mega fires in Australia.

"Australia’s unprecedented bushfires of 2019 to 2020 burned an area larger than the United Kingdom, killed at least 33 people, killed or displaced close to 3 billion animals, and destroyed the habitats of more than 500 species."

For 60,000 Years, Australia’s First Nations Have Put Fire to Good Use.
Watch “Burnt Country”, Kirsten Slemint's documentary on cultural burning in Australia.
>>
e360.yale.edu/features/2024-fi
#bushfires #IndigenousBurning #CulturalBurning #FossilFuels #MegaFires #ExtremeHeat #biodiversity #koalas #extinction #Australia

Yale E360For 60,000 Years, Australia’s First Nations Have Put Fire to Good UseIn “Burnt Country” — the Second-Place Winner of the 2024 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — filmmaker Kirsten Slemint centers the work of Tasmania’s Melukerdee people, who have long used low-temperature fires to reduce fuel loads and control far more destructive burns.
Public *
Chuck Darwin

Oregon’s wildfire season is off to an explosive start,
with more than 1 million acres charred in less than a month,
as experts warn that extreme heat and unusual lightning strikes are creating
“catastrophic conditions” for fires to ignite and spread.

The state is currently home to the largest wildfire burning in the US.

By Friday afternoon, the #Durkee fire had burned nearly 290,000 acres (117,000 hectares)
and was only 20% contained.

The fire had forced evacuations,
shut down a major interstate highway and even produced its own weather system.

The Durkee fire is one of more than 100 lightning-ignited fires, including four “#megafires”,
that have started over the past week and are currently raging in the eastern and central parts of Oregon.
A megafire is defined by National Interagency Fire Center as blazes that have burned more than 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares).

The more than 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) charred so far have already 🔸quadrupled last year’s total
🔸and are approaching the massive 2020 season, which saw 1.2 million acres burned.

The fire season typically runs until autumn rains arrive in mid-September,
but bad years can see blazes burn into October.

theguardian.com/us-news/articl

The Guardian · A ‘catastrophic’ start to wildfire season in Oregon sparks alarmBy Jules Feeney
Public
Social Display Europe

Our consortium partner @eldiarioes traveled to areas in Greece, Portugal, and Spain affected by three of the worst mega-fires recorded in Europe in recent years to understand what lessons we have learned and whether we are better prepared for such increasingly frequent phenomena.

Read what they found out here:

displayeurope.eu/article/mega-

#megafires#spain#greece
Public
O=C=O

52,000 km2 of 'long unburnt' Australian habitat has vanished in 40 years

Fire regimes are changing across the globe, stoked by #climate and land-use change. Recent #megafires in #Australia, #Brazil, #Canada & #UnitedStates epitomize the dire consequences of shifting fire regimes for #humanity and #biodiversity alike.
We found areas of long unburnt vegetation are shrinking. Meanwhile, areas of recently burnt vegetation are growing. And fires are burning more frequently.

phys.org/news/2024-04-puff-squ

phys.orgGone in a puff of smoke: 52,000 square kilometers of 'long unburnt' Australian habitat has vanished in 40 yearsLandscapes that have escaped fire for decades or centuries tend to harbor vital structures for wildlife, such as tree hollows and large logs. But these "long unburnt" habitats can be eliminated by a single blaze.
ExploreLive feeds
About