Guides to a fiery future – it was only a matter of time

It was only a matter of time. It seems such a long time ago that we moved from bushfires to pandemic and watched as a wave of disease and stupidity swept the world and the country. Now the bushfires are back – the stupidity as well. Did we ever think they wouldn’t be?

Fires and floods and wars (luckily the last haven’t reached Australia – yet) and other disasters inevitably make you think what should I keep, what should I take? Amongst such disaster I include the death of loved ones and the culling of loved things, like libraries. Sorting the belongings of those who have gone, the only criterion can be ‘does it mean something?’ With belongings, once you bravely discard an item of a certain level of significance, it’s open slather on all other items of that level – that way went many of my books.

Crowds at Coogee Beach indulging in one of the most popular Australian outdoor activities – contracting skin cancer.

‘It was only a matter of time. It seems such a long time ago that we moved from bushfires to pandemic and watched as a wave of disease and stupidity swept the world and the country. Now the bushfires are back – the stupidity as well.’

Looking down on dire predictions

I see the latest report on looming climate change has some pretty dire predictions – like a future of four times lengthier heatwaves, up to five times as many deaths due to extreme heat, a massive drag on productivity, 1.5 million Australians at risk of coastal flooding and a potential half trillion dollar hit to property values by 20250 – and that’s just the good news.

But wait, there’s more. Add to that bushfires becoming too uncontrollable to be fought and coastal areas abandoned and all those climate change sceptics are going to be looking pretty sheepish, if not soggy. It will be bad for those who live near a coast – any coast – or in a low-lying part of Australia.

View over Canberra from four storeys up on a high hill, with Black Mountain Tower and Parliament House in the distance. I’m waiting for the (eventual) water views.

Unfortunately those swamped by the rising waters, with their houses collapsing into the sea or rivers will include both those who heeded the climate message, but couldn’t afford to move and those who scoffed at it and decided it was all rubbish, and they were staying where they were with their expensive (increasingly close up) water views.