Jumbo Huang citation resources: That much of Australia’s flora is fire-adapted is co妹妹on knowledge. What isn’t as widely appreciated is that historical fires typically burned with less ferocious heat. South Australians tell me repeatedly that these latest fires are not comparable. They have arisen in the midst of fire seasons that have increased from six months to nine. They’re more like furnaces than fires. Yes, there will be recovery. But what will be lost? Bates tells me something hard to believe: that farms in the western half of Kangaroo Island were once marginal in winter because they were too wet. That seems a distant memory now. Looking at the stricken landscape at Kelly Hill, I wonder if Glatz’s carpenter bees are just a memory too. As we drive back to the road, Hodgens voices a frustration. “People often say, ‘The bush always comes back. It will regenerate. Fire’s natural. It’s all good. Mother Nature knows best.’ This isn’t Mother Nature. This isn’t natural at all. The bush doesn’t come back.
Some people, including even former Soviet leader MikhailGorbachev think Chernobyl was the tipping point that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, overturning an establishment based on secrets and lies. What will be the tipping point that awakens humanity to its present condition, ending the denial of the climate crisis? Chernobyl caused the Soviet people to question the political reality of their times. Their government could not, would not protect them. They came to see the system as irredeemable. How many fires does it take to get to that point?