Daily Review 04/05/2016

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, May 4th, 2016 - 22 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

Hillary Barry Mark Weldon

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

22 comments on “Daily Review 04/05/2016 ”

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  1. Manuka AOR 1
    4 May 2016 at 6:13 pm

    “Please delete me…”
    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/may/04/peter-dutton-photo-goes-global-after-he-demands-it-be-deleted-from-internet

    “Today, Peter Dutton [Aus immigration minister] was accused of presiding over a murderous policy and being in a funny photo. He complained about the photo.”

  2. weka 2
    4 May 2016 at 6:18 pm

    Big fire in Alberta, a town of 80,000 under mandatory evacuation (although I’m seeing reports of 20,000 and 60,000 being evacuated). Town is cut off to the south, the only other route out is north to the oil sands camps.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/03/wildfire-alberta-canada-fort-mcmurray-evacuation

    Obviously very hard on the people having to leave their homes. From this distance I’m wondering more about what mass fires will do to the atmosphere in coming years. It’s Spring in Alberta, they’re already very dry and have a total fire ban on, 30 fires are burning in the province.

    • Manuka AOR 2.1
      4 May 2016 at 6:23 pm

      Yes, the increasing waves of climate change refugees across the planet, now including within the US: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/americas-first-climate-refugees-entire-community-to-be-relocated-as-louisiana-island-sinks-into-the-sea

      • weka 2.1.1
        4 May 2016 at 6:33 pm

        And the govt is paying a climate resilience grant for resettlement for the first time. Things are changing.

      • weka 2.2.1
        4 May 2016 at 6:34 pm

        Probably time we started prioritising water for people and the environment over economies.

        • Jenny Kirk 2.2.1.1
          4 May 2016 at 6:41 pm

          Yes – totally agree Weka. People in the north here are very worried about how multi-corps or big biz can just walk in and take out resource approvals for taking springs water – no public notification, no consultation with local hapu – someone is doing under the table deals !

          Onto another matter – blatant distraction politics going on at the moment – at a big cost to the Govt’s budget. $50 million into Pharmac for melanoma and other essential drugs just as the Witney, Key, McClay debacle is unravelling nicely. Will it work for the govt ? will it take the Witney thingy off the public mind ?
          We’ll see tomorrow ….. and the next day !

          • weka 2.2.1.1.1
            4 May 2016 at 7:17 pm

            If National get another term (and I don’t think they will), I think our only option left is active protest and civil disobedience. If we get a centre left govt, I’m not sure what will happen tbh. Maybe something real, maybe just tinkering. We need a strategy.

            • Anne 2.2.1.1.1.1
              4 May 2016 at 7:21 pm

              If we get a centre left govt, I’m not sure what will happen tbh. Maybe something real, maybe just tinkering.

              Probably somewhere between the two weka and that will be the result of NZ First’s influence.

    • Macro 2.3
      5 May 2016 at 12:33 pm

      From Climate Central The impact of Climate Change and El Nino on the Fort Mc Murray Wild Fire

      An unusually intense May wildfire roared into Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, on Tuesday, forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in province history. The flames rode the back of hot, windy weather that will continue through Wednesday and could pick up again this weekend.

      The wildfire is the latest in a lengthening lineage of early wildfires in the northern reaches of the globe that are indicative of a changing climate. As the planet continues to warm, these types of fires will likely only become more common and intense as spring snowpack disappears and temperatures warm.

      “This (fire) is consistent with what we expect from human-caused climate change affecting our fire regime,” Mike Flannigan, a wildfire researcher at the University of Alberta, said.

      At least one neighborhood of the northern Albertan city of 61,000 has been nearly entirely razed as the blaze ripped through the city from the west on Tuesday. Temperatures soared into the low 90s — up to 40°F (22°C) above normal for this time of year — coupled with high winds helped fan the flames late that afternoon. That sent 80,000 people in the city and surrounding area scrambling north and south through a post-apocalyptic landscape of trees lit up like matchsticks and flashing emergency lights.

      People fled the fire using the one road in and out of town even as flames licked the side of the pavement and pea soup-thick smoke turned a daylight drive into one that felt more like dusk.

      Fort McMurray fire chief Darby Allen told the CBC that Tuesday was the worst day of his career as firefighters scrambled to combat the wildfire. Preliminary reports indicate that 80 percent of the homes in one neighborhood have been destroyed, though the full extent of the damage isn’t fully known yet. And it may very well not be over as hot, dry conditions are expected again on Wednesday.

      What’s happening in Fort McMurray is a perfect encapsulation of the wicked ways that climate change is impacting wildfire season. A drier than normal winter left a paltry spring snowpack, which was quickly eaten away by warm temperatures. That left plenty of fuel on the ground for wildfires to consume.

      Add in this week’s temperatures, which soared far above normal, and you have a clear view of how climate change is affecting wildfire season not just in Alberta but across the northern reaches of the globe.

      Boreal forests are burning at a rate unprecedented in the last 10,000 years. A Climate Central analysis of Alaskan wildfires last year showed that the season is 40 percent longer than it was 65 years ago. Large wildfires there have also doubled over that time.

      In Canada, wildfire season now starts a month earlier than it used to and the average annual area burned has doubled since 1970,

  3. Tautoko Mangō Mata 3
    4 May 2016 at 7:06 pm

    Obama on TPP: ‘Other countries should play by rules set by US & partners, not the other way round’

  4. Macro 4
    4 May 2016 at 9:18 pm

    Friend of mine got a QSM in the New Years List unfortunately this sort of thing taints them all.

    • Macro 5.1
      4 May 2016 at 10:05 pm

      Yep! She is no dove..
      HC’s policy stance is even more hawkish than Obama’s and he hasn’t been slow in bombing and droning and putting a bit of stick about – despite all his rhetoric to the contrary.

      • Colonial Viper 5.1.1
        4 May 2016 at 10:25 pm

        She’s not a neocon, but like Obama, she is very neocon friendly.

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