Australia is promising $2 billion for the fires. I estimate recovery will cost $100 billion

The bushfire emergency that began in Australia in September 2019 and has worsened steadily since then has already cost at least 24 lives, destroyed thousands of homes and other buildings and burned millions of acres of forest and farmland. And the economic costs are only just beginning to emerge. 

The Australian government, which only a month ago was treating the crisis as a state-level rather than national problem, has announced an emergency package of 2 billion Australian dollars (about $1.4 billion USD). While it is promising that the government has finally abandoned the fiction that such disasters can be managed by state governments alone, this is just a drop in the bucket. When environmental and health costs are taken into account, I estimate that it will probably cost the country more than 100 billion Australian dollars (about $70 billion USD). In a country of just 25 million people, the impact of the fires will loom much larger than the effects of Hurricane Sandy, which hit 12 US states.

So far, insurance claims arising from the fires have totaled 700 million Australian dollars (about $500 million USD) alone. But this will be a tiny fraction of the total damage to private property. Many properties are uninsured or underinsured and many of those affected haven't even found out whether their homes have survived, let alone filled out claims. And, of course, we are only part of the way through the bushfire season. 

Read the CNN News story by John Quiggin - “Australia is promising $2 billion for the fires. I estimate recovery will cost $100 billion.”

Our animal-based diet worsens climate change

Climate change is being worsened by the Australian animal-based diet.

Writing in his 2016 book, “Meat Climate Change: The 2nd Leading Cause of Global Warming” Dr Moses Seenarine explains that diet is related to one of the most serious environmental problems humans face.

He writes that climate change cannot be solved unless animal consumption is significantly reduced and in noting that he says the demand for animal products is projected to increase by 50 percent from 2013 to 2025.

“Even if the world went fossil-free by 2100, increasing animal consumption will continue to cause catastrophic global warming,” he says.

Australia leads the world as the largest meat consuming nation, according to the chief marketing and communications officer for Meat and Livestock Australia, Lisa Sharp.

Read Lucy Cormack’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Aldi survey finds Australians spending $378 million a week on meat.”

The world's okay, but we are 'painting ourselves into a corner'

Rather than God,
we need
Superman.

We are, it seems, quickly “painting ourselves into a corner”.

Our absolutely inadequate response to mitigating events leading to climate change is forcing us into the position of playing “God”.

A carefully crafted response that should have ideally begun late last century has not happened and so the world’s exposure to climate change has worsened, rather than lessened.

Subsequently, as the 21^st century unfolds it appears we are going to have no option but resort to God-like technologies to remove greenhouse gases from earth’s atmosphere.

A report from the Huffington Post headed: “World may have to suck gases from air to meet climate goals” warns that emissions will have to drop by 40 to 70 per cent between 2010 and 2050 to give the world a good chance of restricting warming to U.N. targets.

Climate Council links fires to climate change

Fire risks in Australia are worsened because of climate change, according to the Climate Council, formerly the Federal Government’s Climate Commission.

A story in today’s (October 25) Age headed: “Climate change raising fire risk”, tells about findings by the newly formed council.