Thread by @raywilton4

Factcheck: Is there really a green conspiracy to stop bushfire hazard reduction? theguardian.com/australia-news…

“But as firefighters try and beat back the bushfires, a familiar blame game began with critics pointing fingers at “greenies”, claiming they get in the way of hazard reduction efforts that might have reduced the size and scale of the disaster.”

“These are very tired and very old conspiracy theories that get a run after most major fires,” says Prof Ross Bradstock, the director of the centre for environmental risk management of bushfires at the University of Wollongong, who has been researching bushfires for 40 years.”

“They’ve been extensively dealt with in many inquiries.”

So what are the claims?
The chief accuser is Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce who says “greens policy” gets in the way “of many of the practicalities of fighting a fire and managing it”.

“Among Joyce’s claims, made in several interviews this week, are that Greens policies have made hazard reduction activities more difficult.

This claim, just to be clear, is about the policies of a party that has never been in government.”

“Joyce also blamed the Greens for “paperwork” that made it harder to carry out hazard reduction activities.

“It’s not burning because they burnt off, it’s burning because they didn’t burn off,” Joyce told SkyNews.”

“According to Bradstock, Joyce’s claims are familiar but “without foundation.”

“It’s simply conspiracy stuff. It’s an obvious attempt to deflect the conversation away from climate change.”

“A former NSW fire and rescue commissioner, Greg Mullins, has written this week that the hotter and drier conditions, and the higher fire danger ratings, were preventing agencies from carrying out prescribed burning.”

“He said: “Blaming ‘greenies’ for stopping these important measures is a familiar, populist, but basically untrue claim.”
Beetrooter, isn’t he just the most cold blooded, opportunistic, disingenuous Berk? No decency at all. He & other Nat shitbags are all cut from the same cloth.

“A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment has told Guardian Australia that the National Parks and Wildlife Service carried out hazard reduction activities across more than 139,000ha in 2018 and 2019.”

“'This is our new normal': regional mayors on bushfires and climate change | Claire Pontin and Dominic King

The NPWS had a hazard reduction target to treat 680,000ha of parks and reserves in the five years from 2011, which the spokesperson said it had exceeded.”

“The spokesperson added: “Hazard reduction is just one way of preparing for bushfires – it doesn’t remove the threat of fire.”