{"id":279600,"date":"2023-09-20T13:28:54","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T11:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=279600"},"modified":"2023-09-20T13:28:57","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T11:28:57","slug":"let-the-mind-games-begin-scorching-summer-of-brutal-bushfire-hell-is-in-the-news-before-it-even-happens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=279600","title":{"rendered":"Let the mind games begin: Scorching summer of brutal bushfire hell is in the news before it even happens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s like the bushfires and baking heat are already here (in your mind, if not in reality)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s as if we\u2019re preparing for Pearl Harbour or something \u2014 and if you are not scared, you should be, and even if this summer isn\u2019t that unprecedented, you will feel like it is, and if the hellfire doesn\u2019t eventuate, there\u2019ll be no headlines saying \u201cOops. We panicked for nothing!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 150 years of Pacific Oscillation, the Pacific has oscillated again. An El Nino has been declared, and like the last 27 El Ninos since Federation<\/a>, it will probably be warmer and drier \u201cthan average\u201d in Australia. But the Merchants of Panic are already calling it a summer of severe wildfires and droughts. There\u2019s no flames yet, but Reuters is wheeling out the photos of burnt out wrecks<\/a>. SBS found experts to badger us into making a \u201cheat wave plan\u201d<\/a> \u2014 like seriously, as if Australians need three months to remember what summer is. No really \u2014 The Executive Director of Sweltering Cities (whatever that is), says you should buy up those extra ice cube trays now and learn the signs of heat exhaustion. Prepare your home \u2014 like what, find the air conditioner remote?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in France, apparently the risk of an Australian bushfire and drought<\/a> that might, maybe potentially happen is now worth a headline. See how this works? Even if the world were cooling, there\u2019s always someplace that might have a hot summer coming, and when all the world shares headlines of hellfire, people will feel like climate hell is truly here, even if the weather was just exactly what it has always been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For perspective, here are the last 147 years of Pacific variation, just so people can appreciate how extraordinary this isn\u2019t. This is a BOM graph, made by an agency that gets a million dollars a day from Australians to understand our climate, but somehow our billion dollar public news agencies can\u2019t find it, and the BOM forgot to mention it in the press release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s just another day in the land of droughts and flooding rains:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What matters is that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation is the largest short term driver of Earth\u2019s climate, and we have no idea what makes it tick; we can\u2019t predict it more than a few months in advance, and we have no clue at all about what it will do this time next year. (If we did, the BoM could tell our farmers useful things, like what kind of rainfall they\u2019ll get before they put the seed in. )<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hidden in the small print on the ABC site<\/a>, but not mentioned on the nightly news, is that El Nino\u2019s don\u2019t always create widespread drought, and that the models are sometimes wrong, and the slow development of this years event \u201cmight limit its strength\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to manufacture climate anxiety<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

SBS<\/a> News really takes the cake today. The new normal is a world where you practically need a roster on the fridge to plan who does the 3pm check to see if Nana had her glass of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Executive Director of Sweltering Cities, Emma Bacon, says people should have a heat wave plan.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat means looking at our homes now and saying \u2018how can I make it easier to keep cool inside? Do I need to get an extra fan? Do I need to get more ice cube trays? How can I block the heat from entering the house with extra awnings or things like that. So that\u2019s one of the big things. it\u2019s familiarising ourselves with the symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke to make sure if we need medical care, then we know when that needs to happen. And what we also can do is we can figure out who we\u2019re going to check in on during a heatwave that could be a colleague, it could be grandma, it could be you know a family member who\u2019s pregnant, you know, people who might be suffering in the heat, who we are going to check in on and let\u2019s make a plan to do that because community connection is one of the best ways to keep safe during a heatwave.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s almost like prepping for a summer blackout without saying the word \u201cblackout\u201d? But, silly me, in the Renewable Crash Test Zone, being NetZero or living in a blackout are nearly the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s as if we\u2019re preparing for Pearl Harbour or something \u2014 and if you are not scared, you should be, and even if this summer isn\u2019t that unprecedented, you will feel like it is, and if the hellfire doesn\u2019t eventuate, there\u2019ll be no headlines saying \u201cOops. We panicked for nothing!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":279605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691822790,691818226,691818200,691818154,691822789],"class_list":{"0":"post-279600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-australian-bushfire-and-drought","9":"tag-blackout","10":"tag-el-nino","11":"tag-net-zero","12":"tag-pacific-oscillation","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/06841b421604947b138c8c736dbe1372e.jpg?fit=1200%2C1327&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1aJG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":237740,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=237740","url_meta":{"origin":279600,"position":0},"title":"Monash 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