The Australian bushfires...

... link here . Click on photo to enlarge, red dots represent fires.
Photo uplifted from the NASA site and well worth viewing as a high resolution image at link above. I can see my house (kidding) in the bright sunshine, and under the smoke the home of a dear friend and his family in Benalla. Hope things are OK mate...
...worth pondering too, while you're viewing the full image, the fact that the atmosphere over the globe contains approximately 380 parts per million of CO2; and that this whole debate re catastrophic global warming, is whether another 100 parts per million will melt Greenland and inundate the planet...
...see The FatBigot for a wider perspective on these figures...
...and read the angry anti-green backlash over the fires...
...So many people need not have died so horribly. The warnings have been there for a decade. If politicians are intent on whipping up a lynch mob to divert attention from their own culpability, it is not arsonists who should be hanging from lamp-posts but greenies...
...from the Sydney Morning Herald here...
...and from The Melbourne Age...
...and this commentary from Germaine Greer (!) in The Australian... (thanks to cartoonist Zeg... click on cartoon to enlarge)

...Liam Sheahan was one of the few whose home survived the bushfires in Australia. As you can see from the photo, he cut himself a firebreak a hundred yards wide all around his home.
The council, however, would only permit him a firebreak six metres wide and took him to court for disobeying them. This action cost Mr Sheahan nearly $100,000 in costs and fines.
Even with the wide firebreak he had illegally put in place, it was a close-run thing. His house caught light eight times as the bushfire passed. His is now the only house standing in the area...

..."the council" had better have massive indemnity insurance for the legal actions that will surely follow. Apart from the total devastating loss of property it may be argued they have blood on their hands...H/T Bishop Hill, ...

...an Australian poll, here, asks "Was conservation policy to blame for the bushfires ?" 62% answered yes, 38% answered no.

...and while the fires still rage, news that the Royal Commission of Enquiry will have the "broadest possible" terms of reference...this will allow Justice Teague to look at early warning systems, “green” planning codes, permanent firebreaks, fire bunkers and other ideas canvassed in The Australian and other media outlets last week... more here...