Support Australia!

[ausanimal]

You must be Australian care to help the US out?

We have helped out a lot when the US has had problems when something major happens i see all over the place people trying to rise money to send over to help, we just don't go it's not are country so why help them out let the US deal with it, if SE did do the mount no one is forcing you to buy it its as simple as that but if you do want it then you will know half the profits would go to help Australia out in the end its your choice if you buy the mount of not. Same as its anyone's choice to donate money to help out another country and if you really want to i can find out how much i donated to St Jude last year something that is not in my country but didn't stop me from donating a lot off money to it, if i had to take a rough guess it would be over 10k when was the last time you donated that amount to a charity that's not in your country?

[SpecialTaskForce]

We have helped out a lot when the US has had problems when something major happens i see all over the place people trying to rise money to send over to help, we just don't go it's not are country so why help them out let the US deal with it, if SE did do the mount no one is forcing you to buy it its as simple as that but if you do want it then you will know half the profits would go to help Australia out in the end its your choice if you buy the mount of not. Same as its anyone's choice to donate money to help out another country and if you really want to i can find out how much i donated to St Jude last year something that is not in my country but didn't stop me from donating a lot off money to it, if i had to take a rough guess it would be over 10k when was the last time you donated that amount to a charity that's not in your country?

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[miraidensetsu]

Current speculation is that 85% of the fires in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania have been arson, and a few of the remainder are accidental due to cigarettes. This includes 183 arson arrests and more detained on suspicion.

Well, it is like the amazon rainforest wildfire (with its infamous fire day).

Everyone knows that local farmers is who's putting fire in it because they want to raise cattle somewhere they don't own and they don't give a damn to climate changes. Even considering that they're living in a region that will be a desert. If natives is being killed by the fire, the lack of resources or even his employees, they even like it.

[ausanimal]

What has the US debt got to do with charity or rising funds to help out a natural disaster like fire, floods, earthquake etc in another country , they are two different things i don't see anywhere on there how much was raised for St jude i think it was around 8 mil and that money came from twitch viewers all over the world and yet St jude is in the US. Here is another one Rainforest trust i donated to last yer which i believe was for a fire in the US will have to check with a friend to make sure, there alone is 2 charity that i donated to last year to help out the US what have you done to help other country's out?

[Melichoir]

From what I understand, teh arson figure is overblown but there has been a few attempts to start more fires or successful attempts to do so. This would make sense cause its common in fire zones (California has this issue as well when fires start you find a few people who like to start fires under the cover of already occuring fires). So yes, some of it is arson.

As for global warming...That one is a bit trickier. Some places are reporting that on average there has been more rainfall in australia for the past 20 some odd years, not less. This doesnt mean things arent going through a dry spell currently. The biggest point I seen being made is activist groups who are pro environmentalism seeking (and being successful) in reducing controlled burns prior to this. This is a problem if you do live in places where dry brush and other combustibles can gather. Again pointing to California, a lot of the bigger fires that have happened in the past 10-20 years have been because the state stopped doing controlled burns and clearing brush under progressive environmental legislation and decision making at a local level. So when a fire does occur, it gets out of control very quickly.

If there is global warming involved in this, it is more likely to be something exacerbating the situation rather than being the root of it. Warmer weather or dryer climate does not mean that wildfires come into existence out of nothing. It just, at best, would speed up the collection of dry brush and other flammable materials in fire zones at a faster rate than before. If you pair this concept up with higher rainfall prior to this excessive dry season, it would make more sense (Higher rainfall = greater plant growth = more dead brush and shrub when dry season hits). So looking at it pragmatically, Global Warming or Not, the Australian government (both local and federal) should be watching the weather and local growth a lot more closely and doing controlled burns and clearing out dead shrubs to keep the amount of flammable materials to a minimum and mitigate against large fires.

Point is theres a lot more nuance (like usual) to whats happening than "Oh global warming is the cause of this!".

[Mavrias]

I just don't see where a mount comes to play in this? If you want to help out just donate to an actual charity. I don't see why you need a carrot.

[Zephera]

As for global warming...That one is a bit trickier. Some places are reporting that on average there has been more rainfall in australia for the past 20 some odd years, not less. This doesnt mean things arent going through a dry spell currently. The biggest point I seen being made is activist groups who are pro environmentalism seeking (and being successful) in reducing controlled burns prior to this. This is a problem if you do live in places where dry brush and other combustibles can gather. Again pointing to California, a lot of the bigger fires that have happened in the past 10-20 years have been because the state stopped doing controlled burns and clearing brush under progressive environmental legislation and decision making at a local level. So when a fire does occur, it gets out of control very quickly.

This is unfortunately a bit of misinformation here though there is a kernel of truth. Major environmental activist groups in Australia including the Greens political party support hazard reduction burns in order to prevent massive inferno's like this from happening because the inferno is several times more devastating to the environment than a little bit of carefully monitored burns. It's not like these environmental groups or political parties hold much influence over policy anyway. The Greens only hold a single seat in the federal government, far from anywhere close to a majority.

The truth part is that yeah, we have had less hazard reduction burns though, largely because it has been unsafe to do so. You can't do hazard reduction burns if the weather isn't right or they can spiral out of control and become a real bushfire that destroys homes as one did in the state of Victoria a few years back. Generally, hazard reduction burns are unsafe to do when conditions are too hot, dry or windy to ensure the fire can be controlled.

If there was a good opportunity to do hazard reduction burns then they would have been done as every state and territory in Australia allows controlled burns when conditions are safe to do so.

[Nestama]

Pretty much. The RFS chief even recently explained why there's been less hazard reductions (and even says that it's not a panacea. It reduces the risk, but doesn't outright stop it).

[Saefinn]

Whilst yes, as people say, you can just give them money. And the OP might well have done, I've not read them saying either way (admittedly, I've not read all of the posts)

But adding an extra incentive will encourage more people to give money. It's the principle Humble Bundle works by and it has been very successful in getting people who don't normally give charitably an incentive to give charitably.

It might be a sad sociological statement that people getting something out of donating is a bigger incentive than donating out of good will and there will be a lot of people who do give out of good will without expecting something in return. And not all justification is as bleak as "I only care if there's something in it for me", there's a lot of charitable causes in need of attention and people may well have their own rules or principles for giving or be giving to other causes already.

So I don't think it's a crazy idea.

[ausanimal]

I just don't see where a mount comes to play in this? If you want to help out just donate to an actual charity. I don't see why you need a carrot.

The mount was just a idea for SE to get behind helping Australia by bringing in a mount that people could buy and the money went to a charity to help, there is nothing wrong with that at all someone suggestion a idea that SE could get behind, i'm surprised the amount off people that see it as a bad idea be it you donate to a charity or buy a mount and the money is still going to a charity you just end up with a mount. No matter which one someone picks the money still ends up going to a charity to help out.