Wednesday, February 11, 2009

THE AUSTRALIAN BUSHFIRE AND HOW YOU CAN HELP!

The fires we had in some parts of Victoria on saturday were totally devastating!
The death toll is up to 230 now and over 1000 houses were destroyed, let alone the damage done to nature and wildlife!

The DUST team(Down Under Street Team) on etsy set up the OzBushfireAppeal shop to raise money to donate to the Bushfire Appeal of the Redcross.

I want to Thank everyone who helped setting up this shop and is raising awareness about this issue and all the people who donated items and bought items from it! Thank You!
So far we raised about 5.000Aus$!

If u want u can go to the shop and purchase or donate something!
U can also donate directly to the red cross fire appeal,
to Wildlife Victoria , or to the RSPCA who are taking care of injured wildlife.

If u cant donate money, but want to help, u could donate 
or offer ur time as a Volunteer.
But Please BEWARE OF SCAMS!!

Bushfires in Australia are fairly common and a great risk for people, wildlife, nature and infrastructure.
This year was especially bad, because of drought and days in a row of 45C(113F).
Then on saturday, we had high temperatures up to 47C(117F), and very strong winds, which is like a hair dryer in ur face basically and makes fires, once they are started, move very fast.
How do these fires get started? I guess it just takes a little bit of inconsideration from one person, the flick of a cigarette butt, a barbeque, or even an electric saw to make the sparks fly, if that wasnt enough some of these fires are lit DELIBERATLEY!! Which i find extremely sickening and id call mass murder, coz those people know the consequences of their actions!
But i DO think these people deserve a fair trial and the whole circumstances a thourough investigation to make sure to get the right people!

Im german and i have to say that here, to make clear i dont have enough information about the history of bushfires and the education about them!
BUT, i do think education about fires, prevention, escape plans and options shud be hammered into every childs brain in school.
The government has to put more effort in education And also plans for evacuation, like they do in california for example! It shudnt be optional and taken lightly in extreme cases like this, people shud be more aware of the consquences of staying and the possibilities for defending their homes!
There has to be a better early warning system!

I Do hope, something like this doesnt happen ever again, at least that people are more prepared and a death toll like can be prevented!

But with the  change of climate and Australia getting hotter and sunrays becoming more cancerous every year, all we can do is take the BEST care of our environment we can, and be far more prepared and educated about situations like that!

Lets just take our thoughts to those people in need and do what we can to help them!
(picture courtesy of tredlightphotographs.etsy.com)

12 comments:

  1. Good one for drawing our attention to the possibiliyt of scams!!

    I can not believe that people would be so insensitive as to take advantage of such an horriffic situation - just to cash in.

    Thanks Fran

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for this Fran-you just put my thoughts into words.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice one honey...take it easy...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for including my photograph in the blog. I have family in California and we were in santa barbara this past november for the tea fire.. that was scary, but it was good that they were organized. They even have reverse 911 phone calls, where emergency services call them to tell them where to go and what's happening with the evacuations, pretty amazing.
    We have no words for the sickening horror we felt knowing that those fires were set on purpose in Australia, and that from our home in Arizona, we can't help as much as we would like to.
    Our thoughts and prayers are with you all during this rough time and during the lousy rebuilding process that is never easy.

    hugs,
    Megzy & family
    http://tredlightphotographs.etsy.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for pointing out the OzBushfireAppeal shop. I didn't know about it before. That's a really great idea.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for talking about this. I just read about the fires on another blogger friend's blog as well. My thoughts and heart go out to you and everyone there.

    *hugs*

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great blog!! Hope you don't mind that I follow....
    (I'm a lil bit of a foul-mouth myself.....so we HAVE to be bloggy friends. Us foulmouths gotta stick together :=}, right?)

    Happy Valentine's Day and......

    Steady On
    Reggie Girl

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank-you for this post!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Its really sad is it!
    I shopped at coles yesterday and it was crazy packed!!Because the profit that they made yesterday is going to bushfires donation.
    Regarding the shop, thats a very brilliant idea. Lets we help them!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good job franz with this article. Pretty damn comprehensive too!

    Agree with the change of climate and how we all should learn to take care of our environment...while the earth is still standing!

    ---------
    http://www.littlemoandfriends.com/blog/

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hope you had a good Valentines Day and a nice weekend. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. I invite you to visit my blog. you can find my last works of art at:

    www.claudiotomassini.blogspot.com

    yours Claudio Tomassini

    ReplyDelete

”related