Greg's View of Todays News - 02/10/2009

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• BBC NEWS | Vow to rebuild fire-hit Australia

  Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has vowed his country would rally after the worst bushfires in its history.
  
  Mr Rudd told MPs that areas devastated by bushfires would be rebuilt "brick by brick" and "school by school".

  tags: press

  • Mr Rudd promised damaged communities would be rebuilt, and there would no limit on federal spending.

    "We have deliberately made the decision to place no cap on the Commonwealth's contribution to the recovery and reconstruction effort," he said.
    

    Although it would take time and effort, he added, "we will rebuild each of these communities... until one day we can look back and say these towns have been reborn".
    

  • Mr Rudd promised damaged communities would be rebuilt, and there would no limit on federal spending.

    What a great country this is. No limit on Federal spending. We are fortunate that this tragedy has occurred at a time when the government is trying to stimulate the economy.
    
    • Those with mortgages have compulsory insurance which will replace those houses.
      The government will hoefully replace all infrastructure, including commercial infrastructure, that is needed for any community to exist. - post by gnaylor
    
    

• Climate change will bring more extreme weather, say experts | Herald Sun

  

  Commenting on the Victorian fires, climatologist Professor David Karoly told the ABC's Lateline program last night that hot temperatures in Melbourne on Saturday and in many parts of southeastern Australia were "unprecedented".

  • "What we are seeing now is that the chances of these sorts of extreme fire weather situations are occurring much more rapidly in the last ten years due to climate change."
  • "We definitely need to change our habits so that we can leave our children and our children's children with a better world to live in," he said on Lateline.
    • I have been sitting on the fence with the need to adapt to Climate Change ... until NOW!.
      The highest temperature EVER recorded in Victoris together with the most lives EVER lost to bushfires - on the same day - leaves no room for doubt. - post by gnaylor
  • Victorian Premier John Brumby said a royal commission would investigate every aspect of the Victorian bushfires, including the possibility of greater danger resulting from climate change.
    • The Royal Commission must investigate the new phenonomen of 'spontaneous combuation' where housed exploded from within and evaluate the right of a landowner to stay and protect his/her assets to give the CFA/Police the power to clear the area before the fire arrives - post by gnaylor

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