It’s New Year’s Eve in Australia! Today on the 31 December 2019 in Australian news:
4,000 people forced to shelter on the beach during midday daylight hours as the fires surround them in Victoria. The fire has since passed the beach but many homes were lost and they are still stuck on that beach.
The near entirety of east gippsland was evacuated on Monday and many areas remain inaccessible. That’s 30,000+ locals and assorted tourists
All these photos and snippets are from 31 December 2019, one day on Australia. There are more, but I’m getting depressed looking at them, trying to decide what tumblr would find interesting to share and raise awareness versus what won’t. Not a judgement call I like making.
It’s currently 6:30pm, so there’s still 5.5 hours left of this day for more to come. These fires are still going and the people in these photos are still not safe.
Australia is only four weeks into summer (”fire season”) but the bushfires began 16 weeks ago - in the second week of spring.
kurokeiko
Not only that, it has burned over 11. MILLION. HECTARES.
ELEVEN MILLION.
For comparison, the Amazon fires, which were a GLOBAL EMERGENCY, burned 2 million.
Not only that, but over 480 million animals have died. Koalas in the wild are extinct, and those that have been rescued no longer have a home. I won’t show photos of them, but it’s not fun.
The smoke here is so bad that people can barely be outside, and people with asthma, lung and heart conditions cannot leave their buildings or are currently living in hospital. People have died. Firefighters have died. Our families are stuck, without ability to be rescued, on beaches and IN THE WATER because it’s the only place left where they won’t catch on fire.
It started in SPRING, the second week of spring, and TOMORROW they’re declaring it a statewide emergency for NSW.
Not a national or international crisis or emergency. Just for one state.
I know it’s miserable, but my god imagine being one of the people on that beach right now, wearing nothing but your clothes and your dust mask, knowing everything you own is gone and that your country’s leader is only just now declaring an emergency (only statewide) because he physically has to.
I know we’re not great on money- I know a lot of us don’t have a cent to spare. But if you do, please, please donate to bushfireappeal.com.au . And if you aren’t able to donate, PLEASE RAISE AWARENESS. Because if the world can find out and make a big deal over it, maybe the people who run our country will.
Please.
We are desperate, we are hot, and we are burning.
politicaltoaster reblogged
macgregor13mathers-deactivated2
The poor and the middle-classes, with some exceptions, harbour secret fantasies of fame and fortune and the prospect of tax increases on the wealthy threaten those fantasies. This is the main reason, other than religious bigotry and racism, that non-rich persons vote for Conservatives. They have the same phenomenon in the UK; poorer voters in general, enjoy toffs ruling over them(such as Boris Johnson) because they fantasise about being the Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey.
They have to get those numbers up!
anyway jeff bezos could eradicate homelessness. he could literally give each homeless person 100k and it would only take less than .5% of his entire wealth. what the actual god giving fuck
Why do you think they deserve it
anarcho-kaibaism
Well shelter is a basic need, and would at the very least allow them a place where they can get back on their feet. Food water and shelter are necessary for a healthy body and psychology. There’s also the fact that they’re people too, and a little help goes a long way in making a decent community. There’s plenty of reasons
Yeah they need stuff, but why does every homeless person deserve 0.5% of someone’s income
You have five hundred apples, and just one day to eat them all.
You pass by a small crowd of hungry children, and decide you’d rather 455 apples go rotten than give them to some snotty brat who isn’t your problem.
It doesn’t matter how hard you’ve worked for your 500 apples, or that you aren’t the parent of any of those kids. in the moment you decide to walk away, it doesn’t matter why they’re hungry, or who owes who what.
You had the opportunity to help people, you had the ability to help people, you had the resources to help people. You had everything you needed to make a small, tiny little difference in someone’s life, and you decided not to.
What are you going to buy in your lifetime that’s worth more to you than your own humanity?
just-pansexual-things
What are you going to buy in your lifetime that’s worth more to you than your own humanity
Reblogging for the very, very important lesson
smarter-than-the-republicans
Sometimes I wish there were a Hell if only for the visuals of a bunch of rich shit heads wandering around on fire asking “Where’s my money?!”
nerdgal-dorkski
Highest recommendation, regarding the dropping of the fuckwit bomb.
… every time I think we’ve charted the depths of this fuckwit’s stupidity.
EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
Something like this emerges.
We all know he got this idea from watching sharknado.
veryfunnymemes
politicaltoaster reblogged
"Tantrum" is the perfect word for it
[What are the most interesting domino effects in history?]
[Star Trek: Voyager was not as well received as previous Star Trek series. In 1997, producers decided to add a new character in an attempt to boost ratings. Actress Jeri Ryan was brought in to play Seven of Nine. Jeri’s frequent separations from her husband, Jack Ryan, due to her acting schedule contributed to their decision to divorce in 1999.
In 2004, Jack Ryan became the Republican nominee for an open Senate seat in Illinois. During the campaign, the proceedings from Ryan’s divorce became public, and contained details of his sex life that did not make him look good.
The scandal forced Ryan to drop out of the Senate race in July, leaving the GOP time to only find token opposition to Democratic nominee Barack Obama. Obama’s landslide victory in the Senate race helped launch him onto the national stage, allowing him to pull off an upset victory in the 2008 Democratic primary and win the presidential election.
TL;DR- The lackluster writing of Star Trek: Voyager helped pave the way for the Obama presidency.]
Thanks, Voyager!
politicaltoaster reblogged
He’s really not that bad guys. We had much worse for 10 years. Wanna go back to that? Keep doing the Conservative’s a favour by demonizing him as a person instead of disagreeing with his policies.
politicaltoaster reblogged
macgregor13mathers-deactivated2
Wish it were tomorrow!
Still happening today. Same old tried and true tactics from yesteryear.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri, September 23, 1947
This is from 1947 and could have been written this morning.
politicaltoaster reblogged
The province is slashing Toronto Public Health’s funding by $1 billion over a decade as part of a plan to consolidate local public health units across Ontario, says the chair of the city’s board of health — a move that’s prompting an outcry from city officials.
Chair Joe Cressy said the board was informed of a change in the cost-sharing structure from Premier Doug Ford’s government on Thursday afternoon, which he said amounts to an immediate $86-million hole in its latest budget.
The funding cut will impact various programs, he added, including infectious disease initiatives, communicable disease surveillance, immunization programs, food safety and water quality initiatives, as well as sexual health promotion.
“People will die,” Cressy said. “People are going to die.”
Tagging: @onpoli @torontopoli
Ford’s government is insane, public health has been in desperate need for more services/better funding for years, I cannot imagine how anyone can think a ONE BILLION dollar cut is a good idea
Ah another Walkerton on the way.
Source: cbc.ca
politicaltoaster reblogged