An acquaintance of mine who has apparently decided to become a full time climate denier and foe of wind turbines is spreading the latest BS from Breitbart. (No, I am NOT going to link to them.)
The article leads off with this:
24 Australians Charged with Bushfire Arson as Further Arrests Expected
Twenty-four Australians in the state of New South Wales alone have been arrested since early November for intentionally setting bushfires as a record number of blazes continue to burn across the country.
More suspects are expected to be questioned in coming days as local police work to find and apprehend culprits who have contributed to the devastating fire season, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
See — it’s a perfect set up. They hand their readers an explanation for the fires right at the top — and the arrest news is true. [True for a given value of true. Several comments link to reports that arson numbers are being exaggerated.] They continue with that, throw in a little about the extent of the fires, and reinforce their real message with this at the end.
As Breitbart News reported, the link between arsonists and the deadly fires that devastate Australia every summer is well known and documented, with the rate of deliberately lit fires escalating rapidly during the school holiday period.
Dr Paul Read, co-director of the National Centre for Research in Bushfire and Arson, said the great majority of Australian bushfires are deliberately lit by “cunning, furtive and versatile criminals,” reports ABC News.
“About 85 per cent are related to human activity, 13 per cent confirmed arson and 37 per cent suspected arson,” he said. “The remainder are usually due to reckless fire lighting or even just children playing with fire.”
Dr Read said holidays and summer were a bad combination when it came to criminal fire starters.
“School holidays are a prime time for fire bugs, but especially over summer,” he said. “The kids have got time to get out there and light, and the most dangerous adults choose hot days.”
emphasis added
See? Climate change has nothing to do with it. It’s just kids playing with matches as usual.
It’s slick. They report the fires, the damage, the loss of wildlife, they throw in news about people getting busted for starting fires, they link to legitimate news sources, and they never mention climate as a factor at all. It’s a perfect set up for their audience to draw the ‘obvious’ conclusions: climate has nothing to do with it AND it’s just the liberal media trying to promote the climate hoax when they report it does.
It takes a real skill to lie so thoroughly by telling the truth — just not all of it. Going to the Sydney Morning Herald main web site and searching for climate brings up a number of stories. What are the odds my ‘friend’ will look any farther?
I was getting the same line from another climate denier in a Facebook group; he’d also trotted out the claim that this was natural and it’s the Australian’s fault for not raking their forests. He’s also obsessed with the idea that all unions are crime organizations. What is it with these people?
The only thing hotter than Australia at the moment are the fires in the place where these professional liars are headed. Too bad they’re trying to take us with them. This is just evil.
I’m only surprised they didn’t throw in something about Australia’s strict gun laws keeping people from defending themselves from arsonists. I’m sure that’s out there somewhere too.