Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Brisbane flooded who was to blame.

WELCOME TO OUR GENERAL BLOG YOU ARE INVITED. Here, we will post articles about world issues, Australian issues, Italian issues. And we will post also my personal life story articles. 
 Anyhow, today we will post another personal article, Floods, who is to blame.


Australia is a large country, but most of it is desert, or semi-desert, but this even be a thing of the past. Because, this year there are heavy rainfall, that has flooded parts of the desert. My question here is this, can the climatic change be so severe that will change the normal weather pattern? This may also change the way things grow, so even the desert one day may become fertile.  

What we are looking at here is a flood in Australia, I do not know the name of this place, but it is a typical view in this flat country, when the worst is over and the flood starts receding, sometimes it takes days for things to come back to normal. 

Welcome to our article, Floods, who is to blame. 

Dear readers, we are editing and reposting this article. Here we want to talk about two issues. One is about the weather, because it is extreme; it is ether too hot, too cold, too wet and everything else; the other issue is about the people; since they try to blame somebody, when things go the wrong way. So, let me tell you, what happened in Brisbane.

Now, because of the flood that has happened in Brisbane years ago, we wonder what is happening to the weather; so, we want to ask; who is to blame for today global warming, and other weather issues that seem to follow one after the other? Do you think that it is our fault? Because we are not looking after our planet properly, as we have said in our previous post. 

So, let us compare, what has happened in Australia in the last few years, and what is happening right now. One cannot help to think that a couple of years ago, we were so worried that there was not enough water in the dams of south east Australia, for that reason, we started to cut down our water consumption, today it is completely the opposite there are floods everywhere and we don’t know how we can avoid the damages caused by these floods. We believe that these problems are caused from global warming and other factors, so, mankind needs to look for solutions. 

We hope that in our community, there are clever people that can solve these problems. So, I believe that we should try to understand these weather issues, and at the same time try to let these people do their job, even if what they have done is not perfect; but they have done their best at that time. Anyhow, first let us see what is happening today in Australia, and after that we try to explain who is to blame?

Anyhow, in this article we are talking about the extreme weather in the regions of south east Queensland, so, we want to add another link, where we are talking about climatic changes and the effect it has all over the world, in this article; Concerned citizen views. Now, to explain what has happened, let us post what the news have reported, at the time when this was happening.

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News report on the internet. 

 Hereunder are part of reports that I found on the Internet, when these events were happening; let us start with St George QLD. And I quote;

The Balonne River is expected to peak sometime on Tuesday morning with the levees protecting the town of St George likely to hold back the water.

Thousands of people were evacuated from the cotton-growing centre of St George and taken to the safe havens of Dalby and Brisbane, with grave concerns the Balonne River would rise above the town's levee bank.

But those worries eased on Monday afternoon, with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting the river to peak at 14.5 metres on Tuesday - short of the 15-metre mark previously feared.

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Now let see NSW, the water moving downstream:

Residents in north western New South Wales are bracing for more isolation as floodwaters move west across the state.

The State Emergency Service (SES) says more than 10,000 people are likely to be isolated as the flooding from Queensland moves downstream into NSW over the coming days and weeks.

More about NSW floods:

Flooded residents in northwest NSW have received a morale-boosting visit from Governor-General Quentin Bryce.

Ms Bryce flew to Moree on Tuesday morning to witness the clean-up operation after last week's inundations.

"She's been very well received," Moree mayor Katrina Humphries told AAP.

"She's a very well-informed and compassionate lady."

-Here ends my quote from the news.

What I am writing now is what has happened after the flood from the dams.

This below is a list of links I hope they work, and more quotes from the news.

Guards for flood engineers after threats

Wivenhoe flood engineers named

And now let us see what is happening in Brisbane:

Two engineers in charge of Wivenhoe Dam when Brisbane and Ipswich flooded have stepped aside but it's no admission of guilt, the Queensland government says.

SEQWater senior flood engineers John Tibaldi and Terry Malone, who both testified at the reconvened floods inquiry last week, have stepped aside from their roles at the government authority.

Mr Tibaldi, the lead author of a report branded a fiction at the inquiry, did so on Friday after finishing his testimony.

Mr Malone, who testified on Sunday that no contemporary records on water releases were kept during last year's flood - in breach of dam manual requirements - followed suit on Monday.

End of quote.

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This is the reasons why I have called this article: Brisbane floods, who is to blame?

At this very moment, I can say that this game may turn out to be a dangerous game, because the politicians are trying to pass the buck to the people that were in charge of the dams, when those people didn’t know what the government wanted them to do, so, the politicians are accusing them without thinking about the future consequences.

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Concerned citizen views. 

As a concerned citizen, I believe that politicians are playing are passing the buck. When they should have talked about this issue while it was happening, but they didn’t, because it was too hard to make the right decision, so, now they try to blame the engineers in charge, when they had no clear rule to follow.

They want to find faults with the engineers that were in charge of Wivenhoe Dam, because they released the water from the dam to save the dam, there was too much water in the dam and there was more water coming in at an alarming rate; what else could they have done to save the dam from collapsing under the weight of the water, I believe that what they did was the only option they had. I know that by releasing the water some of Ipswich and Brisbane were flooded, but so what, if the dam collapsed part of Ipswich and Brisbane could end up in the Pacific Ocean, therefore, the engineers at the Wivenhoe Dam have saved us from a major disaster.

I believe that what is happening now is that the politician want to blame the engineer, but I would like to ask those who are trying to blame the engineers; if they were in charge of the dam at that time when this happened, what would they have done different from what the engineers did? To this question there must be a clear answer and no doubts or two ways about it, because today they have the advantage of knowing what has happened, therefore, it should be a clear-cut answer. I hope you see what I mean.

If they don’t know how things had to be done then, even with the advantage of knowing what was going to happen; then these people are worthless to know, because instead of accepting their mistakes they are blaming somebody else.

The politicians need to see what they are doing, since it can cause harmful affect in the future.

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Possible harmful effect. 

 As a concerned citizen, I should consider the harmful effect that can come from this, Playing the game, who is to blame. I want to say to these politicians, that they are wasting taxpayer money, and there can be harmful effects from they are doing. Today we must think that the world needs the best minds available to solve the future problems that we are facing, here we are talking about global warming and all the consequences that it can bring. At this point of time one should ask, who are the best minds that can minimize these problems? I suppose most of us will be thinking about the engineers, who else is able to make plans how to control water flow.

Since this is very likely what is going to happen, those engineers’ minds need to be free from fear of being accused of anything that they have not committed, if they are not free from fear, they cannot do their best and make new plans.

Therefore, politicians must try harder to understand the situation and to be friendlier with those minds capable to solve the problems, instead of trying to accuse them to gain some votes from the public. I hope you can see what I mean; we are going to need the work of many engineers in the future, and we must let these engineers work in a friendly environment, so, they can do a better job.

Therefore, let the politician see that they are at the very top of the chain of command, so, they should try to work together with the engineers openly, and since the politician are better at communication skills, they have to try harder to talk to each other in a friendly way, so, my point of view here is that the politician are not doing enough for the benefit of the community they represent. They must try harder and above all do not blame other people if you cannot give them your instructions.

See you soon, in our next article, Gardening in Brisbane

To see more click on this link, Floods, who is to blame

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Friday, January 21, 2022

Concerned citizen for our planet.

WELCOME TO OUR GENERAL BLOG YOU ARE INVITED. Here, we will post articles about world issues, Australian issues, Italian issues. And we will post also my personal life story articles. 
We must be concerned about what is happening on our planet earth, because this is the only planet we have. So, I hope that we find a way how to stop this global warming.  

Welcome to our article, Concerned citizen views.  

Dear readers, I am concerned about the future of our planet, so, today I am reposting this blog, because what I can say, I have already said before in this blog. Anyhow, I will update this blog at the very end to show you what I mean. 

Now, as a citizen of this world I am concerned. You see, we need to ask ourselves, whether what is happening in the world these days is our own fault; because the experts think that global warming could be our fault. But there are also other things happening, which can put our lives at risk. Today, whenever we turn on the TV or other devices to hear the news, there are alarming facts happening around us; most of these alarming facts are man-made; one of these is global warming. 

You see, today we are concerns, because these violent natural events that are happening are believed to be caused partly from ourselves, or we play a part that can increase them; the weather these days is changing, most times it is extremely hot, this gives rise to fires that cannot be controlled, they burn for days destroying everything in their way, then there are violent thunder storm that happen frequently, there are huge cyclones more destructive than before.

We are talking about global warming, and we the people are mainly to blame for it, because global warming is causing these negative things to happen. So, we should be concerned about it, and we should try to do our best to improve the situation if we can, hoping that this global warming can be controlled, or at least kept to a minimum.

Now that I have explained what this article is about, I am going to  say that I have written several articles in Hub Pages, talking about my life activities, now I am turning my attention to write about what is happening in the world today, starting with this article, Concerned citizen views. I hope that I can write a few articles about what can concern everybody, in the hope that my articles can help. 

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This citizen of the world is concerned. 

Now, this citizen is concerned, not only about the weather, but also because there are other things happening, which may put our own lives at risk. There are wars going on, there are refugees coming from everywhere, there are some very cruel killings that upset us deeply, and there are other things, some of these things include Mother Nature herself playing the main part.

Here, we want to talk about Mother Nature; and we are going to talk about the cyclonic weather that these days is damaging Vanuatu and then heading for New Zealand, leaving behind this natural disaster.

Now, this natural disaster is happening because of the global warming affect, so, I believe that it could be our own fault, but some others happenings are not so clear to see where they come from, but it is most likely that we have contributed to cause them; now, if we have contributed to cause them, then it is logic that it is our duty to look for the cause and effect that we have contributed, so that we can avoid to make the same mistake in the future. If we know what to do, we may be able to avoid the harm that they are causing, whatever that harm could be.

Now, if you want to see this cyclone we are talking about, click on the link below

(This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) image taken by the JMA MTSAT-2 satellite at 0330Z on March 11, 2015 shows three tropical cyclones spreading from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-03-cyclone-hurricane-typhoon-violent-phenomenon.html#jCp )

These violent weathers happening seem to come more often these days, or is it my imagination, whatever it is, it would be good to look at the situation closely, perhaps it is the global warming that is to blame; now if the global warming is to blame, then it is time that we try harder to do something about it, but let us explain a few things hereunder first.

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Cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons. 

There is no much difference, in the destructive force that these three types of tropical violent storms may bring, they are just different name for the same violent weather disturbance, so, they are more or less all the same but they are named according to where they are happening, in the South Pacific they are called cyclone, in the Atlantic and North Pacific they are called hurricane and in Asia they are called typhoon.

Hurricane Katrina Facts‎

These violent weather events occur, when it is hot and the water temperature in the ocean is 26 degrees Celsius or more, so they don’t happen when the weather is much cooler than that, for that reason we should be concerned, since there is also the global warming, which is steadily increasing the earth temperature, and this may increase these violent weather events.

These super storms can measure between 500 and 1000 Kilometres in diameter, they are very destructive, we also should keep in mind that in the future they might become more powerful and violent, because of the global warming effect. Here under is a link to cyclone Pam moving towards Vanuatu

Tropical Cyclone Pam gives NASA an eye-opening view

What we should be concerned about today, is that all low laying areas will be damaged when these cyclones happen. Now the most concerned people should be those people that live on islands that are only a few meters above sea level, because they could be copping it both ways, if the global warming cannot be resolved, so, let us look at a couple of things.

One; the sea level will slowly raise, and the island will become smaller and less abatable;

Two, if the island is small and flat, those people that live there should ask themselves, if it is safe enough to remain to live on this island; because with the sea level raising, and the cyclones becoming stronger soon or later it is going to become inhabitable.

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Climatic change. 

Climatic change also known as global warming is one of those things that the entire world should worry about, because this can bring negative happenings, as we have already mentioned above.

As we know a few things are being done to study the effect of global warming, and a few speeches have been delivered by high enough people to be noted, but very little has been done to stop or reverse this trend; so, let us see what we know;

The term global warming means an increase in the average temperature of the earth surface, the air and the oceans waters, these changes in temperatures have been monitored since 1950, and they have found that the temperature is slowly but steadily increasing, but we don’t seem to do much about this danger, even though we know that something needs to be done.

There are a few things that we could mention here, but I am only going to mention a couple of them and paste here links to the main events that these important people have addressed; Nobel Peace with Al Gore for landmark works on climate change: Al Gore has done a fair bit of work on climatic change but he seems to be slowing down presently.

Vice President Al Gore Climate‎

Then we could mention President Obama’s Speech:

President Obama's Speech at U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

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As you can see a few things are being done every now and then, but it is not continuous, whereas the weather worsens as the time goes by; for this reason, we should be concerned. 

Anyhow, today while I am editing this article, is January 2022. So, I can add here that the last year meeting about global warming was held in Glasgow England, and again they have promised many things but so far nothing has been done. Even the queen is telling us that, and I paste a short quote. 

  The Queen slams world leaders not committing to climate summit

The Queen says she is 'irritated' by world leaders who are not planning to attend the upcoming Cop26 climate change summit in Glasgow - with Scott Morrison yet to confirm if he will make the trip. (End of quote).

Anyhow, we need to do something soon, if we do not do anything, the only thing we can do is to pray God to help us, when thing happen.  

I believe that we have said enough in this article, so, see you in our next article, about another destructive weather events and other human failure, called, Playing the game, who is to blame, in our post, Floods, who is to blame

To see more click on this link, Concerned citizen views 

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Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Rats are destructive creatures.

WELCOME TO OUR GENERAL BLOG YOU ARE INVITED. Here, we will post articles about world issues, Australian issues, Italian issues. And we will post also my personal life story articles. 
Anyhow, today we will post another personal life story, in this article, Rats Are Destructive Creatures




This is a Queensland nut tree that is growing in my back yard. They say that the rats like these nuts so much that it will be almost impossible to get read of the rats, unless you cut down the tree. But I do not believe it, rats can eat just about anything, so, even if I cut my nut tree the rats will survive. 




I believe that most animals on earth are competing with us, some of them may befriend us and serve us, others are forever our enemies. Today I am going to talk about rats, because they can be destructive and dangerous animals in large numbers. This rat in the photo looks even scary, I believe it is a cannibal rat, these rats can attack anything and anybody, see the following story that I fount on the internet. 
 

Welcome to our article, Rats Are Destructive Creatures 

Rats are destructive and scary creatures.

That rats are dangerous and destructive, can be seen from the following description, which is something I found on the Inherent, and I quote:

Incredibly, the eerie remains of a ship the same 295-ft length was recently found washed up on a Californian beach — and investigators thought it was the mystery boat.

"This ship is thought to have been taken over by hordes of cannibal rats.

"So, imagine this giant ship full of these ravenous hordes of cannibal rats appearing on your local beach right where you live," said one expert in the Science Channel programme. End of quote

Anyhow, this is what I fount on the Internet, but the following is my true rats’ story

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Another struggle in our lives

Dear readers, our lives are full of surprises, some are good, some are not so good, and some are so nasty that will make us struggle to solve that problem; one of these nasty struggles is happening to me these days; so, let me tell you what it is, because it can be useful to know. 

What I am talking here, is about rats; I believe that rats are everywhere in the world, there are many types of rats. Most people are terrified from rats, because history tells us that they can be the carrier of nasty disease that can infect us; this is what I found on the Internet about rats carrying diseases, and I quote:  

·         Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome. A virus that spreads through breathing in contaminated dust,...

·         Leptospirosis. A bacterial diseases that spreads through contaminated food and water,...

·         Plague. A bacterial disease that spreads either through direct contact with an infected rat...

·         Rat-Bite Fever. An infectious disease... (End of quote).

 

Then rats can be destructive, they can even be aggressive. But nevertheless, some people keep them as pets, because there are some species of rats that are easy to train and cheap to keep, if we compare them to other pets. But a rat for pet is not for me, especially after what has happened to me recently, so, let me tell you my story.

Now, this is a true story that I am telling you; it has happened to me recently, in fact, I can say that it is still happening right now, since I am still working to find a permanent solution to this rats’ problem. To tell you the truth, we knew that there could have been rats in the backyard, because we have a macadamia tree in the backyard, and we find these nuts with a whole in their side, and the nutshell is empty. Then, one of our neighbors used to have chickens in their backyard, and rats are attracted to the chicken smell and their food. Also, this neighbor and another neighbor in the back don’t have much lawn, but they let everything grow wild in their yards, so, there is too much overgrown plants, for the rats to eat and to hide easily, anyhow this is the set-up of how things stand; now let me tell you what has happened.

Knowing that there were rats, we were careful and kept the door on the ground floor closed, because if the rats were running around they could come in; but that was not enough to avoid the rats assault, because one night they found their way in through the window, so, they made a mess in the downstairs room, which we use as a rumpus-room, storage room and other things, anyhow, we had some tomatoes and they went through them, biting and eating them. Now that is not all, because what happens next is unbelievable; this I am going to describe hereunder, in night work of a devilish rat.

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Night work of a devilish rat

Now, I should say that what has happened next shocked me. So, let me tell you what happened, just the way it has happened. Okay, I know that the rats come in through the window, so, if I put something else that makes the window more secure the problem can be solved. So, I bought some fly screen mash and installed it in these two windows of this room downstairs. So, I thought that I had solved the rat problem for good, but it was not so. Because one of these rats that were coming in at night, it found a way how to chew the fly screen mesh and got in the room again. This time it didn’t chew the tomato, but it was taking away some broad beans one by one, while we were sleeping upstairs. Anyhow, this rat became too bold and one evening came in the room while we were still in the room.

Now what is going to follow next, may make you think that I am a violent and sadistic person, but I am not, because in own way I think that what I did was what needed to be done, but let me tell you what I did. Anyhow, the rat came in, so, I looked around for something that I could hit this rat to scare it or kill it, but as you know rats are very fast, so it got away easily, by hiding in the room somewhere.

Anyhow, I left the room and went upstairs, hoping that it would come out and go away through the window, but it didn’t, because when I came back to check up later that evening, I didn’t see it.

So, I thought will see what happens tomorrow and I went to bed. That night was one of those nights that I will remember for a long time, because at about two o’clock in the morning there was this scratching noise in the wooden floor and some walls partitions, this noise, made me think about the rat and went to check on it.

I believe that what happened was this, when the rat came out again, after eating a few things it wanted to get out, but there wasn’t any easy way out, because we had moved the curtain to one side of the window and closed the window, who could have thought that rats are so nasty, when they think they are caught?

Anyhow, this rat that we had left inside in our downstairs room was very nasty, because once it realized that he/she could not get out of the window, it did the following. Beside the window there are some shelves, where we keep some books on it, so, it went on the books and from this position, it made a hole in the gypsum plaster cornice, (gypsum is a substance like chalk that is used to make plasterboard and other things), I was very upset, because it caused this damage, at the same time I could not believe it, and was wondering how clever and destructive can these rats be? I felt also that it was stupid of me, I had to make sure that there was a way out for the rat, but then again, and what about if more rats would come in? What a dilemma? Rats can make our life miserable, look at how much more work I must do, to make sure that these rats don’t come in, so, I am thinking of how to defend ourselves from these rats. Today while I am auditing this article, I can add that I am having rat’s problem in my kitchen garden, they keep eating my crops, so, this is another problem to solve.

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Thinking how to defend ourselves from rats. 

 As, I have said, we need to find a way, how to defend ourselves from these rats. We must close all doors and windows and keep them closed; but when it is too hot that is not possible. So, we should make all sorts of barriers that can stop the rats coming into our houses. I know that it is not going to be easy, because as we have seen, some of these rats are very clever and can find their way in and out again, unless it is a solid barrier that is not possible to chew.

Anyhow, even putting a fly screen in the windows may work, if the rats have not yet been inside, and they don’t know that there are things that they like to eat. I am saying this because of what has happened to me, as I have written above in this article. Otherwise, you should think about something else, or perhaps have a cat, some cats are good at catching mouses and rats, it is their inborn instinct to catch them, because that is how they survive in the wild, so, it can work, but not all the time, todays cats are becoming lazy, because they are continually fed from us humans, by doing that we spoil the cat and we lose their usefulness.

But whatever happens, we must not let the rats eat away our food and damage out houses, it would be silly if we do. In my case, I am going to work out all sorts of barriers to stop them, perhaps I should use a mouse trap to catch them, but the rat trap does not work well, as I have found out, I set the rat-trap up the rat somehow was so clever that has eaten the food without springing the trap. Of course, there is also rat poison to consider; I don’t like to go that way, but if I must even that is an option to consider carefully.

Anyhow, today I am building all sorts of barriers to stop the rats coming in the house.  Perhaps I should cut down my macadamia tree and talk to the neighbors about this rat problem, in the hope that they do something about it. And then, keep my fingers crossed for good luck.

I believe that this article is long enough.

To see more click on this link, Rats Are Destructive Creatures

See you in our next article, Concerned citizen views 

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