I have spoken to a few North and Central Queenslanders who have scratched their heads this week on the media storm around Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
Alfred was a big storm, and these storms always have the potential to flood Brisbane causing enormous heartache to many. So, none of this is to minimise the damage done.
But the media hype does damage too. People seemed to get whipped into such a frenzy that we, in effect, shut down our country’s third biggest city for almost a week before Cyclone Alfred hit.
The public service, universities and even transport networks began shutting down last Tuesday, a full four days before the storm made landfall. My son, who studies at the University of Queensland, sent me photos of sunny days while all of his lectures were cancelled.
In CQ we went through Cyclone Marcia, a category 5 cyclone, just a decade ago. I cannot remember anyone taking time off work before the event. And there was certainly no mass, economy wide shutdowns just because a cyclone was approaching.
It seems that post COVID we have become addicted to the warm embrace of the coach for a lockdown. I get it. It is nice to have a few days off work and catch up on Netflix. But it is not right and lots of other people are harmed by this act of economic self-harm.
I have spoken to many small businesses over the past week in Brisbane who are pulling their hair out at the chaos these cyclone lockdowns have caused. The public servants working from home get paid. So do the university lecturers even though courses are cancelled.
Once again it is the small businesses that cop it. They still have to pay rent, power and the bank. They lose thousands because people were no longer out and about to frequent their stores. There are no assistance packages for them. But everyone will still expect them to provide the coffees, the petrol and the milk after the cyclone passes.
We have to get over the COVID addiction to fear and panic. Cyclones will continue to hit North Queensland and Brisbane will continue to flood. One reason for the panicked reaction to weather is that the climate alarmists tell us that every storm or bushfire is worse than what used to happen.
There was nothing special about Alfred. Since cyclones began to be named in the 1950s, five had hit Southeast Queensland before Alfred.
We are warned that cyclones are getting worse but that is just not the case. From 1970 to 2000, Australia was hit by an average of 12 cyclones a year, with 6 of them being severe. Since 2000, the average has just been 9 cyclones a year with just 4 of them being severe.
In 2014, scientists published in Nature found that “The Australian region seems to be experiencing the most pronounced phase of tropical cyclone inactivity for the past 550–1,500 years.”
In 1954 the Great Gold Coast Cyclone killed at least 26 people. Thankfully, the death toll from Alfred will be much fewer.
Ironically, it is the use of fossil fuels that keep us much safer today from these events. Coal helps make the steel and concrete that has made our buildings stronger. Oil and gas makes the plastics that we mould into pipe and containers to better manage stormwater.
Today, 90 per cent fewer people die in natural disasters globally than 100 years ago. This is thanks in large part to the increased use of fossil fuels.
It is time to stop panicking and count our blessings that we live in the fossil fuel era which helps keep us safe.
