I’m not sure who is getting insulted by that observation, but to repeat the findings of over 97 per cent of climate scientists and thousands of research studies over decades is not exactly “disingenuous”.

It’s actually rather silly to conclude that increasing temperatures would not lead to drier grass and less surface moisture, both of which would make bush fires more ferocious. How else would he explain the increasing length of the bush fire season? 

I’m also a little perturbed with David’s mimicking of the US gun lobby when he suggests that immediately after a bushfire we shouldn’t be discussing what caused it or what made it so large and hard to put out.

He suggests that “this is not the time and place for such discussions” just as US lawmakers do after a mass shooting. Of course for them the time and place never arrives, but I look forward to David Everest raising the issue of how climate is affecting bushfires next winter. 

The other evening I was watching a program on Dr Justin Yerbury who has motor neuron disease.

Since his diagnosis he has spent his life studying the disease and qualifying as a doctor in order to fully understand the vagaries of the disease in order that he may now help others. He is wheelchair bound and has trouble breathing but spends his remaining energy helping others.

After the program I switched over to the news only to be confronted by three pathetic, snivelling cheating cricketers who were in tears no doubt not because of what they did but the fact that they got caught!

They deserved to have the book thrown at them.

As we look forward to the conference of Rural Australians for Refugees in Wodonga this weekend, and no doubt some vigorous discussion on the government’s refugee policies, it’s important to raise our sights above regional and local issues.

Both the current and previous governments like to pretend that Australia is only reacting to a refugee problem, and bears no responsibility for creating it. Yet whether through our role in contributing to climate change, or involvement in wars in the Middle East we clearly have an obligation towards the refugees those disasters are creating.

That moral obligation is being met by ordinary Australians in our region, despite the lack of assistance or obstruction from those in power, but we are still powerless to prevent those refugees from being created, or to change conditions abroad that will enable them to return home, as the majority would wish.

Our own leaders do have that power however, whether by cutting military support for one party to a conflict – in Syria for example – or by genuine commitment to cutting back on our fossil-fuel mining and combustion.

We in turn can take some of that power by demanding that our government starts talking peace and cooperation, instead of raising the temperature on both fronts.