I wonder, if Australian government will introduce the emission trading, which is just bureaucratic speak for “you can pollute as long as you pay”. An oxymoronic approach to environment protection as there always will be polluters for whom it will pay to “purchase” the pollution quota rather then innovate and find alternative environmently friendly alternatives. This would only change if alternatives and R&D for clear energy would be cheaper than for example coal power.
Back to my photograph and its title. I see ever increasing number of smokers in the city. Now that they have been banned from restaurants, offices and pubs they smoke everywhere in the city sometimes making a nice walk a really unpleasant experience by blowing their filthy, stinking smoke all around. If the emission trading does get introduced will it cover the smokers too? I certainly hope so. A nice economic intensive to reduce tobacco smoke would be a flat $50 per packet tax.
This fire allegedly was started by the son of the house owners who was playing with fire in garage. The fire has spread very quickly and was fueled by some items stored in that garage. Fire brigades had a difficult time extinguishing it as they had to wait first for the gas and electricity to be turned off. By the time the fire was gone the house sustained visible structural damage.
I looked how hard the firefighters worked and how they were affected by the smoke and the fact they had to work in the heavy gear. I have never seen a fire and the work of fireman from that close. It is a much more complex operation than just arriving and spraying lots of water on the fire.
I hope this pictorial shows some of the aspects of fire fighting, team effort, exhaustion and various other elements of firemen’s tasks.
Today, yet again, City Rail has failed its customers. The peak hour train to Central Coast has developed a problem and one of the carriages has started to fill in with heavy, chemical smoke. The train stopped at Berowra and commuters left the carriage by themselves. There was no warning over the PA. Worse yet, once the City Rail stuff have found the smoke they still allowed the commuters to return on the train without finding the underlying cause.
I watched in disbelief the same was repeated upon arrival of the Fire brigade. No communication was issued to hundreds of people sitting on the train. It took another 15 minutes before finally someone decided the further trip was not possible for this train and everyone was asked to leave and wait for the following service.
To me this situation demonstrated City Rail is poorly prepared for emergency situations. In case like this where a carriage is filled with choking smoke, everyone should have been asked to leave until the train was declared safe. This time the smoke proved to be the result of a blocked break but next time it may be something more serious.
This photograph illustrates the air we have to breath while walking through the streets of Sydney courtesy of smokers. Every few meters people are having a cigarette and in most cases we do not see the smoke even if we may smell its choking fumes. It takes a big of sunlight on the right angle to show how much smoke a person exhales in a single puff.
PS: I know cigarettes are legal but they carry a lot of health warnings about the consequences of smoking them, so where is my right not to have to inhale this hazardous substance?
