Heat, flame and the long summer
Bushfire ecology after Black Summer, cool fire, urban heat islands and houses that do not cook their occupants.
Australian cities store summer in bitumen, west-facing brick and roofs that were chosen for a milder century. The extra heat arrives at night, when the streets should be giving it back. Tree canopy, pale surfaces and renter-scale tactics are how a suburb stops being a storage heater.
Jed Hargraves · 30 November 2024 · 10 min read
Cool fire is not a lifestyle look and not a video you copy on a weekend. It is a practice held by Aboriginal people on particular Country, now asked to sit beside agency burns, liability forms and a public that wants a gentle flame to undo a hard century.
Jed Hargraves · 2 November 2024 · 10 min read
Black Summer is now the reference fire against which later seasons are quietly measured. Epicormic shoots and seedbanks explain a lot of the green that followed. They do not explain every forest, and they do not unwrite the smoke that sat on towns for weeks.
Jed Hargraves · 11 October 2024 · 10 min read
The sea is not arguing in a court. It is rearranging sand, estuaries and the edge of suburbs that were sold as forever. Seawalls buy time; planned retreat admits a map. Insurance, an EIS and the difference between a tourist cliff and a street of houses are the civic work.
Jed Hargraves · 7 July 2024 · 9 min read
Australian houses were built for a milder century and now ask the grid to finish the job. Insulation, ceiling fans, a shaded western window and a split system used with manners keep a room liveable. Renters have a shorter list; blackouts make that list shorter still.
Jed Hargraves · 7 July 2024 · 9 min read