Activists using bushfire tragedy to promote renewables a ‘pathetic insult’ to victims

Sky News host Steve Price has slammed activists using the 15th anniversary of the Black Saturday bushfire disaster to promote renewable energy, calling it a “pathetic insult” to the victims of the tragedy. A group called Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action took out a full-page ad in The Australian newspaper trying to convert sympathy for the Black Saturday victims into support for renewable energy. The ad demands that Australians “help to prevent future catastrophes by supporting Australia’s move to renewable energy”. “Shame on these people, shame on them. I arrived at the distressing scene on the Sunday after Black Saturday, the next day, working on radio to cover this disaster,” he said. “Police escorted me ... through roadblocks deep inside the deadly carnage. What I saw was heartbreaking – people who had fled the flames, that were spotting by the way some 20 kilometres ahead of the fire, a fire running at more than 100 kilometres per hour. “Those people were outrun by the inferno - cars crashed into each other in the smoke, people died in their vehicles.”