Photo gallery: Aerial views of Australia’s brutal drought

By Johnny Simon16 February 2019 (Quartz) – Australia is in the midst of a punishing drought that is kicking up massive dust storms and severely impacting the merino wool, wine and cattle industries. The state of Queensland was recently inundated with flood waters after the parched region received almost two weeks of rain. The flooding […]

Great Barrier Reef threatened by dirty water from recent floods – Floodwaters thought to contain dangerous chemicals are triggering algal blooms

By Liam James 15 February 2019 (The Independent) – Months after scientists warned it is at greater risk than ever, the Great Barrier Reef is facing a new challenge: dirty water. Run-off from the recent floods in Australia is spreading from the coast with the potential to reach the fragile reef. The floodwater is thick […]

Could climate change make it harder to get insurance in Australia? “There’s $88 billion at risk in terms of damage from coastal erosion in Australia”

By Ange Lavoipierre and Stephen Smiley 5 February 2019 (The Signal) – At the moment, Townsville is more or less underwater and large parts of Tasmania are on fire.Summer in Australia has always been extreme, but some corners of the country are experiencing climate-driven disasters that are worse than ever — and more of them […]

Calls for emergency action plan as myrtle rust pushes Australia plants to extinction – “That extinction is the end point of millions of years of evolution so, to me, that’s pretty profound”

By Graham Readfearn 23 January 2019 (The Guardian) – Australia must roll out an emergency national response to an invasive plant disease that is rapidly pushing at least four plant species to imminent extinction, experts have told Guardian Australia. A draft emergency action plan for the fungal disease myrtle rust proposes that a rapid collection […]

The anti-vaxx movement is a worldwide pandemic – “Parents need to understand that vaccines save lives”

By The Times Editorial Board 6 February 2019 (Los Angeles Times) – It’s not quite six weeks into 2019, and it’s already looking like it will be another banner year for measles in the United States. An outbreak in the Pacific Northwest that began in late January continues to spread, with more than 50 cases […]

Crocodile warning issued as Australia city faces “unprecedented areas of flooding” – Authorities deliberately flood 2,000 Queensland homes after record downpours

By Guy Davies 4 February 2019 LONDON (ABC News) – The Australian government is warning citizens to be on the look out for crocodiles and snakes in the streets amid severe rainfall and flooding in north Queensland over the past few days. “Crocodiles prefer calmer waters and they may move around in search of a […]

January was officially Australia’s hottest month on record – “The exceptional story here was temperature: maximum temperatures, minimum temperatures, and mean temperatures, and those records go back to 1910”

By Rod McGuirk 31 January 2019 CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Australia sweltered through its hottest month on record in January and the summer of extremes continued with wildfires razing the drought-parched south and flooding in expanses of the tropical north. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology confirmed the January record on Friday as parts of the northern […]

Historic flooding in Australia to continue, worsen across Queensland into the new week – “Unprecedented” rainfall drives Daintree River level to break 118-year record

By Faith Eherts and Adam Douty 2 February 2019 (AccuWeather) – Record-setting rainfall in recent days has led to widespread flooding, land slips, road closures and evacuations across Queensland. Flood dangers and travel disruptions will continue with little change expected in the coming week. In northern Queensland this past week, Cairns recorded a daily rainfall […]

Earth’s 39 billion-dollar weather disasters of 2018: 4th-costliest on record

By Dr. Jeff Masters23 January 2019 (Weather Underground) – Earth was besieged by 39 billion-dollar weather disasters in 2018, the fourth-highest inflation-adjusted number of billion-dollar weather events on record, said insurance broker Aon (formerly called Aon Benfield) in their annual report issued 22 January 2019. Only 2011, with 44 billion-dollar weather disasters, and 2010 and […]

Image of the Day: Mass death of feral horses at dried-up waterhole in record Australia heatwave – “I just couldn’t believe something like that happened out here, first time it happened like that”

By Matt Garrick22 January 2019(ABC News) – A mass feral horse death at the base of a dry waterhole in Central Australia has been blamed on an extreme heatwave in the region. Around two dozen brumbies in various stages of decomposition have been discovered strewn along a 100-metre stretch of a swimming spot called Deep […]

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