By Ilya Gridneff19 January 2013 (Sydney Morning Herald) – Hundreds of firefighters battled the most atrocious conditions imaginable on Friday to contain about a dozen out-of-control blazes from the state’s far south to the Hunter Valley, desperately hoping a late cool change would bring relief. By late on Friday, fires near Cessnock, Coonabarabran, Young, and […]
By JOHN M. BRODER17 January 2013 (The New York Times) – Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline and the heavy Canadian crude oil that it would carry released two reports on Thursday asserting that the environmental impacts of the project are worse than previously estimated, and urged the Obama administration to veto it. One report, […]
By Carol Browner and John Podesta 17 January 2013 The Arctic Ocean is subject to some of the most volatile weather patterns on the planet. Geologists believe it also contains vast undersea oil and gas reserves. Last year, the Arctic’s ice cover shrank to the lowest levels in recorded history and, not coincidentally, Royal Dutch […]
18 January 2013 (New Scientist) – All eyes have been on Australia in recent weeks as a blistering heatwave triggered huge wildfires. The result has been a slew of amazing stories, including a family escaping by jumping into the sea and meteorologists adding new colours to heat maps. But Australia’s fires are just the most […]
By Ilya Gridneff, Tom Arup, and Jacob Saulwick19 January 2013 SYDNEY, Australia (SMH) – Sydney endured its hottest ever day on Friday, with records smashed across the city and thousands of people suffering from the heat. The mercury topped 45.8 at Sydney’s Observatory Hill at 2.55pm, breaking the previous record set in 1939 by half […]
By Sam Nelson, with additional reporting by Carey Gillam in Kansas City; Editing by Dale Hudson18 January 2013 CHICAGO (Reuters) – Dry weather should continue through at least the end of January in the drought-stricken U.S. Plains and a blast of Arctic cold air in the Midwest early next week poses a threat to unprotected […]
By Tim Barlass17 January 2013 Prime Minister Julia Gillard flew into Coonabarabran on Thursday to witness first-hand the devastating effects of the bushfire that claimed at least 49 homes. At a press conference, the Prime Minister announced financial support for those who had lost homes or been evacuated. Ms Gillard drove through the Timor Road […]
By Katherine Bagley17 January 2013 (InsideClimate News) – The news last week that the New York Times is dismantling its environment desk and reassigning the reporters throughout the newsroom provoked an outpouring of reaction, much of it suggesting that now isn’t the time to take risks that could diminish the coverage of climate change. In […]
By Fergus Jensen and Rieka Rahadiana, with additional reporting by Michael Taylor and Janeman Latul; Writing by Jonathan Thatcher; Editing by Robert Birsel17 January 2013 JAKARTA (Reuters) – Heavy monsoon rain triggered severe flooding in large swathes of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Thursday, bringing the city to a halt with many government offices and […]
16 January 2013 (AAP) – The tiny West Australian town of Karlgarin has been virtually blown off the map after a freak storm blasted through it. The State Emergency Service (SES) and Volunteer Emergency Service (VES) volunteers said they were working to help people in the Wheatbelt town after destructive storms caused damage to up […]
