Aerial view of the dried-up riverbed at the confluence of the Ticino and Po rivers at Ponte della Becca, near Linarolo, Italy. Never since weather records began 70 years ago has the water level of the Po been lower. Scientists have been warning of increasing drought in northern Italy for many years. Photo: Piero Cruciatti / AFP / Getty Images

EU countries forced to restrict drinking water access – Worst drought in 70 years paralyzes agriculture in Italy – “The demand doesn’t stop growing”

By Tim Schauenberg 7 July 2022 (DW) – Amplified by human-induced climate change and water over-consumption, southern Europeans are feeling the consequences of more extreme heat waves and longer droughts. Now governments from Portugal to Italy are calling on citizens to limit water use to the bare minimum. But in some places, this is not […]

Three-wheelers queue to buy petrol due to fuel shortage, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 5 July 2022. Dinuka Liyanawatte / REUTERS

World Bank calls for sovereign debt changes ahead of looming crises – “There are more Sri Lankas on the way”

By Marc Jones 28 June 2022 LONDON, June 28 (Reuters) – A senior official at the World Bank has ramped up its calls for changes in sovereign debt laws so governments have more control when crises strike and they have to restructure their debt. World Bank economists estimate that low- and middle-income economies owe a […]

The Turner family children were rescued from the second story of their Shanes Park home in north-west Sydney on 5 July 2022, after the fourth flood in less than 18 months. Photo: Dean Sewell / The Sydney Morning Herald

How an atmospheric river hit Sydney – “We’re seeing these events which we call one-in-1000 year events or one-in-100 year events now becoming one-in-one year events”

By Ben Cubby, Laura Chung, and Nigel Gladstone 8 July 2022 (The Sydney Morning Herald) – Every disaster movie starts with a scientist being ignored, so the saying goes. In the Hollywood version, the lone researcher stares at a screen, eyes widening as the ominous data comes through, and leaps for a phone to try […]

The bones of other animals surround an emaciated cow in Ethiopia’s Somali Region. Carcasses are a daily reminder of the devastation caused by the 2021-22 drought. Photo: Michael Tewelde / WFP

Horn of Africa braces for “explosion of child deaths” as hunger crisis deepens – Three million livestock have died since mid-2021 from drought and disease

7 June 2022 (UNICEF) – An “explosion of child deaths” is likely and imminent in the Horn of Africa unless the international community takes immediate action to prevent a new hunger disaster, UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday. To illustrate continuing deep concern about emergency levels of malnutrition in Somalia and the wider Horn of Africa, […]

A girl reacts to the camera as her family members inspect their damaged belongings at her home, while flood water levels recede slowly in Sylhet, Bangladesh, Wednesday, 22 June 2022. Photo: Mahmud Hossain Opu / AP Photo

Climate change a factor in “unprecedented” South Asia floods – “This is something that we have never heard of and never seen”

By Aniruddha Ghosal and Al-Emrun Garjon 22 June 2022 SYLHET, Bangladesh (AP) – Scientists say climate change is a factor behind the erratic and early rains that triggered unprecedented floods in Bangladesh and northeastern India, killing dozens and making lives miserable for millions of others. Although the region is no stranger to flooding, it typically takes place later […]

Poster demanding justice for Dom Phillips, a British journalist, and Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian expert on indigenous people, who were murdered while doing investigative work in a remote region of the Amazon rainforest in early June 2022. Graphic: Cris Vector

Assassinated British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira laid to rest in Brazil – Indigenous group Univaja demands probe into murders – “They tried to tell the world what was happening to the rainforest and its inhabitants”

By Tom Phillips and Andrew Downie 26 June 2022 Niterói (The Guardian) – The British journalist Dom Phillips has been laid to rest in Brazil, exactly three weeks after he was gunned down while journeying through the Amazon with the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. Pereira and Phillips, a longtime Guardian contributor, disappeared while travelling on […]

Aerial view of workers gathering along a section of flooded railway in Shangrao in central China's Jiangxi province, Tuesday, 21 June 2022. Photo: Chinatopix / AP

Mass evacuations as record rain, floods strike southern China – Pearl River water level hits 100-year high – Heatwave causes record power demand surge in northern cities

By Jack Lau 20 June 2022 (SCMP) – Floodwaters engulfed homes, fields and roads in southern China as authorities evacuated nearly 150,000 residents after weeks of record rain. A task force from Beijing was sent to Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Guangdong province to lead rescue and evacuation efforts on Monday, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The China Meteorological Administration said […]

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel rescue flood-affected people in Korora village, west of Gauhati, India, Friday, 17 June 2022. Photo: Anupam Nath / AP

More than 9.5 million people stranded after deadly floods hit India and Bangladesh – “The flooding is the worst in 122 years in the Sylhet region”

By Swati Gupta and Rhea Mogul 22 June 2022 NEW DELHI (CNN) – Millions of people across India and Bangladesh have been affected by raging floods and landslides that left more than 100 people dead and entire communities devastated. The South Asian nations, home to more than 1.3 billion people, have been particularly badly hit by the […]

Vehicles queue for diesel and petrol as they wait for a fuel tanker since the previous day amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 23 June 2022. Photo: Dinuka Liyanawatte / REUTERS

Sri Lanka almost out of fuel, with no fresh supplies in sight – Troops open fire to quell rioting at fuel station – “Our economy has faced a complete collapse,” prime minister says

25 June 2022 (The Guardian) – Sri Lanka has increased the price of fuel by up to 22 percent after the energy minister warned it had virtually run out of petrol and diesel after several expected shipments were delayed. Kanchana Wijesekera apologised to motorists as he said on Saturday that oil cargoes that were due […]

A satellite image shows fields peppered with artillery craters near Slovyansk, Ukraine, on 6 June 2022. From a dramatic loss of export revenue to mine-riddled fields and exploding machinery, Russia’s invasion has taken a massive toll on Ukraine’s agriculture sector. Photo: Maxar Technologies

UN chief warns of “unprecedented hunger crisis” from global food shortage – “No country will be immune to the social and economic repercussions of such a catastrophe”

BERLIN, 24 June 2022 (AP) – The head of the United Nations warned Friday that the world faces “catastrophe” because of the growing shortage of food around the globe. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the war in Ukraine has added to the disruptions caused by climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and inequality to produce an “unprecedented global […]

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