By MARIAN WILKINSON ENVIRONMENT EDITORNovember 23, 2009 SYDNEY sweltered in near record-breaking heat yesterday as the temperature climbed above 40 degrees across the city just after 3pm. At the airport the mercury hit 42.5, pipping Penrith’s high of 42.1. And the metropolitan heat was almost as fierce as the 43 recorded in the state’s north-west […]
By ELLIE HARVEY AND BELLINDA KONTOMINASNovember 23, 2009 FIRES burned aggressively across NSW yesterday, scorching about 12,000 hectares of the state but claiming just one property. About 130 fires were fanned by sweltering heat and gusty conditions that led to emergency warnings for eight towns. This level of warnings advises residents to enact their bushfire […]
By MARIAN WILKINSON ENVIRONMENT EDITORNovember 23, 2009 THE collapse of the Coorong wetlands at the mouth of the Murray River is shaping up to be one of the Australia’s worst environmental disasters, an author of a report on the region said yesterday. Bird numbers in the region have fallen dramatically and freshwater turtles continue to […]
Arusha — The drought spell that has hit most parts of Arusha and Manyara regions for about two consecutive years is tearing apart the Maasai social fabric and driving youths in large numbers to seek employment or beg for food in urban areas. Maasai youths from Simanjiro, Ngorongoro and Monduli Districts are flocking into town […]
Nairobi — Houses left behind by Mau settlers were demolished on Thursday in a clear indication that the government would not allow the evicted squatters to return to the forest. The Kenya Forest Service has also sent more rangers to the South Western Mau to ensure that the families that leave the country’s largest source […]
By JOSEPHINE TOVEYNovember 22, 2009 THE worst fire conditions ever seen in November are expected today as the mercury rises to about 40 degrees and beyond across NSW. The Rural Fire Service, already stretched with 1000 firefighters battling more than 140 blazes across the state yesterday, is bracing for what Assistant Commissioner Rob Rogers described […]
“Future firefighters have their work cut out for them.,” says Janet Larsen, Director of Research for the Earth Policy Institute, in a recent release, “Inferno on Earth: Wildfires Spreading as Temperatures Rise“. Perhaps nowhere does this hit home harder than in Australia, where in early 2009 a persistent drought, high winds, and record high temperatures […]
By Staff WritersBarcelona, Spain (AFP) Nov 5, 2009 A “conspiracy of silence” is stifling debate over the future of people who become displaced through climate change, a top UN official for refugees says. In an interview with AFP at the UN climate talks in Barcelona, Jean-Francois Durieux, in charge of climate change at the UN […]
By CHRISTOPHER THOMPSON / KALOTUM Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009 When one enters the northern Kenyan village of Kalotum, the overwhelming impression is one of things missing. There are a dozen conical thatched huts and a clutch of spindly thorn trees. But there are no crops, animals or water. A quick look around reveals no men, […]
By DEBORAH SMITH SCIENCE EDITORNovember 20, 2009 FIVE major fires are burning in NSW as the state swelters in a heatwave that has seen decades-old records fall. The state has experienced both its hottest November day and hottest November night since observations began. The mercury soared to 46.4 degrees at Tibooburra in the north-west of […]
