Record-low inflows to Murray-Darling Basin

The basin authority has launched a new website to be updated weekly with details of storage levels across parts of Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia. It currently shows the dire position of Australia’s major water resources as a result of the ongoing drought. According to the latest figures storage levels across the basin are […]

African lark soon to be extinct

By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News The Sidamo lark could soon be the first bird on mainland Africa to die out since modern records began, a survey shows. A survey has found that just a few hundred of the larks survive in Ethiopia. Unless action is taken to save it, the bird will disappear. While […]

Drought reduces Iraq’s marshes to desert

HOR AL-HAMMAR, Iraq – A severe drought is threatening Iraq’s southern marshes — the traditional site of the biblical Garden of Eden — just as the region was recovering from Saddam Hussein’s draining of its lakes and swamps to punish a political rebellion. Marshes that were coming back to life a few years ago with […]

Drought lowers Lake Mead to 1965 level

Decline of another 30 feet will trigger federal shortage declaration By HENRY BREAN Another below-average year on the Colorado River will soon shrink Lake Mead to a level not seen since President Lyndon Johnson unveiled his "Great Society" and the Beatles bared their "Rubber Soul." By next month, the surface of the lake is expected […]

Historic drought leaves Melbourne with 500 days of water supply

By Peter Ker MELBOURNE’S dwindling water storages are on the verge of a historic low, a quarter of a century after the Thomson Dam was promised to drought-proof the city. The nine major dams are expected to fall to 28.4 per cent of capacity today, matching the record low set in June 2007. Despite rain […]

What will global warming look like? Scientists point to Australia

From Climate Progress: Drought, fires, killer heat waves, wildlife extinction and mosquito-borne illness — the things that climate change models are predicting have already arrived there, [scientists] say. That’s the subhead on a stunning L.A. Times piece, “What will global warming look like? Scientists point to Australia,” which opens starkly: Reporting from The Murray-Darling Basin, […]

Unprecedented drought in Australia’s breadbasket Murray-Darling Basin

The persistence and severity of the drought in the Murray-Darling Basin has been described as "unprecedented" after late summer inflows to the river system fell to a 117-year low. The "bleak" outlook for next three months was adding to the grim news, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority said. Irrigation water for Australia’s food bowl will be […]

Whooping crane population declines 20% in 12 months

The valiant effort to save North America’s biggest bird from extinction has suffered a setback –nearly one-fifth of the cranes have died in the last 12 months. Drought and a wasting disease are the latest threats. By Ed Struzik When the world’s last remaining flock of wild whooping cranes set off on its migration south […]

Kenya security forces fight out-of-control forest fires

By Peter Greste, BBC News, Nairobi Kenya has mobilised 3,500 security personnel to fight a series of bush fires raging out of control in some of the country’s most important forests. The government estimates that more than 4,600 hectares (11,370 acres) of bushland have already been destroyed. At least 10 people have been arrested on […]

Wildlife trapped by Kenyan bush fires

  NAIVASHA, Kenya, March 23 (Reuters) – Game wardens fear wildlife is trapped in the crater of an extinct Kenyan volcano that was engulfed by a bush fire for a third day on Monday. The blaze at on Mount Longonot — one of the best-known trekking spots in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley — has sent […]

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