All signs point to the climate becoming more extreme by Marian Wilkinson and Ben Cubby When hundreds of small, grey-headed flying foxes began falling from the sky at Yarra Bend in suburban Melbourne, for some it heralded the awful events that would later unfold. It was Wednesday, January 28, one day into the ferocious heatwave […]
[This is the first great climate disaster of the 21st century. –Jim] Video By Megan McNaught IT is not just humans who are emerging from the ashes after amazing feats of survival in the Victoria fires. Animals of all shapes and sizes are starting to limp, stagger or be carried from the worst-affected fire areas. […]
Scientist Tim Flannery recalls the long, wet Victorian winters now replaced by a drier and dangerous climate by Tim Flannery The day after the great fire burned through central Victoria, I drove from Sydney to Melbourne. For much of the way – indeed for hundreds of miles north of the scorched ground – smoke obscured […]
By JIM CARLTON MENDOTA, Calif. — Dwindling water supplies are compounding economic woes in California’s Central Valley, causing farmers to leave fields fallow and confront the prospect of going under. The state’s water supply has dropped precipitously of late. California is locked in the third year of one of its worst droughts on record, with […]
The state of Victoria in southern Australia has recently been hit with hundreds of bush fires during a record-breaking heatwave – temperatures well above 38°C (100°F). Unfortunately, these fires have proved to be the deadliest in Australian history, with at least 166 deaths reported so far. The fires mostly appear to have been started by […]
The worst drought in half a century has parched fields across eight provinces in northern China and left nearly four million people without proper drinking water. Not a drop of rain has fallen on Beijing for more than 100 days, the longest dry spell for 38 years in a city known for its arid climate. […]
By Mick Tsikas WANDONG, Australia (Reuters) – Australia’s deadliest bushfire has killed at least 93 people, some as they fled in cars or as they huddled in houses when the inferno engulfed rural towns in the country’s southeast. The fire storm tore through several small towns north of Melbourne on Saturday night destroying everything […]
By David Clarke WAREGADUD, Kenya (Reuters) – Clouds of dust rising above the harsh scrub herald the arrival of more livestock at a borehole in northeastern Kenya, the end for some of a 45-km (28-mile) trek for water that must be repeated every few days. Drought is starting to bite in east Africa’s biggest […]
The township of Marysville in central Victoria has been almost completely destroyed by bushfires and there are grave fears for the town of Kinglake, where at least 12 people are known to have died. Aerial pictures taken by the ABC show street after street of completely destroyed homes in Marysville. Most are just piles of […]
By Andrew Torchia SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Millions of people and cattle in north China face shortages of drinking water because of a severe drought, the government said on Saturday, promising to speed up disbursement of billions of dollars of subsidies to farmers. State television quoted disaster relief officials as saying 4.4 million people and […]
