January was officially Australia’s hottest month on record – “The exceptional story here was temperature: maximum temperatures, minimum temperatures, and mean temperatures, and those records go back to 1910”

By Rod McGuirk 31 January 2019 CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Australia sweltered through its hottest month on record in January and the summer of extremes continued with wildfires razing the drought-parched south and flooding in expanses of the tropical north. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology confirmed the January record on Friday as parts of the northern […]

Counting the cost of the 2018 heatwave in New Zealand

By Jim Salinger and James Renwick 29 January 2019 (The Conversation) – As the Australian heatwave is spilling across the Tasman and pushing up temperatures in New Zealand, we take a look at the conditions that caused a similar event last year and the impacts it had. Last summer‘s heatwave gave New Zealand its warmest […]

Adelaide breaks its all-time heat record, hitting 46.6C, in extreme Australia heatwave – 2,500 camels dying of thirst shot

By Naaman Zhou24 January 2019 (The Guardian) – Temperature records have tumbled across South Australia, with the city of Adelaide experiencing its hottest day on record, as the second heatwave in as many weeks hit southern parts of Australia Adelaide hit 46.6C on Thursday afternoon, the hottest temperature recording in any Australian state capital city […]

Records show 100 percent of Texas coal power plants contaminating groundwater – “We found contamination everywhere we looked, poisoning groundwater aquifers and recreational fishing spots across the state”

AUSTIN, Texas, 17 January 2019 (Earthjustice) – Toxic coal ash pollutants are leaking into groundwater surrounding 100 percent of Texas’s power plants for which data are available, with unsafe levels of arsenic, cobalt, lithium, and other pollutants seeping from the ash dumps, according to an analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). Industry groundwater monitoring […]

The hottest 15 places in the world today are all in Australia as record heatwave rages on – Thousands of flying foxes dead – “One of the worst things is in the aftermath and you hear the mums calling out for their pups”

16 January 2019 (The Journal) – The top 15 hottest places in the world today are all in Australia as a severe heatwave continues to roast the southeast of the continent. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said the past four days were among the country’s top 10 warmest on record, with temperatures nearing 50 degrees […]

Massive fish kill in Australia – Up to a million fish in Murray-Darling Basin have perished in algae bloom – “It’s a devastating ecological event”

By Matt Coughlan 14 January 2019 (AAP) – More fish are likely to die in NSW as state and federal water managers prepare for an emergency meeting to canvass options to mitigate the ecological disaster. Water Minister David Littleproud described the situation as horrible, joining his state counterpart Niall Blair in warning of more devastation […]

Sushi king pays record $3.1m for endangered bluefin tuna in Japan, more than double the price five years ago

4 January 2019 (The Guardian) – A record $3.1 m (£2.4 m) has been paid for a giant bluefin tuna at Tokyo’s new fish market, which replaced the world-famous Tsukiji late last year. The winning bid for the prized but endangered species at the predawn auction was more than double the 2013 annual New Year […]

World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020, major report warns

By Damian Carrington 26 October 2016 (The Guardian) – The number of wild animals living on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report, part of a mass extinction that is destroying the natural world upon which humanity depends.The analysis, the most comprehensive to date, indicates that animal populations […]

Massive Canada glaciers shrinking rapidly – “We’ve never seen this. It’s outside the scope of normal.”

By Leyland Cecco 30 October 2018 TORONTO (The Guardian) – Scientists in Canada have warned that massive glaciers in the Yukon territory are shrinking even faster than would be expected from a warming climate – and bringing dramatic changes to the region. After a string of recent reports chronicling the demise of the ice fields, […]

Sewage spill from Hurricane Michael causes Florida fish kills – “It was horrible down here. You couldn’t hardly breathe. It smells like pure crap.”

By Terray Sylvester 18 October 2018 APALACHICOLA, Florida (Reuters) – A sewage spill from a Florida wastewater plant during Hurricane Michael into a river feeding environmentally fragile Apalachicola Bay is suspected of causing mass fish kills downstream, state officials said on Thursday.Experts say the discharge of 80,000 gallons of partially treated sewage into the Apalachicola […]

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