By Alistair Gray19 March 2012 Just days after a powerful offshore earthquake sent a wall of seawater surging towards Japan’s north-eastern coastline, devastating the region, companies with operations thousands of miles away were left grappling with shortages of critical components. A year ago this week, as rolling blackouts forced parts plants throughout the world’s third-largest […]
By Evan Duffey, Meteorologist17 March 2012 Tropical Cyclone Lua (17S) made landfall today near Port Hedland in Western Australia, bringing torrential rain and damaging winds. And while Lua is now dissipating, another tropical system is developing, and already bringing impacts to land. Lua brought hurricane-force winds and torrential rains to the coast. Luckily the cyclone […]
SYDNEY, 14 March 2012 (AFP) – Australia’s climate is warming at an alarming rate and is set to become drier despite recent record floods, scientists said Wednesday in a report that warns of increased drought and fiercer storms. The country has seen annual average daily temperatures rise by 0.9 degrees Celsius since 1911, with each […]
By JUSTIN GILLIS 13 March 2012 About 3.7 million Americans live within a few feet of high tide and risk being hit by more frequent coastal flooding in coming decades because of the sea level rise caused by global warming, according to new research. If the pace of the rise accelerates as much as expected, […]
7 March 2012 (National Geographic) – In an arachnophobe’s worst nightmare, swarms of spiders spin webs in a bush in flood-ravaged Wagga Wagga (map), Australia, Tuesday. After a week of record rain, floodwaters across eastern Australia have forced the ground-dwelling spiders—and at least 13,000 people—to flee their homes, according to Reuters. The rampant webs blanketing […]
BANGKOK, 12 March 2012 (Global Nation) – The Asia-Pacific region needs to spend about $40 billion a year to “climate proof” its economies against the impact of global warming, Asian Development Bank vice president Bindu Lohani said Monday. Countries need to undergo “transformational change” to build resilience to climate-change disasters, Lohani told the Asia-Pacific Climate […]
10 March 2012 (Radio Australia) – Towns across Australia’s eastern states of New South Wales and Victoria are starting the clean up, after more than a week of record flooding. Three quarters of NSW has been affected by the floods, and 46 areas have been declared disaster zones. Flood waters are receding in much of […]
9 March 2012 (AP) – Fearing that climate change could wipe out their entire Pacific archipelago, the leaders of Kiribati are considering an unusual backup plan: moving the populace to Fiji. Kiribati President Anote Tong told The Associated Press on Friday that his Cabinet this week endorsed a plan to buy nearly 6,000 acres on […]
VIDEO: From dust to deluge By Amelia Harris, Michelle Ainsworth, Aaron Langmaid, John Dagge, and AAP5 March 2012 AS the nation’s flood crisis claims its second victim after record rainfall in three states, communities continue sandbagging as Numurkah’s hospital closes due to extensive damage. The second man died after his was car washed off a […]
Stakeholders from the insurance industry met with members of the U.S. Senate to acknowledge the role global warming plays in extreme weather-related losses, and to issue a call for action. By Pat Speer, Insurance Networking News2 March 2012 The politics of global warming have typically involved much debate as to the role climate change plays […]
