Overlooked amidst the human tragedy, thousands of animals — kangaroos and koalas as well as cattle and sheep — also perished in the scorching fires that have swept through southeast Australia. At least 130 people died in the flames, official figures showed, but nobody was prepared to venture an estimate on the animal losses. "It’s […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Fire authorities are stretched to their limit fighting dozens of fires across Victoria and New South Wales, which have destroyed dozens of homes. A change in wind direction is making life extremely difficult for firefighters in Victoria, as they race to limit the number of houses that are lost. … Victoria’s Premier John Brumby said […]
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Climate-change specialists are visiting Forest Service offices in the agency’s Northern Region to educate employees about shifting climatic conditions and their ramifications. "We’re almost on the cusp of an ecosystem shift," Faith Ann Heinsch, a University of Montana professor of climatology, said at a recent session in Billings. "If we don’t […]
By Tom Knudson, tknudson@sacbee.com Driving home from Lake Tahoe, Leah Wills watched the column of ash-gray smoke from the Moonlight fire grow and grow – until finally she was under it. Overhead, the sky that September afternoon in 2007 turned eerie pink. Orange-red flecks of burning bark streaked like missiles through the air. And the […]
