Australia raises bushfire risks ahead of El Nino summer
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australia faces an increased risk of bushfires during the approaching summer, authorities warned on Thursday, with the El Nino weather pattern expected to generate hotter and drier conditions across large swathes of the country. Three years of incessant rain has increased vegetation, but the intense heatwaves common during Australia’s December-February summer can quickly […]
Australia, scarred by bushfires, on high alert for dangerous summer
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australia on Tuesday declared an El Nino weather pattern was underway as the country’s south-east sweltered in an intense spring heat wave that raised the risks of bushfires and prompted authorities to issue a total fire ban for Sydney. Australia had held off declaring an El Nino but has been bracing for a […]
Australia’s natural disasters bill hits $A5 billion in 2022, billions more to come
Sydney, Australia Reuters Floods and natural disasters that hit all but one Australian state and territory in 2022 cost the economy $A5 billion and stoked inflation according to Treasury estimates which forecast billions more spending in 2023. Australia suffered four major bouts of flooding last year, with global reinsurer Munich Re estimating that February and […]
France battles huge wildfires, Britain bakes in record heatwave
London, UK/Paris, France Reuters Firefighters in south-western France battled on Tuesday to contain massive forest wildfires and Britain recorded its highest ever temperature, while Portugal reported more than 1,000 heatwave-related deaths as Europe scorches. Southern and western Germany and Belgium were also braced for potentially record-breaking temperatures as the heatwave, which scientists attribute to climate […]
Essay: Mass starvation, extinctions, disasters: the new IPCC report’s grim predictions, and why adaptation efforts are falling behind
Three vice-chairs of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – MARK HOWDEN, JOY PEREIRA, and ROBERTO SÁNCHEZ – look – in an article published on The Conversation – at the findings of the latest IPCC report…
Extreme weather was the biggest reason for people to flee homes in 2020
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Extreme weather linked to climate change and mass evacuations to protect those at risk are driving a global surge in families forced from their homes, with a share remaining displaced long-term, analysts said on Thursday. About 98 per cent of new movements of people from their houses in 2020 were caused […]
Ahead of UN climate summit, urgent calls to “fix the future”
London, UKReuters When the Paris Agreement on climate change was finalised after two weeks of fraught negotiations and years of past failures, diplomats hugged and shed tears of joy. They had haggled over verb tenses, cut deals, and in the end, brought 196 countries into the accord. Five years later, governments are lagging far behind […]
Mobile hospital for injured Australian wildlife hits the road
Sydney, AustraliaReuters A mobile hospital for injured wildlife such as koalas and kangaroos began a journey on Thursday to its new base in Byron Bay, on Australia’s east coast. Custom-built by Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital in a 16-metre-long semi-trailer truck, the mobile clinic will treat and rehabilitate native animals hurt and traumatised during wildlife crises […]
Australia forecasts prolonged wildfire seasons, more droughts from climate change
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australia’s climate will continue to warm, resulting in prolonged wildfire seasons and less rain in the south-east and south-west that will lead to more frequent droughts, the country’s weather bureau said on Friday. Australia’s changing climate patterns can be attributed to an increase in greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere […]
Australia needs national response to ‘alarming’ disaster future – enquiry
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australia needs national coordination of disaster responses, a change to laws to allow country-wide state of emergencies and simplified climate-change projections, an enquiry into its worst bushfire season in a generation found on Friday. Inevitable climate change meant more frequent disasters and higher costs and more impact on hundreds of thousands of homes, […]