“We have to be aware that climate change and biodiversity loss are stress factors for ecosystems, for humans, for animals, and for the microbiome. Our research shows that if the different axes of the disease pyramid are destabilized, new infectious diseases can be expected, including for humans.” Dirk Schmeller, Université de Toulouse Forests, like the ocean,…
Category: Drought
Wildfires close in on Chernobyl's waste storage facility spreading radioactive smoke over Ukraine.
While we experience dread over the pandemic and climate change, a new threat emerges in Ukraine. Wildfires have been burning near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exclusion zone since April 4, 2020. The fires have now closed in on the nuclear power plant and its radioactive storage facility. The 18.5 mile-long exclusion zone emptied the…
Low on food and water, Navajo Nation faces joining the top three hot spots in the US for COVID.
“We tell people to wash their hands, but a study showed that 30 percent of homes on Navajo Nation don’t have running water, so how are we going to do that? Let me be crystal clear, we don’t think people of color are biologically or genetically predisposed to get COVID-19. There is nothing inherently wrong…
The platypus, one of the world's Gondwana 'dinosaur' lineages, face extirpation from climate change.
The raging bushfires and intense drought that has plagued the Australian continent for several months have taken a heavy toll on wildlife, particularly in the state of New South Wales. The images of burned koalas and kangaroos are chilling, but they are not the only species that are suffering. In the streams of the permanently…
Climate models suggest global food system crisis at hand; dust bowl scenarios now locked in.
We know from the National Climate Assessment that climate disruptions to agriculture over the past 40 years has increased and, will only worsen as the climate crisis continues to unfold. Drought and flooding will increase, and heatwaves will come earlier, be more frequent and, last longer threatening the lives of agricultural workers and livestock alike….
As flames burn Australia, Indonesians face a climate crisis of their own, billionaire class shrugs.
Indonesia is one of the most vulnerable nations on earth to climate change. Indonesians will face more intense floods, droughts and sea level rise in the years to come. The low lying and densely populated nation has 18,000 miles of coastline and many islands at sea level. Winds and rainfall patterns are in disarray are…
Half a billion animals incinerated in Australia
“The anger is real. The anger is justified. Because this disaster was all foreseen and predicted. For decades the link between a hotter, drier climate, land-clearing, excessive irrigation and increased fire risk have all been attested in scientific papers.” Carol Sparks, Mayor of Glenn Innes Severn Council My view on Australia burning: that human-caused global…
Day Zero arrives in Australian towns; unprecedented and widespread heatwave kills marine life.
Australian fires continue to rage on the island continent as yet another looming record-breaking heatwave bears down on the land down under. The unrelenting heatwaves on marine and freshwater river systems alike are raising concerns of another carbon-related feedback not included in climate models. The most recent event was occurring in Western Australia. Fish and…
We always knew they would be first.
The horrors of climate change are unfolding around the world with smothering heatwaves, agricultural losses from flooding, and drought — higher storm surge along with powerful and deadly cyclonic windstorms armed with heavy rainfall and wildfire. The United States and other developed nations experience every single impact listed, we do. As the world gets drier…
For the first time in recorded history, Anchorage enters “extreme drought”.
Alaska's temperate rainforest is in a historic drought. The climate crisis is known to alter the Globe's rainfall patterns. The city of Anchorage was carved out of the rainforest known as Chugach. The Chugach rainforest forms a great arc around Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska. Warming temperatures caused by human carbon emissions…
Over two million people have no water in Harare, Zimbabwe – typhoid reported.
Water shortages are happening faster than expected. Harare has joined the Indian city of Chennai and Cape Town that have endured water scarcity due to extended drought, polluted water and aging infrastructure. Sophie Mbugua writes in Climate Home News: Just 50% of 4.5 million people in Harare and four satellite towns currently have access to the…
