This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience while browsing it. By clicking 'Got It' you're accepting these terms.
Most recent
Trending
Top Videos
The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!
'Everything Is Burning': Australian Inferno Continues, Choking off Access to Cities Across Country
By Eoin Higgins
Australia is on fire.
The country on Saturday saw delayed flights on the second day of a national state of emergency due to raging brushfires near every major city and choked-out smoke conditions.
Australian reporter Saffron Howden used a map from the Government of Western Australia to show how the blazes have ringed the entire continent.
"My god," Howden tweeted.
My god pic.twitter.com/hfmqN7eL2Z
— Saffron Howden (@saffronhowden) December 21, 2019
The fires in Australia's southeastern state of New South Wales (NSW) were at the "catastrophic" level on Saturday, according to the BBC.
"These fires are likely to continue to spread well past Christmas," said NSW rural fire services inspector Ben Shepherd.
Photos shared on social media showed hazy skies around the country.
"Everything is burning," said one Twitter user.
A few minutes ago, no filter. Everything is burning pic.twitter.com/9TDtimjt0L
— shorewife🎄 (@Shorewife) December 21, 2019
Fires the size of Kansas... (picture taken Thursday on Sydney Harbour) pic.twitter.com/57U4TDUL2G
— Josh (@jgrclarke) December 21, 2019
As Common Dreams reported Thursday, Australia just endured a heat wave that broke records for temperature in consecutive days.
"I think this is the single loudest alarm bell I've ever heard on global heating," said Kees van der Leun, a director at the American consultancy firm Navigant.
Temperatures dropped on the back of a cooling wind on Saturday, but, as The Guardian reported, the wind brings with it other problems:
A southerly change swept through at 5pm, making the fire even more erratic and changing the fire direction. Around this time, NSW authorities began warning of a bushfire-generated thunderstorm that had formed over Currowan and Tianjara fires in the Shoalhaven area, on the NSW south coast.
The fire service said this would lead to increasingly dangerous fire conditions. Such storms, known as pyroCB, can produce embers hot enough to spark new fires 30km from the main fire.
While his country was on fire, right-wing climate-denying Prime Minister Scott Morrison was on vacation in Hawaii. Morrison returned to Australia on Saturday after two firefighters died fighting one of three huge blazes near Sydney. Morrison's absence during the crisis provoked outcry from constituents.
One Twitter user posted a picture showing from above the blazes around Sydney as Morrison was arriving in the city, reportedly after circling for an hour due to runway closures.
What Scott Morrison saw landing into Sydney tonight, after an hour delay because of runway closures #auspol pic.twitter.com/qUDTLDzLaw
— Terry Australis ++ Noisy Australian (@AustralisTerry) December 21, 2019
A map of the city showed only two routes out of Sydney due to the fires.
There are now only 2 routes out of Sydney. Every other road is blocked by fire. pic.twitter.com/Njx6LveYKq
— David Morgan-Mar (@dmmaus) December 21, 2019
"Today has been an awful day," NSW rural fire services commissioner Shane Fitzsimmon told reporters.
Fitzsimmon added that the fires were largely out of any meaningful control barring nature taking a hand.
"We will not get on top of these fires until we get some decent rain — we have said that for weeks and months," said Fitzsimmon.
According to Reuters, the Australian Bureau of Meterology has reported there will be no significant rainfall in the country for at least the next two months.
Reposted with permission from Common Dreams.
Kangaroos Flee Devastating Fires in Australia
- Australia Fire Crisis: PM Morrison Cuts Vacation Short After Two ... ›
- Australia Likely Just Broke Its Record for Hottest Day - EcoWatch ›
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Coral Natalie Negrón Almodóvar
The Earth began to shake as Tamar Hernández drove to visit her mother in Yauco, Puerto Rico, on Dec. 28, 2019. She did not feel that first tremor — she felt only the ensuing aftershocks — but she worried because her mother had an ankle injury and could not walk. Then Hernández thought, "What if something worse is coming our way?"
President Trump has long touted the efficacy of walls, funneling billions of Defense Department dollars to build a wall on the southern border. However, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released a study that included plans for a sea wall to protect New Yorkers from sea-level rise and catastrophic storms like Hurricane Sandy, Trump mocked it as ineffective and unsightly.
In a post-mortem of the Australian bushfires, which raged for five months, scientists have concluded that their intensity and duration far surpassed what climate models had predicted, according to a study published yesterday in Nature Climate Change.
By Tim Radford
The Texan city of Houston is about to grow in unexpected ways, thanks to the rising tides. So will Dallas. Real estate agents in Atlanta, Georgia; Denver, Colorado; and Las Vegas, Nevada could expect to do roaring business.
Trending
What happens when a famous school striker meets a renowned campaigner for education rights?