Binoy Kampmark reports that the current European drought is estimated to be the worst in 500 years.
drought
The IPCC's latest report should be a wake-up call to governments everywhere, but it's going to take more than science to force action by the biggest global emitters, writes Barry Sheppard.
First Nations people's knowledge and rights have been overlooked as the largest privatisation of water on the planet has been underway. Tracey Carpenter examines how the privatisation of this most precious resource — water — has enriched a few at the expense of many.
Catastrophic fires in New South Wales and Queensland have come early in the fire season, which usually starts in October. Climate scientists and frontline fire fighters agree: they are a consequence of climate change.
“I believe the numbers will change the game,” said First Nations activist and artist Uncle Bruce Shillingsworth in an interview with Green Left Weekly about the global climate emergency and the water crisis in the Murray-Darling river system.
Three days before 150,000 students organised the biggest national school walkout in Australian history to demand politicians act on climate change, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) deputy governor Guy Debelle sounded a warning about the drastic effects of climate change on the economy.
When students and an RBA governor agree on the urgent need to stop the devastating impact of climate change on society and the planet, you know the movement is starting to bite.
We don’t need to pray for rain, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison has suggested, we need to take serious climate action now, was the blunt message farmers delivered to federal parliament on September 10.
The farmers said the drought gripping NSW and Queensland had to be a wake-up call for politicians to take climate change seriously.
They also raised concerns that the Coalition government is attempting to stymie the development of wind power, which provides income for farmers and rural communities when agricultural income falls.
New South Wales is now officially in drought and parts of Queensland have been in continuous drought for years. But the climate denier federal government has its head in the sand.
Amir Taghinia is the founder of Manus Alert, an online news agency coming directly from within Australia's immigration prison camp.
Taghinia is fluent in many languages and often finds himself as a negotiator between people who have been incarcerated in the Manus Island camp, local authorities and communities.
He holds a passion for the beautiful lands we live on and in and has read widely on environmental issues.
He acknowledges some editorial assistance from Melody Kemp and Janet Galbraith.
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Jay Famiglietti, a senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, made a dire warning in March: there is only one year's worth of water left in the state's reservoir storage and river basins.
Famiglietti said even nature's oldest water backup supply —groundwater — could be gone soon after the reservoirs dry up.
About 38.8 million people live in California, which produces much of the United States' food. California's drought is throwing the ecology of the region into crisis, and ordinary people are scrambling for ways to help.