Concerns a tropical low will strengthen as it moves south towards the west of Darwin
There is concern a tropical low brewing off northern Australia may reach cyclone intensity west of Darwin on Boxing Day.
A severe weather warning was issued for parts of the Northern Territory’s Arnhem district early on Christmas morning.
Continue reading...As the sea claims more of the west African shoreline, those left homeless by floods are losing hope that the government will act
Waves have taken the landscape John Afedzie knew so well. “The waters came closer in the last few months, but now they have destroyed parts of schools and homes. The waves have taken the whole of the village. One needs to use a boat to commute now because of the rising sea levels,” he says.
Afedzie lives in Keta, one of Ghana’s coastal towns, where a month ago high tide brought seawater flooding into 1,027 houses, according to the government, leaving him among about 3,000 people made homeless overnight.
Continue reading...Annastacia Palaszczuk brings forward Qld border reopening; Steven Marshall ‘very concerned’ by Omicron as SA records four Covid cases; Perth stripped of Ashes series finale; Victoria records 1,073 new cases and six deaths, NSW records 208 cases, ACT six; Katherine lockdown extended as NT records one case; Australia could be renewables ‘superpower’ but has wasted time, Chris Bowen says.
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A New South Wales government plan to control feral horses in Kosciuszko national park will allow horses to remain in the only known habitat of one of Australia’s most imperilled freshwater fishes and risks pushing the species closer to extinction.
Conservationists say allowing horses to continue to roam around some sections of the park will put vulnerable wildlife and ecosystems at risk.
There are lot of reasons even though they don’t get as sick as adults, they have a pretty strong role in spreading it back to family members and of course that can include parents and also, of greater concern, the grandparents. The older you are, the impacts of getting seriously ill or worse with Covid is greater.
The other reason is just so kids can do what kids are meant to do – go to school, play with their friends, do sport, do exercise, do social things.
Continue reading...Families facing severe hunger are wading through crocodile-infested waters in search of water lilies to eat. Susan Martinez and photographer Peter Caton return with Action Against Hunger to find that the dire situation they reported on in March has only worsened
Desperate families in flood-ravaged villages in South Sudan are spending hours searching for water lilies to eat after another summer of intense rainfall worsened an already dire situation.
People have no food and no land to cultivate after three years of floods. Fields are submerged in last year’s flood water and higher ground is overcrowded with hungry people, in what is quickly becoming a humanitarian crisis.
Nyanyang Tong, 39, on her way to the Action Against Hunger centre with her one-year-old son, Mamuch Gatkuoth, in Paguir
Continue reading...A storm took the roof off Binta Bah’s house before torrential rain destroyed her family’s belongings, as poverty combines with the climate crisis to wreak havoc on Africa’s smallest mainland country
The windstorm arrived in Jalambang late in the evening, when Binta Bah and her family were enjoying the evening cool outside. “But when we first heard the wind, the kids started to run and go in the house,” she says.
First they went in one room but the roof – a sheet of corrugated iron fixed only by a timbere pole – flew off. They ran into another but the roof soon went there too.
Continue reading...More rain is forecast for British Columbia, where a state of emergency has been declared after record downpours
Searchers located three bodies swept away by landslides in British Columbia, officials said on Saturday, after record rainfall that paralysed parts of the province and led to food and fuel shortages.
Canada’s westernmost province declared a state of emergency after a phenomenon known as an “atmospheric river” brought a month’s worth of rain in two days. The rainfall washed out roads and railways, cutting off Vancouver and the lower mainland region from the rest of the country, and blocking access to some towns entirely.
Continue reading...Authorities and emergency crews in Canada are trying to reach 18,000 people stranded by major floods and landslides. The province of British Columbia declared a state of emergency with concerns over further falls in coming days. Some grocery store shelves in affected areas have also been stripped bare while floods and mudslides destroyed roads, houses and bridges, hampering rescue efforts
Continue reading...Alarm grows about climate change in British Columbia after summer wildfires wiped out vegetation that could have slowed flooding
Emergency crews in western Canada were still trying to reach some 18,000 people stranded by landslides and struggling to find food among bare grocery store shelves after devastating flooding.
With communities in the region braced for more torrential rain in already inundated areas next week , the premier of British Columbia province declared an emergency and gave an emotional address in a press conference on Thursday.
Continue reading...Latest updates: Canadian Armed Forces deployed to help residents after massive disruption around Vancouver and rest of province
It might seem trivial compared to the devastation caused, but Reuters is reporting that the floods could mean the US might suffer a Christmas tree shortage this year.
Canada is the world’s top exporter of natural Christmas trees, exporting about 2.3 million trees per year, with some 97% going to the US.
Continue reading...Aerial footage shows the extent of catastrophic floods in mountain areas of Canada's British Columbia province. A powerful storm dumped a month’s worth of rain in two days across parts of the Pacific north-west in Canada and the US. Concerns are rising over remote mountain areas that have been hit with freezing temperatures
Water levels show signs of dropping in Washington state while at least one dead in Canada and more fatalities feared
Troops have been deployed to British Columbia to help stranded residents and search areas hit by landslides and floods after a powerful storm dumped a month’s worth of rain in two days across a swath of the Pacific north-west in Canada and the US.
South of the border in Washington state, water levels showed signs of dropping on Wednesday after floods damaged three-quarters of the homes in the border town of Sumas, leaving 1,600 residents without power and forcing hundreds to flee.
Continue reading...Fears death toll will rise after record rainfall destroys highways and leaves tens of thousands in the US and Canada without power
At least one person has been killed and several more are feared dead after a huge storm hit the Pacific north-west, destroying highways and leaving tens of thousands of people in Canada and the US without power.
Canada’s largest port was cut off by flood waters, as emergency crews in British Columbia announced on Tuesday that at least 10 vehicles had been swept off a highway during a landslide.
Continue reading...Communities forced to flee homes again after record downpour as pounding storms also take toll on US Pacific north-west
Communities in western Canada who were forced to flee their homes this summer by wildfires and extreme heat are once again under evacuation orders after overwhelming floods across the region.
Helicopters were dispatched on Monday to Highway 7, more than 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Vancouver, to rescue about 275 people, including 50 children, who had been stranded on the road since it was blocked by a mudslide late on Sunday.
Continue reading...Rising temperatures are already killing people in Sierra Leone’s Freetown, says Eugenia Kargbo, who is planning how best to protect the hundreds of thousands living in informal settlements
When she was growing up, Eugenia Kargbo could have a leisurely stroll, jog or cycle around the streets of Freetown. But that easy life no longer exists in Sierra Leone’s capital for her two children. The city is so swelteringly hot that children run the constant risk of sunburn or heat rashes if they are outdoors for very long.
“Over the past 10 years, there has been a dramatic change,” says Kargbo, 34, who has been appointed as Freetown’s chief heat officer – the first such post in Africa and only the third globally, after Athens and Miami.
Continue reading...Barnaby Joyce says Coalition has done a ‘great job’ on climate policy; Changes to South Australia quarantine and border restrictions; fully vaccinated travellers can apply for Qld border passes from 5pm; Victoria records 860 new local Covid cases and five deaths; NSW records 165 cases and one death. Follow live updates
Cop26 failed in a bid to phase out coal, news that had its president Alok Sharma close to tears. But not everyone’s disappointed – nationals senator Matt Canavan has declared it a great win for Australia’s mining industry.
He told the Nine Network:
Given the fact that the agreement did not say that coal needs to be phased down or taken out, it is a big green light for us to build more coalmines.
Continue reading...As well as floods, sewage and crocodiles, those living in Banjul’s slums face the effects of a climate crisis they did little to cause
Yedel Bah would move home if she could, but she can’t. With no income of her own, four children to feed and a husband who just about manages, her family lives from day to day, and from flood to flood, on the banks of a litter-strewn, stagnant canal.
Every rainy season, the neighbourhood of Tobacco Road in the Gambian capital, Banjul, braces for downpours of such intensity that the canal overflows, spilling its murky, pungent depths into the slum-like homes that run alongside it.
Continue reading...Federal government releases net zero modelling; Scott Morrison says ‘of course the French are upset’; Australia passes 90% first dose Covid vaccination milestone; Victoria records 1,115 cases and nine deaths; NSW records 286 cases and two deaths; state funeral for Bert Newton. Follow all the day’s news
Accused drug smuggler Mostafa Baluch is due to appear before NSW court today after he was recaptured, extradited from the Gold Coast and slapped with an additional outstanding arrest warrant charge.
It’s alleged that Baluch is the financier behind a 900kg shipment of cocaine into Australia, and was on the run for nearly two weeks after allegedly cutting off his ankle monitor.
Continue reading...Glasgow 2021 must be the moment when the promise of Paris 2015 becomes real – history will not forgive us otherwise
Summits do not always live up to the name. They can get bogged down in detail and disagreement, never really reaching altitude.
That is often the case with the annual UN climate summits known simply as the Cop, which have earned a reputation since the first was held 26 years ago for being bewildering marathons that overrun and underdeliver.
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Continue reading...‘Medicane’ storm with winds of 100km/h expected in Sicily, where two have died in flooding
Southern Italy was braced on Wednesday for the arrival of what forecasters have described as a Medicane – a rare Mediterranean hurricane bringing winds of more than 100kmh and producing 5-metre waves.
Fierce storms have battered Sicily for days, leaving roads submerged in the eastern part of the island and claiming the lives of at least two people. Video footage shows flood waters engulfing the city of Palermo, turning streets into rivers and squares into lakes.
Continue reading...At least two people have died after a powerful storm battered Sicily, leaving parts of the Italian island submerged. Streets were flooded and many vehicles were stranded in Catania, and power cuts were reported in the city centre
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