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Post by Admin on Jan 4, 2020 18:43:11 GMT
The warning signs of Australia’s current heat wave have been building up for years Australia’s climate is notorious for its volatility, but this summer’s high temperatures — peaking at close to 120 degrees Fahrenheit in December — and subsequent fires have still been outliers. The country itself spans a region from the tropics in the north to more temperate climates in the south, with deserts in the middle. It also sits between two major oceans and is buffeted by the shifting circulation patterns of both. So the weather over the continent can change drastically year to year and become hard to predict. Still, Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a senior lecturer at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, explained that there were warning signs that this year’s summer in Australia would get brutally hot. One signal was that the Indian Ocean Dipole, the cycle of the temperature gradient between the eastern and western parts of the Indian Ocean, was in its positive phase this year. That led to much less rainfall over Australia as prevailing winds pushed moisture gathering above the Indian Ocean away from the continent in the spring. Another alarm bell this year was the Southern Annular Mode. This describes the movement of the circular belt of wind around Antarctica as it shifts north or south. It’s in its negative phase right now, bringing dry conditions to Australia. This year, it also blended with a surge of heat in the stratosphere, channeling gobs of hot, dry air to southern Australia. And while Australia’s annual monsoon rains in the northern part of the country packed a devastating wallop in February, causing dangerous flooding in the state of Queensland, they were also behind schedule. That allowed more heat to accumulate over the central part of the country this year.
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Post by Admin on Jan 4, 2020 22:16:44 GMT
Australia’s fire season is getting longer and more dangerous The prolonged bout of surging temperatures this year has been an important element in the raging deadly infernos across Australia. It’s important to note that wildfires are a natural part of the ecosystem in Australia. Many plants and other organisms even depend on regular blazes to germinate, cycle nutrients, and clear decay. However, the combination of rising heat and drier weather has turned vegetation into tinder, leaving trees, shrubs, and grass ready to ignite near some of the most densely populated parts of the country. “There has been a long-term increase in extreme fire weather, and in the length of the fire season, across large parts of Australia,” according to the 2018 State of the Climate report. However, the links between fire risk and climate change are more complicated than the links between extreme heat and climate change. That isn’t to say humans aren’t contributing to the danger from fires. As in the United States, human-caused factors like building in fire-prone areas are contributing to the growing fire risk in Australia. Arson is also suspected as a cause of some of the recent fires. And as the climate changes, the underlying conditions for Australian bushfires will continue to amplify, namely heat and dryness. “Some cities in Australia will likely hit temperatures in the 50’s (Celsius) [more than 122 degrees Fahrenheit] by the end of the century,” Perkins-Kirkpatrick said. As a result, scientists expect to see more extreme wildfires in Australia in the latter part of this century. That means history can no longer serve as a guide for cities coping with the heat or firefighters battling flames. “Events that are unprecedented in a given region, such as the 2018 [fire] event, reveal that firefighting preparation and training cannot rely on previous events as guidance for the most dangerous conditions they can expect in the current and future climate in which large-scale fires occur more regularly,” researchers warned in a study published in December in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society looking back at the 2018 fires in Australia. That’s why fire officials are growing anxious about the prospects of more extreme fires. A group of 23 fire chiefs requested a meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison in April to discuss the threat, a meeting that has yet to take place.
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2020 2:35:50 GMT
It is not just the lack of timely action by Scott Morrison but also his lack of instinct that has become so apparent over the past few weeks.
From refusing to listen to urgent pleas by fire chiefs several months ago, to taking an overseas family holiday, to contemplating leaving the country for an international meeting at such a time, and most recently endorsing a social media video slapping himself on the back – it is all wrong.
He also seems unable to accept responsibility for his poor judgment, instead blaming state and federal systems, etc. These are not the traits of a strong leader, more of someone desperate to hold on to his popularity. Scott Morrison was in the right place at the right time against a poor opponent when he received the mantle of commander in chief. Tragically he appears to be the wrong man to lead our country through this most terrible crisis now and into the future. Luella Brookes-Inglis Glen Osmond, South Australia
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2020 22:35:55 GMT
Devastating wildfires ravaged an Australian island on Friday in the midst of the country’s months-long drought and fire crisis, with many fearing that the new blaze wiped out half of the koala population seeking refuge there. Rescuers are frantically looking to find any surviving animals on Kangaroo Island after wildfires burned through nearly one-third of the island, The Straits Times reported. “Over 50 per cent (of the population) has been lost,” Sam Mitchell, co-owner of the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park, told AFP of the koala population, according to the Times. “Injuries are extreme. Others have been left with no habitat to go back to, so starvation will be an issue in coming weeks.” Kangaroo Island is a popular tourist attraction with protected nature reserves off the coast of South Australia, and was estimated to have a population of about 50,000 koalas before the fires. In July, a group of researchers at the University of Adelaide found that this specific population was extremely important to the survival of the wider population of koalas in the country, as they were the only group free from chlamydia, according to the Times. “They are an insurance population for the whole population,” the University of Adelaide’s PhD candidate Jessica Fabijan, told the outlet, explaining that the bacterial infection is widespread in groups of the species in eastern parts of Australia. Chlamydia can cause blindness, infertility and even death in koalas. The dire situation has the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park seeking help in their relief efforts as they bring in countless injured koalas and animals who have barely survived the fires. The organization has set up a GoFundMe page asking for donations.
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Post by Admin on Jan 16, 2020 22:48:48 GMT
Athletes at the \\\\ are breathing in poor-quality air polluted by bushfire smoke, making it nearly impossible for them to do their jobs. Dalila Jakupovic, ranked 210 in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association, withdrew from her qualifying match yesterday after smoke sent her into a coughing fit. Maria Sharapova’s match was abandoned after two hours of play in smoky air, and Novak Djokovic said before the start of the tournament that delaying the competition until the air cleared might be necessary, albeit as a last resort. Questions over appropriate air quality conditions for professional sports have been ongoing since at least the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which had the highest levels of air pollution of any measured games. Bad air can impair athletic performance and impact athletes’ health. As fire seasons grow in length and intensity, leagues and athletic governing bodies will keep being confronted with the problem. Breathing in polluted air over a short period of time can exacerbate respiratory and heart conditions. Over longer terms, it can increase the risks of heart disease and some cancers. Physical activity increases the amount of air someone takes in per minute, so someone who is playing a sport in bad air would inhale more pollution than someone who is just sitting outside. “Because they work so hard and breathe so much, athletes actually turn out to be a sensitive subgroup to pollutants,” says Ed Avol, a professor of clinical preventive medicine and air pollution expert at the University of Southern California.
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