Climate change is bringing a new world of bushfires

Spring has barely arrived, and bushfires are burning across Australia’s eastern seaboard. More than 50 fires are currently burning in New South Wales, and some 15,000 hectares have burned in Queensland since late last week.

Fires are burning across Queensland and New South Wales.

It’s the first time Australia has seen such strong fires this early in the bushfire season. While fire is a normal part of Australia’s yearly cycle and no two years are alike, what we are seeing now is absolutely not business as usual. 

And although these bushfires are not directly attributable to climate change, our rapidly warming climate, driven by human activities, is exacerbating every risk factor for more frequent and intense bushfires.

Read the story from The Conversation by the Professor of Hazards and Disaster Risk Sciences from the University of Sydney, Dale Dominey-Howes -  “Climate change is bringing a new world of bushfires.”

2°C: Beyond the limit : Extreme climate change has arrived in America

LAKE HOPATCONG, N.J. — Before climate change thawed the winters of New Jersey, this lake hosted boisterous wintertime carnivals. As many as 15,000 skaters took part, and automobile owners would drive onto the thick ice. Thousands watched as local hockey clubs battled one another and the Skate Sailing Association of America held competitions, including one in 1926 that featured 21 iceboats on blades that sailed over a three-mile course. 

New Jersey closed Lake Hopatcong after the state
Department of Environmental Protection detected a t
oxic bacteria caused in part by one of the warmest
springs in the past century. 

In those days before widespread refrigeration, workers flocked here to harvest ice. They would carve blocks as much as two feet thick, float them to giant ice houses, sprinkle them with sawdust and load them onto rail cars bound for ice boxes in New York City and beyond. 

"These winters do not exist anymore," says Marty Kane, a lawyer and head of the Lake Hopatcong Foundation. 

That’s because a century of climbing temperatures has changed the character of the Garden State. The massive ice industry and skate sailing association are but black-and-white photographs at the local museum. And even the hardy souls who still try to take part in ice fishing contests here have had to cancel 11 of the past dozen competitions for fear of straying onto perilously thin ice and tumbling into the frigid water. 

Read the story from The Washington Post - “2°C: Beyond the limit : Extreme climate change has arrived in America.”