‘Uninhabitable’ Australia
A leading Australian scientist predicted that parts of populated
Australia will become uninhabitable during this century unless
urgent action is taken to reduce the greenhouse gasses responsible
for global warming.
‘Uninhabitable’ Australia
A leading Australian scientist predicted that parts of populated Australia will become uninhabitable during this century unless urgent action is taken to reduce the greenhouse gasses responsible for global warming.
“I think we’ll see large-scale population movements, and I think we’ll see people climate-proofing their homes. At least, that’s what wealthy people will be able to do,” said Australia Institute executive director Clive Hamilton at a meeting of the International Climate Change Taskforce. New South Wales (NSW) state premier and taskforce member Bob Carr said a study by the NSW Greenhouse Office predicts that more frequent heat waves and drought could make staying in parts of his state akin to “living in an oven.”
Volcanoes
The lava dome at Mount St. Helens grew by several meters as gas emissions from the Washington State volcano increased. Vulcanologists kept the mountain’s alert level at two, meaning an eruption could occur without warning.
• Japan’s Mount Asama produced another in a series of eruptions that brought ash falling downwind of the mountain, which straddles Gunma and Nagano prefectures.
Bolivian Drought
United Nations humanitarian agencies made an urgent appeal for $1.8 million to bring aid to 180,000 people in Bolivia’s drought-stricken El Chaco region until the next potential harvest in May 2005. A recent assessment by U.N. agencies found that in some areas, 93 percent of the staple maize crop has been lost.
Intercontinental Storm
A violent autumn storm left a trail of death and damage across a wide area from North Africa to Eastern Europe. The storm’s strong winds caused buildings to collapse and ships to sink in northern Algeria before they raked southern areas of Italy.
Long stretches of Croatian roadway were blocked by heavy snow due to the storm encountering colder air from Russia. More than 100,000 people were left without power in Romania after the intensifying snowstorm hit that country.
Tropical Cyclone
The outer fringes of typhoon Muifa brought flash flooding and mudslides to the Philippine island of Catanduanes as the storm stalled for two days just offshore. Muifa was predicted to intensify and pass directly over the most densely populated areas of Luzon late in the week, including metropolitan Manila. The storm could eventually threaten Vietnam after passing over the South China Sea.
Earthquakes
A powerful temblor and several aftershocks on the eastern Indonesian island of Alor killed 27 people and left most of the island’s population of 160,000 too afraid to return home. Thousands of homes and several bridges were wrecked.
• Four people in western Colombia were injured by a magnitude 6.7 quake that seriously damaged several buildings in Puerto Pizarro and surrounding villages.
• Earth movements were also felt in Tehran and western Iran, southern Sumatra, Japan’s Hokkaido Island, parts of Southern California and along the Oregon-California border.
Egyptian Locust Plague
Swarms of pink locusts descended on Alexandria, Cairo and other parts of northern Egypt, causing concerns that the insects could devour the region’s crops.
While officials assured farmers the insects were immature and not a threat, many set fire to tires in a desperate attempt to keep the locusts away from their fields with thick, black smoke. An Agriculture Ministry official told reporters that swarms were first reported on Oct. 28 near the border with Libya, then they spread eastward into the fertile Nile Delta region.
Seasonal winds have also transported the insects across the eastern Mediterranean into Cyprus, Lebanon and Turkey for the first time in decades. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation office in Egypt said the swarms were an offshoot of a serious locust infestation in West Africa that was blown across the Sahara by strong winds .
Cross-Border Droppings
The Israeli government sent neighbouring Jordan an official complaint about “Jordanian” pigeon droppings, which it says are fouling the resort of Eilat.
The Middle East News Agency reported that Israel contends the birds are “intentionally throwing their droppings in Eilat, thereby threatening the city’s tourism industry.”
Only a few metres separate the Jordanian port of Aqaba, where the pigeons are feeding on the remains of imported wheat, and the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat, where the resulting waste is later deposited. Jordanian authorities had no immediate comment on Israel’s complaint.
– By Steve Newman
