Seven hundred years ago this month, people across northern Europe saw a comet in the sky and feared the worst. They were already running out of food. It had rained too much in 1315—sometimes every day for weeks at a stretch. Wheat, barley, and oats rotted in the fields, and it was too wet to make hay. Then, after an unusually cold winter, the rains started again, and the 1316 … [Read more...]
Unfolding the gift of tomorrow: leaving a legacy
A daily diet of environmental news from across the planet might sound like quite a radical regime. Yet I firmly believe in the right to know how my species is changing the world into which I have delivered three children. It matters to me that they, and all vulnerable species, are comfortable and protected. Breaking down this home, our planet, is as good as a gang of people … [Read more...]
2000 Climate Marches bring solidarity across the planet
This weekend there was solidarity across the planet, when 2000 Climate Marches took place in preparation for the Paris climate conference, COP 21 happening this week. There heads of states get to decide about our future and the role out of the most important story of our time: Our planet in peril. Tomorrow starts a series of important meetings in Paris. Will there be … [Read more...]
Vertroetel jou plantjies nou
Die reën wat weerhaan verlede week sien kom, is maar swakkerig in die suide en suidwestelike gebiede van die land. Mens kan maar net hoop die bietjie bietjie wat aan die Natalse kus kan uitsak, verhang die krieketbordjies daar. Die huidige toestand in die bolug is na mening, tipies van die onstabiliteit wat met die vermeende klimaatsverandering gepaard gaan. Dit bevestig … [Read more...]
WEERHAAN voorspel reen oor die Overberg
Dit reën steeds dat die byle huil sowat 45 grade suidwes van ons, net-net buite bereik van die Atlantiese hoogdruk, wat vir bietjie klammigheid wag om na ons dorstige Swartland en die Wes-Kaap te versprei. Ons kan vorentoe baie wolke verwag en as die Indiese hoogdruk dit regkry om van die vog wat in sy rigting beweeg, vir die Atlantiese hoogdruk terug te druk , kan ons … [Read more...]
Spring heat wave hits South Africa
Southern hemisphere heat waves are back and the northeastern provinces are frying. The South African Weather Service has issued a heat wave warning for the northeastern provinces of Gauteng (which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria), Mpumalanga and Limpopo, which contains the Kruger National Park. Weather forecaster, Vanepia Phakula, said the warning continued through to … [Read more...]
Canada and Alaska struggle with steadily increasing wildfires
Every day they update the numbers. And every day, the number of acres burned in Alaska seems to leap higher yet again. As of Monday, it is at 4,447,182.2 acres, according to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center — a total that puts the 2015 wildfire season in sixth place overall among worst seasons on record. It’s very likely to move into fifth place by Tuesday — and … [Read more...]
Texas flooding: death toll rises to 24
Three more bodies have been found in the flooding in Texas, officials said Saturday, bringing the total to 24 in a state walloped this week by heavy rains and powerful storms. Another seven people have died in Oklahoma. The three latest deaths were announced by officials in Hays County, where a group of people got swept away while in a vacation house last weekend. The … [Read more...]
Heat wave eases in India after killing nearly 2,000 people
Showers and thunderstorms in parts of southern India on Saturday helped eased a weekslong summer heat wave that has claimed nearly 2,000 lives. The intense heat, however, was expected to continue in some areas of worst-hit Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states for another 24 hours, said Y.K. Reddy, an Indian Meteorological Department director. Heat-related conditions, … [Read more...]
Malawi faces ‘unprecedented’ flood disaster
The waters may be receding and the rainfall subsiding but Malawi is only now coming to terms with the "unprecedented" floods that hit the southern half of the country last week. At least 176 people lost their lives and another 200,000 have been displaced when heavy rains submerged homes, schools, and in places, washing away an entire village. The Malawi Defence Force has … [Read more...]
Thousands evacuated in Bosnia after ‘worst ever’ floods
More than 20 people have been confirmed dead and the exact death toll is still unknown after Bosnia and Serbia was hit by the heaviest rain and worst ever flood, breaking records in the past 120 years. States of emergency have been raised in the affected areas of Bosnia and Serbia after rivers burst their banks and left towns and villages submerged in seven to 10 feet (two … [Read more...]
Years of Living Dangerously - now the truth goes beyond entertainment
Learning through the audio visual medium is really what speaks most deeply perhaps to our current generation. Art for the sake of art, or entertainment, has its place in our society, but with our very civilisation now threatened, I was hoping that someone would use the film medium to speak to the masses. Deeply, easily and with impact. It looks like it has now … [Read more...]
Climate change happening now on every continent
Climate change is no longer a projected future scenario, it is happening today on all continents and across all the oceans, said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Monday in Yokohama, Japan, at the launch of a report which is “one of the most ambitious scientific undertakings in human history.” The world is ill-prepared for the risks from changing … [Read more...]
