SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
As Australia Battles Worst Wildfires in Decades, Call for Abbott to Act on Climate
Australian Greens leader: 'The Abbott Government has to stop climate denial.'
Jan 06, 2015
Firefighters in southern Australia continued to battle on Tuesday what are said to be the nation's worst wildfires in decades.
Efforts to contain the fires, which have raged for days, come as Australia's Bureau of Meteorology stated that 2014 marked the country's third-warmest calendar year since records began in 1910.
The fires in South Australia have swept through at least 150 miles, destroying dozens of homes, sending over 20 people to the hospital, forcing thousands to flee, and killing scores of pets and livestock.
South Australia's Country Fire Service chief Greg Nettleton said: "Right at this moment, residents in the Adelaide Hills are being confronted by a fire which hasn't been seen in the hills since the 1983 bushfires of Ash Wednesday." Those fires claimed (pdf) the lives of 75 people, 28 of them in South Australia.
Euronews has this video of crews working to contain the fires:
NBC News has a brief video showing the scenes as well:
"Unless there are rapid, substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia and globally, Australia will experience more heat waves and bush fires as in 2014," David Karoly, a professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Melbourne, said in a statement to Reuters.
Urging Prime Minister Abbott to take such climate action is Australian Greens leader Senator Christine Milne.
"The Abbott Government has to stop climate denial and help to get the country prepared to adapt to the more extreme conditions," Milne said, ABC News reported.
"Accept global warming is real and let's get on with working together to plan for resilience in the face of extreme weather events," she added.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Firefighters in southern Australia continued to battle on Tuesday what are said to be the nation's worst wildfires in decades.
Efforts to contain the fires, which have raged for days, come as Australia's Bureau of Meteorology stated that 2014 marked the country's third-warmest calendar year since records began in 1910.
The fires in South Australia have swept through at least 150 miles, destroying dozens of homes, sending over 20 people to the hospital, forcing thousands to flee, and killing scores of pets and livestock.
South Australia's Country Fire Service chief Greg Nettleton said: "Right at this moment, residents in the Adelaide Hills are being confronted by a fire which hasn't been seen in the hills since the 1983 bushfires of Ash Wednesday." Those fires claimed (pdf) the lives of 75 people, 28 of them in South Australia.
Euronews has this video of crews working to contain the fires:
NBC News has a brief video showing the scenes as well:
"Unless there are rapid, substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia and globally, Australia will experience more heat waves and bush fires as in 2014," David Karoly, a professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Melbourne, said in a statement to Reuters.
Urging Prime Minister Abbott to take such climate action is Australian Greens leader Senator Christine Milne.
"The Abbott Government has to stop climate denial and help to get the country prepared to adapt to the more extreme conditions," Milne said, ABC News reported.
"Accept global warming is real and let's get on with working together to plan for resilience in the face of extreme weather events," she added.
Firefighters in southern Australia continued to battle on Tuesday what are said to be the nation's worst wildfires in decades.
Efforts to contain the fires, which have raged for days, come as Australia's Bureau of Meteorology stated that 2014 marked the country's third-warmest calendar year since records began in 1910.
The fires in South Australia have swept through at least 150 miles, destroying dozens of homes, sending over 20 people to the hospital, forcing thousands to flee, and killing scores of pets and livestock.
South Australia's Country Fire Service chief Greg Nettleton said: "Right at this moment, residents in the Adelaide Hills are being confronted by a fire which hasn't been seen in the hills since the 1983 bushfires of Ash Wednesday." Those fires claimed (pdf) the lives of 75 people, 28 of them in South Australia.
Euronews has this video of crews working to contain the fires:
NBC News has a brief video showing the scenes as well:
"Unless there are rapid, substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia and globally, Australia will experience more heat waves and bush fires as in 2014," David Karoly, a professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Melbourne, said in a statement to Reuters.
Urging Prime Minister Abbott to take such climate action is Australian Greens leader Senator Christine Milne.
"The Abbott Government has to stop climate denial and help to get the country prepared to adapt to the more extreme conditions," Milne said, ABC News reported.
"Accept global warming is real and let's get on with working together to plan for resilience in the face of extreme weather events," she added.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.