Extreme weather has an outsized impact on everyday life. Focusing on average weather patterns may make Americans dangerously complacent about how climate change is already affecting our lives.
Data about farms’ financial situation as well as the weather could help identify those most vulnerable to drought.
Bidgee/Wikimedia Commons
Economic growth forecasts for Mozambique are being revised down. The country needs to safeguard economic stability by taking steps to break with the past.
The extreme architectural investment in Chaco Canyon typifies periods of peak building.
Nathan Crabtree
Multiple times over the centuries, climate issues caused Pueblo farming to collapse, taking the establishment down with it. New research suggests there are parallels with American inequalities today.
Water footprints provide interesting information, but they should not be used as a tool for decision-making.
Shutterstock
Growing population, growing demand for food, climate change: Australia’s rural lands are facing a number of pressures. So how can we sustainably use them in the future?
Things got very wet, very quickly, in Brisbane in 2011.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
Since 1999, Australia has swung between drought and deluge with surprising speed, because El Niño has fallen into sync with similar patterns in the Indian and Southern Oceans.
One of Melbourne’s drinking water reservoirs at 30% capacity in 2010. At the time of writing, the dam is 60% full.
Melbourne Water/Flickr
Extreme weather will affect people and animals, as well as whole ecosystems. Research using satellites shows that ecosystems worldwide are vulnerable to collapse.
Lake Mead in Arizona – water demand is outstripping supply in the Southwest as the weather has gotten warmer and the population has grown.
gorbould/flickr
The U.S. Southwest drifted into a drier state during the last 35 years due to fewer rain-producing weather patterns and hotter temperatures.
South Africa’s Jacob Zuma is president of the country as well as the African National Congress. He is under pressure on all fronts.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
It is unlikely President Zuma will announce a structural changes in his State of the Nation Address. This, despite education being in dire need of fundamental restructuring and an economy in decline.
CSIRO has contributed to surprising discoveries in climate science. Pictured here is the research ship RV Investigator.
AAP Image/University of Tasmania
Australia is the land of drought of flooding rains, driven by events such as El Nino. But despite this variability, some parts of Australia are clearly drying out.
An industrial pulp-wood plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia.
William Laurance
From drought to economic slowdown, 2016 promises a mixed bag for the world’s forests.
Maize is a staple food in South Africa. Its production is likely to decline by half this year due to drought. The poor will be the hardest hit.
Shutterstock
South Africa has been hit by a severe drought and will not be able to produce enough maize - its staple food - in 2016. This will prompt a rise in imports and therefore food prices.
A hot end of the year contributed to Christmas Day fires in Victoria.
AAP Image/Keith Pakenham
El Niño dominated global climate in 2015, but in Australia the story was more complicated. 2015 was Australia’s fifth warmest year on record, and saw the return of very dry conditions to parts of Australia.
Despite a decade of drought and declining rainfall in parts of Australia, there’s still plenty of water to go around.
Maroondah reservoir from www.shutterstock.com
The Millennium Drought ended more than five years ago, but several years of below-average rainfall and El Niño have brought drought back to many parts of Australia. Our latest report on water in Australia shows rainfall is continuing to decline in eastern Australia and increase in the north.
Drought in southern Australia in 2015.
AAP Image/Jamie Duncan