Over the last two or
three weeks there have been some horrendous bushfires throughout parts of
Australia, with terrible devastation. This is Australia, where such extreme
events are not uncommon. However, in all likelihood, climate change is
exacerbating the situation. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has recently
taken the extraordinary step of adding new colours to its maps of temperature
in Australia (BOM). Temperatures
were previous capped at 50°C (122°F), but this is no longer high enough. The
range now extends to 54°C (129.2°F), well above the all time record temperature
of 50.7° recorded in 1960. This is scary stuff.
Add
to this the fact that many of these fires were probably started by arsonists...
Well, what can one say! Just this: there are times when I am ashamed to be a
member of the species, Homo sapiens,
subspecies sapiens. The term "sub species" seems
only too appropriate here.
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