Australia fires a climate wake-up call: experts

[Barrett808]

Australia fires a climate wake-up call: experts
By David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, Asia

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Weekend bushfires in Australia that killed 173 people are a climate change wake-up call for the public and politicians and a window to the future, experts said on Tuesday.

(more)

http://technozoic.blogspot.com/2009/02/australia-fires-climate-wake-up-call.html

[stuntcat]

1. "Animals the forgotten victims of Australian fires"

by Staff Writers
Sydney (AFP) Feb 9, 2009
Overlooked amidst the human tragedy, thousands of animals -- kangaroos and koalas as well as cattle and sheep -- also perished in the scorching fires that have swept through southeast Australia.

At least 130 people died in the flames, official figures showed, but nobody was prepared to venture an estimate on the animal losses.

"It's been absolutely devastating," the president of the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, Pat O'Brien, told AFP.

"We've lost huge numbers of wildlife in the forest. ...


http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Animals_the_forgotten_victims_of_Australian_fires_999.html

:cry:

[Barrett808]

2. Knew it was coming, but still horrifying.

:cry: indeed.