-
Tech NewsHigh School Teacher Holds Class Via Videochat While in Coronavirus Quarantine
A high school math teacher in Australia who recently visited China has found a novel way to keep his students engaged while he sits in self-imposed quarantine over concerns that he visited a country with high concentrations of the new coronavirus. He’s conducting his class through videochat while sitting 5 miles away in his own … Continued
By Matt Novak -
EartherEarth ScienceAn Intense Heat Wave Has Fire Danger Rising Again in Australia
Australia just can’t seem to catch a break. The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather update Thursday noting that the current heat wave that began on the northwestern part of the continent earlier this week is making its way southeast, toward the region where the bushfires continue to burn. This is bad, bad news … Continued
-
EartherClimate ChangeAustralia’s Bushfire Crisis Has Spread to the Nation’s Capital
Bushfires are still scorching Australia and the crisis is far from over. On Tuesday, a bushfire dubbed the Orroral Fire started in a national park near the capital city of Canberra quadrupled in size and quickly grew by hundreds of acres an hour. The latest update from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service shows … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
Tech NewsU.S. Firefighters Die in Plane Crash While Battling Australian Fires
Three American firefighters died in a plane crash while battling Australia’s bushfires in the state of New South Wales on Thursday, according to authorities in the region. It’s not immediately clear what caused the firefighting air tanker to crash. The firefighters, who have not yet been identified, were flying in a Lockheed C-130 Hercules when … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsRed Cross Has Given Out Just 25 Percent of Money Raised For Australian Bushfire Victims
The Red Cross in Australia is coming under fire from at least one local politician for disbursed just a quarter of the money collected for bushfire victims who have lost their homes. About $20.5 million of the $78.7 million ($30 million of $115 million in Australian currency) recently donated by the public to Red Cross … Continued
By Matt Novak -
EartherClimate ChangeAustralia’s Bushfires Have Likely Doubled the Nation’s Carbon Emissions
A month ago, NASA estimated that Australia’s recent bushfires released 250 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere, which is almost half of the country’s yearly emissions. The fires have raged on since then, and shit is getting worse—way worse. New research from scientists with the Global Fire Emissions Database shows that the bushfires likely … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
EartherClimate ChangeDildos and Nude Fundraising Show How the Climate Crisis Is Changing Norms
The scope of the Australian bushfires is almost too horrifying to even try to grasp. A billion animals: dead. Sydney: shrouded in toxic air. Aboriginal sacred sites: gone. The Southern Hemisphere: blanketed in smoke. The list goes on. You get it. This is a picture of human and ecological suffering. People have rushed in to … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
EartherClimate ChangeWhen All the Forests Burn
Nature offers us some of the most sophisticated technology there is. While scientists and engineers continue to scratch their heads trying to figure out how to develop ways to effectively capture our carbon, trees already cracked the code. They’ve been absorbing carbon forever, man. So have other kinds of flora. Grasslands, wetlands, and even underwater … Continued
-
EartherEarth ScienceIt’s Finally Raining in Australia
Australia has been on fire. Perhaps you’ve heard. After months of relentless heat and bone-dry conditions, parts of the continent are finally seeing much-needed rainfall. That could help quell the fires, but heavy downpours have also already led to debris flows, adding insult to injury in a country that really doesn’t need any more pain. … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
EartherClimate ChangeFirefighters Save Australia’s Endangered ‘Dinosaur Trees’ From Raging Bushfires
The Wollemi Pines in Australia are like nothing else in the world. These so-called “dinosaur trees” live in northwest Sydney, and they were extremely close to being burned over and lost forever. In a rare victory among all the Very Sad News coming out of the Australian bushfires, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service managed … Continued
-
EartherEnvironmental JusticeBushfires Are ‘Obliterating the Cultural Memory’ of Australia’s Aboriginal People
The deadly, ongoing bushfires in Australia have been burning for months. Around Christmas, however, the glittering orange flames grew closer to the community of East Gippsland in eastern Victoria, home to more than 46,000 people. Alice Pepper, an indigenous community organizer with the Gunaikurnai people, among them. Her people are the traditional owners of this … Continued
-
EartherAustralian Open Tennis Players Struggle to Breathe as Climate Crisis Makes Air Hazardous
Tennis players at practice sessions for the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia today struggled to breathe as smoke from nearby bushfires choked their lungs. Slovenian Dalila Jakupović even collapsed on the court in a coughing fit while simply trying to inhale the smoke-filled air, which had an Air Quality Index (AQI) rating above 200 today. … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsAustralia’s Terrible Telecom Infrastructure Leaving People Without Vital Info During Bushfire Crisis
Australia’s terrible communications infrastructure is typically just an everyday headache for Australians, who have the slowest internet of any wealthy nation in the world. But in the middle of a bushfire crisis, access to critical information on the internet can be the difference between life and death. Australia’s ABC News aired a new report this … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsFaux-Pork, Feral Camels, Police Dogs, and Sex Tech: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
This week saw the comings and goings of another Consumer Electronics Show along with every oddity and wonder we’ve grown to expect therein. Amid checking out the event’s scores of other gadgets, Gizmodo’s folks on the floor got to build a vibrator, munch on some I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Pork, and scratch their heads over the future of Hollywood heavyweight … Continued
-
EartherClimate ChangeWhy Won’t Jeff Bezos Send Dick Picks to Help Save the Koalas?
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been making headlines lately after giving $690,000 (1 million in Australian dollars) to help Australia recover after devastating bushfires burned 26.4 million acres—and counting. But, now let me pose you a query, dear reader: What if he’d whipped his dick out? I sincerely apologize for conjuring that mental image, but … Continued
-
EartherConservationAn Estimated 1.25 Billion Animals Have Perished in Australia’s Bushfires
Australia’s bushfires have no shortage of horror stats. The blazes have burned 26.4 million acres. The smoke has traveled more than 7,000 miles. They were sparked following Australia’s hottest year ever recorded. But there’s perhaps nothing more shocking than the number of animals afflicted by the flames. A staggering 1.25 billion animals may have perished … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
EartherClimate ChangeIt’s Not Arson, You Absolute Fucking Morons
Australia’s bushfires are a bright red warning sign that the climate crisis is most definitely upon us and worse lies ahead if we don’t curb carbon pollution. That also makes them a bright red warning sign for a disinformation campaign about their causes for anyone looking to maintain the status quo. After months of hell, … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
EartherConservationThe Latest Victims of Australia’s Record Drought: 10,000 Feral Camels
When people think of Australia, kangaroos and koalas may come to mind, but the country is also home to more than a million camels. But while Australians race to save the country’s native wildlife in the face of massive bushfires and crushing drought, the non-native camels face a different fate. Officials are planning to kill … Continued
-
EartherClimate ChangeSatellite Images Show the Shocking Extent of Australia Bushfire Smoke
The bushfire crisis isn’t limited to Australia—it’s coming for the entire Southern Hemisphere atmosphere, too. Australia has been ablaze for months with wildlife-killing, town-destroying, unstoppable fires burning throughout the states of Queenslands, New South Wales, and Victoria. Every day seems to bring a new horror story, and the latest is the smoke that has now … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
EartherClimate ChangeThere Is No Safe Global Warming
Safety is something we all crave. It’s human nature. And so perhaps it’s not surprising that we’ve spent the past decade or so outlining what a “safe” level of global warming is. Language reflecting the conception of “safe” global heating abounds in scientific literature, climate negotiations, and the press. The Paris Agreement enshrined the idea … Continued
By Brian Kahn