New Scientist - USA (2019-11-16)

16 November 2019 | New Scientist | 7

WILDFIRES are ravaging Australia’s

eastern coast. As New Scientist

went to press, at least three people

had died, 100 people had been

injured and 150 homes and

buildings had been destroyed

by the blazes. The situation

looked set to worsen as hot and

dry winds pick up in strength.

A week-long state of emergency

has been declared in New South

Wales, giving emergency services

the power to shut off electricity

and evacuate people from their

homes. Some 600 schools have

been shut down over safety

concerns. David Elliott, the New

South Wales minister for police

and emergency services, said

the country faced what “could

be the most dangerous bushfire

week this nation has ever seen”.

The fires come after Australia’s

hottest summer on record, and

an unusually hot and dry winter.

“When preceding conditions

have been like this, and the bush

and grass is so dry, it doesn’t take

much for a fire to get going once

the wind is up,” says Richard

Thornton at the Bushfire and

Natural Hazards Cooperative

Research Centre.

People living in and around

Sydney have been warned of

“catastrophic” fire conditions

for the first time since the

classification was introduced in

2009. More than 100,000 homes
      in the area are within 100 metres

of the bush and are at risk.

Bushfires are a normal part of

Australia’s ecology, but experts

have warned that climate change

is exacerbating temperatures and

lengthening droughts, prompting

calls to better prepare for more

extreme events to come.

“We have never seen this

many fires concurrently at

emergency warning level,”

Shane Fitzsimmons, the rural

fire service commissioner for

New South Wales, told Australian

public broadcaster ABC. ❚

Escalating bushfires have caused the declaration of a week-long

state of emergency, reports Ruby Prosser Scully

Energy

Could fracking yet

resume in England?

JUST days after the UK’s

Conservative government

halted fracking for gas in

England, the civil service put

out a document stating that

“future applications will be

considered on their... merits”.

That document, dated

4 November, was obtained

by the i newspaper. In it, the

government doesn’t rule out

accepting new applications

for fracking operations.

A Conservative party

spokesperson told the i that

the ban doesn’t technically

prevent applications, but

it does mean they will be

refused. The opposition

Labour party has called

the ban an election stunt. ❚

Michael Le Page

E-cigarettes

Vaping nearly killed

UK boy, say doctors

A TEENAGER in the UK

almost died from respiratory

failure linked to e-cigarettes,

according to medical staff.

Ewan Fisher had been

vaping for four to five

months before he was

taken ill aged 16. He had

developed hypersensitivity

pneumonitis – an allergic

reaction to something

breathed in which results in

inflammation of lung tissue

(Archives of Disease in

Childhood, doi.org/dd2f).

Jayesh Mahendra Bhatt

at Nottingham University

Hospitals NHS Trust, who

treated Ewan, said: “The

evidence... showed that

[vaping] was to blame.” ❚

Staff and agency

Australian emergency

News

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Funding gap

Ethnic minority

researchers get less

grant money p

Colliding worlds

Many planetary

systems may be

too violent for life p

Empathy’s dark side

How this trait may

increase political

divisions p

Comforting scent

Babies are less scared

when they can smell

their mothers p

Digital therapy

Most people abandon

mental health apps

within weeks p

Locals watch as

bushfires hit farmland

some 600 kilometres

north of Sydney