Australia has endured intense heat, severe drought, dust storms, and catastrophic fires burning their way through everything in their path, destroying wildlife and vegetation that could take decades to regrow. And in some places, the soil is so scorched it may not be able to support plant life in the future.
While the fires are still going strong in some areas, the rainy season came. But rather than offering relief from misery, it brought wild winds, hail storms, and flash floods, toppling trees and causing landslides. Floods also wash huge quantities of ash into rivers, dams, and eventually the sea, where “they will likely pollute water supplies and kill aquatic wildlife.” And here’s an additional horror: the heat and moisture brought a plague of poisonous spiders out into the open. What next? It’s impossible to keep up with the situation, for it seems to change every day.