Heatwaves, droughts, floods, wildfires, and other types of extreme weather are becoming more intense due to human-caused global warming.
A Russian state television reporter dropped a lit cigarette butt at the scene of raging wildfires in Siberia, sparking a fire in grass a few metres from a village, his channel has confirmed.
The rock paintings, more of which are being discovered yearly, are under threat from constant wildfires, from feral animals that rub against the cave walls and from wasps whose nests dislodge the ephemeral ochre paints.
On top of that, heat and drought also create conditions ripe for wildfires; another major problem for California.
The reporter was covering President Vladimir Putin's visit to southern Siberia, where wildfires raging through the steppe have killed at least 34 people.
"Here in Australia it means longer droughts, more wildfires, it means the incredible natural glory of the Great Barrier Reef is threatened.
Now that the state is finally seeing some significant rainfall in December, those wildfires created conditions conducive to flooding and mudslides.
Besides the Japanese and Thai calamities, New Zealand suffered an earthquake, Australia and China floods, and America a cocktail of hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and floods.
Yet despite withered crops, sun-baked soil and damage from wildfires, some think that farming is in the midst of another golden age, thanks to booming commodity markets and record prices for farmland.In recent years strong global demand for food and biofuels has been pushing crop prices higher.
Then, some of the worst wildfires in decades scorched 7m acres and destroyed hundreds of houses in nine western states.
When governments rebuild homes repeatedly struck by floods and wildfires, they are subsidising people to live in hazardous places.For their part companies need to operate on the assumption that a disaster will strike at some point.
