Publication Date February 18, 2016 | The Christian Science Monitor

Aussie town battles tumbleweed invasion: A climate change signal?

Australia
Hairy panic, a perennial weed native to inland Australia, has taken of the rural city of Wangaratta in northern Victoria. Photo: Reuters
Hairy panic, a perennial weed native to inland Australia, has taken of the rural city of Wangaratta in northern Victoria. Photo: Reuters

The warming climate has redirected rainfall from Southern Ocean fronts farther southward, leaving the heavily populated region of southern Australia high and dry. And if greenhouse gas emissions are not cut “deeply and rapidly,” droughts in southern Australia – where Wangaratta is located – will become longer and more severe, say climate scientists