Scientists despairing over the deadly bushfire season sign an open letter to Australia's leaders calling on them to abandon partisan politics and take action on climate change.
The air quality in Melbourne's suburbs drops to the worst possible rating of hazardous this morning, as smoke from bushfires in East Gippsland and the north-east continues to blanket the state.
Conservative estimates put the final cost of the current Australian bushfires well into billions of dollars, while some analysts say they could set back the economy $20 billion in lost output.
What word shall we reach for to name what is happening? 'Ecocide', the killing of ecosystems, won't do. This is something more; this is the killing of everything. Omnicide.
