The Biggest Dry

The grievous consequences of drought and global warming are more visible and dangerous in Australia than in any other industrialized nation. Wildfires last month killed 210 people in Victoria. The country?s greatest wetland, the Coorong near Adelaide, is drying up. And as it does, the sulfur in the exposed bottomlands mixes with oxygen in the air to form sulfuric acid mud that is killing aquatic life. Forests of Red Gum trees, hearty sentinels of Australia?s arid landscape, are dying. And crops across southeast Australia?s Murray-Darling Basin, one of the planet?s most productive food growing regions, are failing.