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Be Alert! - May 7, 2007
Shalom in Christ Jesus,
Revelation 17:3-6
And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly.
Revelation 6:9-11
When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.
Ephesians 6:12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Jeremiah 30:23-24
Behold, the tempest of the LORD ! Wrath has gone forth, A sweeping tempest; It will burst on the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back Until He has performed and until He has accomplished The intent of His heart; In the latter days you will understand this.
Revelation 18:17a
for in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!'...
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1) Gaia Worship! California Hotels Go Green With Low-Flow Toilets, Solar Lights [and "An Inconvenient Truth" instead of the Gideon Bible]
BLOOMBERG - By Ari Levy and Carole Zimmer - May 2, 2007
Visitors to the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa won't find the Gideon Bible in the nightstand drawer. Instead, on the bureau will be a copy of ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' former Vice President Al Gore's book about global warming.
They'll also find the Gaia equipped with waterless urinals, solar lighting and recycled paper as it marches toward becoming California's first hotel certified as ``green,'' or benevolent to the environment. Similar features are found 35 miles south at San Francisco's Orchard Garden Hotel, which competes for customers with neighboring luxury hotels like the Ritz-Carlton and Fairmont.
``I'm not your traditional Birkenstocks and granola type of guy,'' said Stefan Muehle, general manager of the Orchard Garden, who said green measures are reducing energy costs as much as 25 percent a month. ``We're trying to dispel the myth that being green and being luxurious are mutually exclusive.''
The Gaia and Orchard are seeking to be the first hotels in California certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, which has authenticated 800 buildings across the U.S. and has about 6,000 in the process, including 30 hotels. San Francisco and other cities offer financial incentives to lessen water and energy use and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Seven years ago, the Green Building Council developed a rating system called the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED. Buildings are certified based on their use of environmentally friendly features such as recycled construction materials, solar lighting, and efficient energy and water systems. Older buildings may be retrofitted. - - -
Building green isn't a priority for most publicly traded hotel chains, said Robert Lafleur, a hotels analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group in Stamford, Connecticut. ``The only green investors care about is the green that's on the money, not the green that's in the hotel rooms,'' Lafleur said. For visitors, ``it's location, price, convenience and brand affiliation.'' - - - Efforts by the state and cities have contributed to a surge in green development, said Bill Worthen, a senior associate at Simon & Associates Inc. in San Francisco. The consulting company is getting a call a day for projects, he said. ``It's a hip and trendy thing to do and one that's actually good for the planet,'' he said.
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2) Poor nations brake greenhouse gas rise: U.N. draft
Sacrificing children on the altar of Gaia
REUTERS - By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent - May 2, 2007
OSLO - Developing nations that are fast industrializing, such as China and India, have braked their rising greenhouse gas emissions by more than the total cuts demanded of rich nations by the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol. - - -
"China is already doing a lot," said Hu Tao, of China's State Environmental Protection Administration.
He said China's one-child per couple policy introduced in the early 1980s, for instance, had a side- effect of braking global warming by limiting the population to 1.3 billion against a projected 1.6 billion without the policy.
"This has reduced greenhouse gas emissions," he told a conference in Oslo last month. China is the number two emitter of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, behind the United States and ahead of Russia. - - - -
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3) Police force abortions on Christian women
Dozens of unborn reported killed by mandatory chemical injections
WORLDNETDAILY - April 20, 2007
Dozens of unborn babies have been killed in a sweep by Chinese authorities of the Guangxi province that snared pregnant women and brought them against their will to a hospital for fatal abortion injections, according to a Christian ministry that monitors the district and ministers to those in need.
"After 41 women were forced to have abortions on [Tuesday], China Aid Association has learned that the Youjiang District People's Hospital of Baise City performed forced abortions for at least 20 more pregnant women on [Wednesday]," an alert from the organization said.
China Aid, which has its U.S. offices in Midland, Texas, confirmed that eyewitnesses are reporting that the latest roundup of pregnant women involved more than 20, who were transported to a hospital by government "Family Planning" authorities. - - -
Many of those targeted in the killing rampage were Christians, CAA said. - - -
Officers from the government surrounded the section of the hospital where the women were being held, the report said.
"CAA urges the international community to register your protest and concern with letters and phone calls to the chairman of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, Party Secretary of Baise City, Mr. Liang Chunlu, and the Youjiang District People's Hospital," CAA said.
The Population Research Institute's research earlier indicated in the past the United Nation's Population Fund, into which the United States had poured money, actually has assisted Chinese government efforts to force married couples to have only one or two children.
China maintains, at least in some areas of the country, a one-child policy sometimes enforced through a policy of forced abortions. It is believed China performs some 10 million involuntary abortions a year.
First exposed by WND in 1997, what has come to be known as "gendercide" in China - due to a cultural preference for boys - has resulted in the deaths of at least 50 million girls.
The organization provided the following contact information:
Chairman Wei Qing Zhang, National Population and Family Planning Commission of China
Hotline for complaints: :+86-10-8250492
Also can be via e-mail.
Youjiang District People's Hospital
Tel: +86-776-2839393; 2697723
Party Secretary of Guangxi Province: Mr. Qibao Liu
Tel: +86-771-5883508
Governor of Guangxi Province: Mr. Bing Lu
Tel: +86-771-2807778
Party Secretary of Baise City Mr. Liang Chunlu
Tel: +86-776-2834089
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4) Western homeschoolers need political asylum from democracy
Expert says federal crackdown likely the 'edge of coming night'
WORLDNETDAILY - By Bob Unruh - April 15, 2007
A growing crackdown on homeschool families - most of whom are Christian - is the "edge of the night that's coming" for believers, according to an expert in the field.
Michael P. Farris, cofounder of the Home School Legal Defense Association, says his concern is not just for Germany, where the government is being especially intolerant, but other democracies too.
"Germany is the only Western democracy taking this incredibly hard-line approach, but there are growing clouds on a number of national horizons," Farris told WND in an interview after his recent travels to review the status of homeschooling.
One stop was in Germany, where in recent months homeschoolers have been fined the equivalent of thousands of dollars, had custody of their children taken away, had their homes threatened with seizure and in one case, that of Melissa Busekros, had a team of SWAT officers arrive on a doorstep with orders to seize a homeschool student, "if necessary by force."
Farris, who visited with Melissa's parents, Hubert and Gudrun Busekros, during his trip, also met with other homeschool families under attack from a government that has held the activity illegal since before the Nazi juggernaut failed to conquer the world.
One of the families is paying a fine each month for refusing to turn children over to a mandatory public school system that advocates alternative sexual lifestyle choices and promotes other beliefs objectionable to Christians.
"Most homeschoolers have concluded when the family courts begin to get involved, their only realistic opportunity is to seek asylum in another country," Farris said. "You don't expect to apply for political asylum from a Western democracy but that's what's happening and with greater frequency."
"One of the people we met with said as it pertains to the family, parents and the policy of the government towards children generally, it wasn't so much that the [Berlin] wall came down after the fall of communism, but that the wall moved to the left," he said. "The East German government's philosophy seems to be the style adopted by today's German government as it approaches children."
He said even the United Nations, a regular advocate for governmental intervention and influence over most matters, has concluded Germany is stepping over the line because it forbids parents from having significant control over their children's education.
The internationally recognized laws acknowledging parental authority in the education of children were adopted, after all, in response to earlier education standards enforced in Germany.
The issue of German parents and their decision- making authority for their children's education was covered in this once-enforced statement: "And this [government] will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing."
Adolf Hitler issue the dictate when his government, in one of its first actions when he came to power, took control of all educational institutions and issues. - - - -
Read Full Report Posted on the Be Alert! Blog
See Also:
Gideons battling 2nd round of charges
At the blog
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5) 'Gay' activist says 'We will BURY you'
Threats made against Christian workers opposing homosexual agenda
WORLDNETDAILY - May 5, 2007
A board member for Equality California has come out swinging at the Bible-based Capitol Resource Institute, which works on behalf of family and biblical values in California, especially among its lawmakers.
"If you continue your efforts, we will BURY you," said an e-mail from Ben Patrick Johnson, to his "colleagues" at the CRI, according to a statement from the Christian organization.
"For a group that purports to expand tolerance and civil rights, Equality California is not practicing what it preaches," CRI said. - - -
"In a video diatribe against CRI posted on his website, Johnson declares that CRI and its supporters are 'hate peddlers' and 'conservative, religious prejudice peddlers.' He further declares that we are 'smirky, self-righteous folks' who have 'launched an aggressive campaign against legislation to protect gay youth in California's and ultimately America's schools.' This statement reveals not only the vitriolic language this supposed 'tolerance' group uses, but also the true agenda behind such legislation as SB 777. The radical homosexual agenda intends on sweeping the nation. California is merely the first step in the campaign to stifle free speech and stamp out opposition to 'alternative lifestyles,'" CRI said.
As WND has reported, SB 777 is a plan that would require all public schools in California to eliminate anything that could reflect "adversely" on the homosexual lifestyle choice. - - - -
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6) Crackdown on Christians could go nationwide
Fears raised that Islamic law will expand under new president
WORLDNETDAILY - May 5, 2007
Christians in Nigeria, who make up about half the population, are expressing fears Islamic law already being enforced in northern states will expand nationwide with the inauguration this month of a new "devout Muslim" president, according to a report from the Voice of the Martyrs.
Musa Yar' Adua was governor of Katsina state in northern Nigeria, where he and nearly a dozen other governors over recent years have imposed Islamic religious law as the law of the government, officials said.
As a result, Christians have lost basic rights such as having a location to meet and meeting there, officials have confirmed.
"We have not been allowed to worship freely, as churches have been denied places of worship. In the Government Reservation Area, for example, it is not possible to get land for places of worship by Christians," Rev. Canon Williams said in a Voice of the Martyrs report.
As WND has reported, Muslim rioters in Nigeria in 2006 were incensed over cartoons of Muhammad published in Denmark, and more than 130 Christians in the Nigerian cities of Maiduguri and Onitsha were slaughtered.
The reports documented six children burned to ashes in front of their father, VOM said.
WND also has reported nearly 1,000 homes of Christians and many churches have been destroyed in those regions, and documentation of Islamic law is everywhere.
"If you go around villages, you will see people missing one hand or one foot," explained Rev. Obiora Ike. "Do you think that's the result of an illness? That is the result of sharia law."
More than 10,000 Christians have been martyred in the region since the Islamic law was imposed in the region in 1999, and Voice of the Martyrs has helped surviving family members through its Families of Martyrs Fund with Care Packs, Village Outreach packs and words of encouragement to believers who stand for their faith "amidst volatile, uncertain conditions. - - - -
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7) Florida: Bible verse has Broward mayor apologizing
Ed. Note: This is clearly not the way to win hearts to Christ and neither are we under the law any longer as it directly applies in this verse (though the sinner is already judged unless he repents). But, His word is truth and we are slowly seeing the banning of any public display of that truth.
Woe, woe, woe.
BE/\LERT!
SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL - By Jamie Malernee - May 4, 2007
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Sheriff's investigators are looking at surveillance video footage in hopes of discovering who got on the public address system at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport this week and quoted a Bible passage that denounces homosexuality.
The Broward County mayor apologized for the incident Friday, and the county administrator vowed that if a county employee is found to be behind the stunt, the person would be fired.
The unauthorized announcement quoted from Leviticus 20:13, which depending on the translation of Bible, states that: "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death."
The passage was read more than once over the public address system in the baggage area of Terminal 3 at 12:45 a.m. on Tuesday, prompting complaints from a local gay couple.
"It was almost so threatening I was frightened," said Waymon Hudson, who overheard the message while in the airport with his partner of six years.
"I understand that it is a Bible verse," said his partner, Anthony Niedwiecki, "but there should be no reason that a Bible verse to begin with should be going over the PA system of a public entity."
Broward County Mayor Josephus Eggelletion Jr. called the reading of the passage "inappropriate."
"We welcome all people of all races--- all ethnicities, all religions and sexual orientations," he said. "We have a very large gay population, and we are sorry this occurred." - - - -
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8) The Sanhedrin's peace initiative
Jewish group devoted to rebuilding Temple in Jerusalem to send letters to all world leaders, including Arab ones, inviting them to take part in project, attend conference on Temple Mount in Israel
YEDIOTH AHRONOTH (YnetNews) - By Kobi Nahshoni - May 1, 2007
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been gearing up for an Israeli offensive in recent months, is bound to be surprised by the peace feelers he is set to receive from Jerusalem soon.
Without Saudi mediation or diplomatic procedures, the president will get a "Letter of Love and Peace", accompanied by a historic invitation to visit Jerusalem, from The Supreme Judicial Court of the Jewish People, better known as the Sanhedrin.
After having tried their luck with the High Court of Justice and the government, the members of the Jewish group have set out on a new track in their struggle for the Temple Mount, aimed at rebuilding the Temple in the Jewish capital.
In recent days, the group members have drafted a letter that will be translated into 70 languages and sent to all government institutions in the world, including "the sons of Esau and Ishmael" who do not hold diplomatic ties with Israel.
Jews responsible for world peace
In the letter, the rabbis of the self-proclaimed Sanhedrin warn that the world is nearing a catastrophe, and write that the only way to bring peace among nations, states, and religions is by building a house for God, where Jews will worship, pray and offer up sacrifice, according to the vision of the prophets.
The rabbis also call on the non-Jews to help the people of Israel fulfill their destiny and build the Temple, in order to prevent bloodshed across the globe.
The letter will initially be translated into English, Spanish, Arabic, French and Farsi, and later also into Russian, Chinese and Japanese, and will include an invitation to world leaders to attend a conference dedicated to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem five months from now, during Succot.
Prof Hillel Weiss of the Sanhedrin explained that the Torah and the prophets have tasked the Jewish people with the responsibility for world peace. He stressed that the group's project was to rebuild the Temple, not a "church for all nations," but added, "We have all descended from the same father, this is not another primitive and racist approach."
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9) Iran, Syria Hold Conferences on a 'Culture of Resistance'
ARUTZ SHEVA - By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz - May 3, 2007
As Iran was hosting an international conference this week under the banner "The Muslim World: Victim of Terrorism," Syria was holding its own international conference on "Arab and Islamic Media Support of the Palestinian People." In both countries, the theme was how the Islamic or Arab peoples are under assault and occupation by Israel and the United States.
On Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the audience at the first-ever Culture of Resistance Conference, held in Tehran, that the Islamic world has been victimized by terrorism perpetrated by "the arrogant powers." It is those powers, Ahmadinejad said, that have created and promoted international terrorist organizations. "Unfortunately," the Iranian leader said, "Islam's enemies are trying to cover up their failures by wrongly portraying Islam as a religion of violence."
Ahmadinejad called the United States a terrorist regime and claimed that Israel, with Western backing, is continually threatening other nations. "Islam is nowadays the victim of organized terrorism," he declared.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mohammadi told conference attendees, "We strongly condemn all forms of terrorism because we have suffered most from it."
The two-day Tehran conference, which had as its explicit goal the promotion of a "culture of resistance," ended on Wednesday and was attended by guests from 46 states.
At the same time as the Iranian event, a three-day conference in Syria drew 350 people from around the globe, as well.
Like its sister gathering in Tehran, the Syrian conference expressed a commitment to "deepen the culture of resistance." Specifically, the conference offered support for the Hizbullah terrorist organization, referred to in Syrian media as "the Lebanese national resistance." The final statement of the conference further praised the war Hizbullah launched against Israel in July 2006, "which defeated the US-Israeli schemes," according to the Syrian government's news agency, SANA.
In their closing statement, the Syrian conference organizers called on Arab and Islamic media to put the Arab-Israeli conflict at the top of their agenda, especially regarding the release of convicted Arab terrorists in Israeli jails.
Presented as the centerpiece of the conference's final statements, however, was a declaration in favor of "Syria's legitimate right to restore the occupied Syrian Golan." To emphasize this point, the last session of the gathering was held in Kuneitra, on the Syrian side of the Golan mountain range.
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10) Iran, Syria and a Burdensome Stone: News Briefs
Israel's Ambassador in Washington says Syria is developing its most serious threat against Israel since it attacked Israel in the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
"We see Syria developing a very serious threat on the northern border," Ambassador Sallai Meridor told journalists in Washington on Wednesday. He said the threat is manifest in military activity, training, great investments in military equipment - and the build-up of a large arsenal of Scud missiles.
"In the past," Meridor said, "the assumption was that the Syrians' tanks and air force were not among the most advanced. Now, however, we are concerned that they might think that with a large arsenal of rockets that can reach everywhere in Israel, they have the capacity... to threaten us."
The last time Israel's north-eastern neighbor threatened Israel so fiercely build-up was the 1973 Yom Kippur War. That war was set off when Syria and Egypt simultaneously attacked Israel on the holiest day of the Jewish year.
"We hope they do not have offensive intentions," Meridor said, "but we cannot be sure." The ambassador said that Israel is attempting to pass "calming messages" to Syria, but that Syria continues to "thwart attempts to create attempts to create an atmosphere that will promote peace."
Syria has demanded for 40 years that Israel relinquish control over the Golan Heights - the mountainous area from which Syria often launched attacks against Israeli communities below until Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 Six Day War. - - - -
Read Full Article
Despite Syrian military border build-up, Israel has no plans to attack but stands ready to ward off a surprise Syrian strike
DEBKAFILE - May 4, 2007
Reporting that this message had been relayed from Jerusalem to Damascus, Israeli Ambassador to US Salai Meridor said in Washington Wednesday night that Syria has amassed on Israel's borders strength and missiles capable of reaching every part of the country. On April 30, DEBKAfile reported exclusively that Bashar Assad had shifted units from the Iraqi to the Lebanese border shortly after the Winograd panel had slammed the Olmert government for its mishandling of the Lebanon War. Our military sources specified that an infantry brigade had been relocated from the Iraqi border to beef up the Syrian 14th Commando Division deployed opposite Golan and the sensitive Mt. Hermon- Shabaa Farms sector where the Lebanese, Syrian and Israeli borders converge. A source in Israel's northern command says the stationing of an infantry brigade on the forward line with Israel stiffens Syrian defenses and frees up Syrian command units for operational duties.
A careful watch is trained on these movements to ascertain whether Assad is engaging in mere muscle flexing, or trying to capitalize on the Israeli government's weakness for a military move on the Golan Heights.
Read Full Article
Magazine pulls Olmert's Iran raid quotes
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL - April 28, 2007
BERLIN -- A German magazine Web site has pulled part of an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in which he discusses destroying Iran's nuclear program.
Focus Magazine said Saturday it removed Olmert's statements about blitzing Iran with thousands of cruise missiles due to translation problems.
Olmert had been quoted as saying Tehran's controversial nuclear program could be knocked back by years using a 10-day barrage of precision cruise missiles. The Israeli government issued a statement Saturday calling the quotes in accurate.
YNetNews said Focus agreed and removed the quotes.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Olmert had been speaking off the record; however the statements caused some consternation among Likud members who feared public-relations damage.
Read Full Article
US troops seize gang 'smuggling bombs from Iran'
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - April 27, 2007
US forces on Friday detained four members of a gang suspected of smuggling armour-piercing bombs from Iran to Iraq and sending back militants for "terrorist training", the military said.
A statement from US command in Iraq said the suspects were picked up in an early morning raid on the east Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, a known stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
"The individuals targeted during the raid are suspected members of a secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq," it said. - - -
American commanders say the design is exclusively Iranian and in January alleged that at least 170 US troops had been killed by EFPs since May 2004.
The statement also said that the gang had sent "militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training." - - - -
Read Full Article
Roughly 100,000 people rally in Tel Aviv to call on PM, Peretz to quit
HAARETZ - By Barak Ravid, Roni Singer-Heruti and Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies - May 3, 2007
More than 100,000 people rallied in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square on Thursday, in the first national protest calling on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz to resign over the damning Winograd report on the Second Lebanon War.
While police would only say the number of protestors was over 100,000, the rally's organizers said closer to 200,000 were in attendance. A banner reading "Failures, Go Home!" hung behind a podium set up at one end of the square in front of Tel Aviv city hall. - - - -
Read Full Article
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13) Australian cities facing 'Big Dry' water shortages
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - April 29, 2007
Drought-stricken Australia faces the world's most extreme climate change challenge as millions of city dwellers try to cope with water shortages, according to the country's most recognised scientist.
The government has already made the unprecedented declaration that farmers will receive no irrigation water from July in Australia's most fertile region if the country's worst drought in a century continues.
Water restrictions have been imposed across the vast island continent and scientist Tim Flannery, named the 2007 Australian of the year for his pioneering environmental work, says the problem will only get worse.
Flannery said the drought meant two of Australia's largest cities, Brisbane and Adelaide -- home to a combined total of almost three million people -- would run out of water by the year's end unless the so- called "Big Dry" ended.
"We could see a catastrophic situation developing here by the end of the year. It's become a huge issue," Flannery told AFP.
"Even a year ago this would have been unthinkable. I think it's the most extreme and the most dangerous situation arising from climate change facing any country in the world right now.
"We have a situation where, if there are no flows in the Murray-Darling (river system), Adelaide, a city of one million people, has only 40 days' worth of water left in storage.
"If we don't get any rain this year Adelaide and Brisbane may be facing diabolical problems."
The drought, which has lasted a decade in parts of the country, has slowed Australia's overall economic growth by an estimated 0.75 percent as crops have fallen 62 percent.
The impact on rural communities has been devastating. Many farmers have been forced off the land and counselling services have reported unusually high levels of suicide in rural areas.
Children have water conservation messages drummed into them from an early age at school and householders face hefty fines, or can even have their water disconnected, if they are found to be wasting the precious resource.
The impact of climate change is also evident off Australia's northeast coast where the Great Barrier Reef -- the world's largest living organism -- has been badly damaged by bleaching linked to rising ocean temperatures. - - - -
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