http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/climate-change-and-the-end-of-australia-20111003

This year's disasters, in fact, are only the latest installment in
an ongoing series of climate-related crises. In 2009, wildfires in Australia
torched more than a million acres and killed 173 people. The Murray-Darling
Basin, which serves as the country's breadbasket, has suffered a dec­ades-long
drought, and what water is left is becoming increasingly salty and unusable,
raising the question of whether Australia, long a major food exporter, will be
able to feed itself in the coming dec­ades. The oceans are getting warmer and
more acidic, leading to the all-but-certain death of the Great Barrier Reef
within 40 years. Homes along the Gold Coast are being swept away, koala bears
face extinction in the wild, and farmers, their crops shriveled by drought, are
shooting themselves in despair.