Rebecca Herscher

Record high temperatures in Australia earlier this month contributed to massive wildfires in the eastern part of the country.

That's according to a new report from the European Union's Copernicus Weather Service.

Those fires killed one person and burned at least 900 buildings.

The fires also released an enormous amount of smoke into the atmosphere, degrading the air quality around the city of Melbourne.

The smoke plume was so large that scientists tracked it all the way to South America, and smoke particulates were detected at high altitude in the atmosphere.

Climate change is causing more intense and more frequent heat waves, which makes such fires more likely around the world.

Rebecca Herscher, NPR News.

The Arctic is generally thought of as a quiet place compared to other regions where there are major cities.

That's beneficial for ocean creatures, which thrive in quiet seas.

But a new study by researchers in the United Kingdom finds that there's more ocean noise in the Arctic than previously thought.

They analyzed recordings from underwater microphones.

Here's one recording of a snowmobile driving on sea ice.

That's what the snowmobile sounds like underwater.

Climate change means a warmer Arctic, which makes it easier for ships, mining operations, and other potentially noisy activities to escalate even more, the authors warn.

Rebecca Herscher, NPR News.

President Trump has repeatedly suggested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, is ineffective and should be dramatically downsized or even eliminated.

The council that Trump appointed to make reform recommendations was supposed to deliver its final report at a meeting in December, but the White House abruptly canceled that meeting.

Now, the president has officially extended the deadline for that report until late March.

Congress is responsible for overseeing FEMA.

A bipartisan FEMA reform bill