Australia: The Great Dry Drags On

The worst drought in memory drains half a continent

An eerie stillness haunts the desolate plains of eastern Australia. Plows rest immobile in their sheds; paddocks remain withered and empty. For day after enervating day, nothing relieves the silence but the whine of hot, fierce winds whirling precious topsoil into dust clouds and the occasional squawks of crows wheeling above the carcasses of livestock.

The entire eastern half of Australia is thirsting through a wasting drought that is in many regions the worst in the history of the world's most arid continent. Already,...