Papua New Guinea says Friday’s landslide buried more than 2,000 people and formally asks for help.
AP reports: "Determining the scale of the disaster is difficult because of challenging conditions on the ground, including the village’s remote location, a lack of telecommunications and tribal warfare throughout the province which means international relief workers and aid convoys require military escorts."
Meanwhile in Papua New Guinea, finding that export markets for coconuts are contracting, PNG is now using what was once a key export as a biofuel.
Not only is this a demonstration of the innovation that can be forced by circumstance, it is likely to reflect an interest in finding alternatives to fossil fuels across the world.
We'll be seeing a lot more stories like this as human ingenuity side-steps fossil fuels for the green transition.