NASA - Warmer Future Could bring Droughts
A study by NASA scientists including lead author Drew Shindell has found that a warmer future climate could lead to increased droughts in already water-stressed regions. The study compares what happened historically with the climate impact of changes in the sun's output and what may happen in the future with warming driven by increased greenhouse gases.
"These findings strongly suggest that greenhouse gases and long-term changes in solar activity can both have major influences on climate via similar processes," said Drew Shindell.
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies' climate model showed decreasing rainfall in areas such as Mexico, the Southwest United States, parts of North Africa and the Middle East. The models showed rainfall increases in some parts of the globe as well, particularly in equatorial regions and in parts of Southeast Asia.
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Comments (4)
30 years ago, you weatherheads were warning about Global Cooling. Now, it's all about Global Warming. You can't even accurately forecast the weather 10 days from now; you were wrong about the number of hurricanes last year; you've ignored the fact that the Antarctic ice sheet is growing. I think it would be well for you to stop being drawn in by your FEELINGS and to remember that Science isn't about looking important.
Posted by George Mitchell | February 14, 2007 9:13 AM
Laura:
This article, http://www.sciencebits.com/CO2orSolar, gives a good explanation of the increasing evidence of the sun's greater importance in driving the change in the earth's temperature. The article is relatively unique because the author responds directly to posters (both pro and con). He is very good at debunking the arguments of doubters like realclimate.com who use bogus and irrelevant data or studies to cast doubt.
As an aside, I found rich irony in Drudge's reporting that meetings on global warming in St Louis (Gore) and D. C. (Congress) were canceled because of the blizzard. I am not suggesting that the storm has any bearing on the issue. It does seem though that the proponents of AGW often display poor timing (Gore has done it before).
By the way, you folks at Accuweather did a fantastic job on this storm.
Posted by Jordan | February 14, 2007 10:44 AM
And speaking of ice, here's a little heads-up from India:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1925164%2C0008.htm
The gist of the article is, there are over 9,000 glaciers in India, but only 50 are monitored. 50! and those mostly by sensors, rather than by trained observers on location.
Posted by Barbara Williams | February 14, 2007 10:51 AM
droughts have nothing to do with "global warming" take for example this year- there was a big done of high pressure over the southeast this year preventing any storm systems or cold fronts for that matter to push threw there and bring rain
Posted by Donny | December 3, 2007 2:11 PM