Climate Change
Oct. 22nd, 2024 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThe 2022 European drought: What was the role of climate change?
Researchers estimate that climate change contributed to roughly one third of the drought intensity.
The drought that lasted through the summer of 2022 was especially intense and caused the soil in many regions of Europe to dry out substantially. Public discussions about the causes repeatedly broached the question of the extent to which climate change intensified this extreme weather event. A research team has now discovered that more than 30 percent of the extraordinary intensity and physical extent of the drought can be attributed to human-induced climate change. This extreme event was exacerbated by the fact that climate change had already caused soil moisture levels to drop continuously over the previous years.
In many places, climate change is making the air hotter and drier. This means longer, wider, and deeper droughts that hit more frequently. Worse, it means that the expected rainfall lowers -- remember that a drought is just "abnormally low rainfall" for a given area. This drives desertification as places become unable to support trees, brush, or even grass.
Researchers estimate that climate change contributed to roughly one third of the drought intensity.
The drought that lasted through the summer of 2022 was especially intense and caused the soil in many regions of Europe to dry out substantially. Public discussions about the causes repeatedly broached the question of the extent to which climate change intensified this extreme weather event. A research team has now discovered that more than 30 percent of the extraordinary intensity and physical extent of the drought can be attributed to human-induced climate change. This extreme event was exacerbated by the fact that climate change had already caused soil moisture levels to drop continuously over the previous years.
In many places, climate change is making the air hotter and drier. This means longer, wider, and deeper droughts that hit more frequently. Worse, it means that the expected rainfall lowers -- remember that a drought is just "abnormally low rainfall" for a given area. This drives desertification as places become unable to support trees, brush, or even grass.
