If you are not yet convinced by the evidence out there supporting the notion of human-influenced climate change, this is unlikely to sway you. It is interesting nonetheless.
In an e-publication ahead of print, Zhang et al. report in Nature that greenhouse gas emissions from humans have caused considerable changes in global precipitation patterns. Although previous research has proven the link between human activity and global warming, the same has not been shown for something so important as precipitation. And once again, the Africans are getting the shaft.
The largest increases in rainfall occurred in most of the northerly portion of the Northern Hemisphere, home to the majority of the wealthy western world. The Sahara took the biggest blow when it came to declining precipitation, and it is no surprise given the perpetual drought and famine witnessed in this area of the world.
Those least responsible are paying for our greed, grandiosity, and gluttonous consumption. But this report is unlikely to change that. In a world full of fundamental Creationists, evolution naysayers, and AIDS “reappraisers”, the usual suspects are likely to crawl out of the woodworks to protest this latest release as a left-wing conspiracy to thwart economic development and the “right” to build bigger houses and amass absurd abundance.
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