Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 34: ‘Sahel greening’ unlikely to benefit African biodiversity

The below graph comes from a new global temperature trend study that compares different established datasets for land and ocean temperature. The results emphasize an often-overlooked phenomenon: geographically ‘skewed warming’ – leading to planet-wide precipitation shifts. Possible effects not only … Continue reading

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 28: If the Amazon goes, so may Africa’s rainforests

The Congolese rainforests are the world’s second largest remaining tropical rainforest expanse and a 60 gigatonne carbon store. Although climate models have a hard time predicting rainfall changes over the Congo Basin and despite a multi-decade drying trend, these forests … Continue reading

When the ice goes, so does the rainforest – boreal warming linked to Amazon droughts

We knew there must have been a connection between climate warming and damaging droughts in the world’s largest rainforest, as the two globally hottest years on record (2005 and 2010) coincide with the two record droughts in the Amazon – … Continue reading

Strong re-emergence of La Niña off northern Queensland coast – SST anomalies again up to 2-3 degrees – above average rains for weeks to come

With the current La Niña strongly in place at the onset of the Australian monsoon and reaching predicted optimum strength at the height of the rainy season the risk of experiencing a repeat of the Queensland floods of 2010-2011 is … Continue reading

Droughts in Horn of Africa have been common for last 20,000 years

This year’s catastrophic drought in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia is thought to be an indirect consequence of the 2010-2011 La Niña. As part of ENSO cycles such droughts come and go – and have been typical for the region … Continue reading

Indian aerosol pollution stimulates tropical cyclones over Arabian Sea – because of monsoon disturbance

White sulfur aerosols cool the climate; black carbon soot warms the climate. So when you mix the two kinds of aerosol pollution up in the Asian brown cloud, one would expect climate effects to even out. Unfortunately in our physical … Continue reading

Today’s paradox: Indian monsoon may recover at price of climate change

Over the second half of the 20th century the monsoon rains in the Ganges Valley in north and northeast India decreased by 10 percent. Meanwhile monsoon rains in the south and the Indus Valley [remember 2010 Pakistan floods] increased. Burning … Continue reading

Floods & La Niña: direct, indirect and other causes to heavy rains around the world

Extreme rainfalls and floods across different continents dominate the global news. A connection to La Niña has been suggested. But to what extent can the floods in Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, the Philippines and north-western Europe be … Continue reading