Tag Archives: drought

Climate & Agriculture 5: Risk of declining (tropical) crop yields has been known for over 25 years

Not just from theoretical thinking, but as calculated outcomes of pioneering climate-crop prediction models – with studies from the early nineties already offering broad patterns of expected changes in agricultural productivity in a warming world. These patterns have of course … Continue reading →

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 25: Congo rainforest shows drying trend – and degradation

The climate over the Congolese rainforests (in the central tropics of Africa) seems to show a drying trend over the last four decades. And although this deviation is smaller than multi-annual variation, the average decline in precipitation does lead to … Continue reading →

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 22: Central American rainforests may also dry out – and die

In our previous article we saw how climate change dries out the Amazon rainforest from the South – killing all remaining rainforest in Bolivia and Paraguay, and most in Peru and Brazil. So, we wonder, what’s going on with the … Continue reading →

New study: Recent drought eastern Mediterranean (Levant, incl. Syria) worst since Middle Ages, but complicated story

Droughts, or rather ‘air subsidence, hence low precipitation and high evaporation’ belong to the subtropics – therefore much of North Africa and the Middle East is covered by (semi) desert. What is a concern though, is possible further drying due … Continue reading →

This is what carbon climate feedbacks look like! Atmospheric monitoring shows dramatic 2015 CO2 emissions record unfolding

Welcome to the future. 2015: The hottest year on record. With a likely coral bleaching record. And sadly also the year with a likely extreme CO2 emissions record. Because, using satellites, we can see the very positive carbon climate feedbacks … Continue reading →

Continuation of Indonesian forest fires could increase global CO2 emissions by 29% – as El Niño and drought intensify over rest of 2015

The year 2015 will be the hottest on record. You’ve probably heard that by now. What does not receive media attention is that 2015 is likely to also bring a dramatic peaking record in global anthropogenic CO2 emissions, if we … Continue reading →

Indonesian wildfires set to continue – IRI forecast paints heavily shaken global climate system during COP21

When world leaders gather in Paris from November 30 to December 12/13 to negotiate a new UN climate treaty the urgency of that matter is very likely to create its own headlines across the globe, if you’d connect the brown … Continue reading →

The Syrian drought of 2006-2010 fits in climate trend of lower precipitation and higher temperatures, this graph shows

Over 2006 to 2010 a prolonged drought, unprecedented in modern documented history, caused a farming collapse in Northeastern Syria. Winter rainfall in the otherwise green & productive ‘Fertile Crescent’ decreased by at least a third in Syria (and up to … Continue reading →