In a warming world, proof of a human "fingerprint" on drought



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After that, the signal of man-made climate change resumed in the 1980s, probably because of restrictions on pollution in the United States and agreements to reduce aerosol emissions around the world. The fingerprint has become even more obvious since 2000.

The period of relative cooling and decay of the human climate signal suggests that additional studies are needed, said Dr. Cook, but he noted that one of the proposals to combat the effects of climate change is to spray aerosols containing sulphates in the upper atmosphere, a process similar to what happened in the middle of the study. "It was a kind of accidental geoengineering experiment in the middle of the 20th century," he said.

Researchers have detected the climate signal by looking around the world. They found that three regions – Australia, Mexico and the Mediterranean – were drying at the same time, although they react differently to major phenomena like El NiƱo. "This means that it is more difficult than the natural variability of the climate to produce, coincidentally, the simultaneous drying up of the three regions identified in the fingerprint," the authors wrote.

According to the document, as the effects of climate change intensify, what will happen next will be disastrous, especially as many of the regions threatened by a sustainable drought are now agricultural centers. : "The human consequences of this situation, especially the drying up of large parts of North America and Eurasia, will probably be serious. "

Abigail Swann, a climatologist from the University of Washington who did not participate in the research, said, "This shows a creative way to harness the information, especially from the early part of the century. , to determine the cause of droughts in the past. . "

Friederike Otto, Acting Director of Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute, praised the document in an e-mail response to questions. "Although the great message of climate change has not changed, we are now making tremendous progress in understanding what climate change really means for societies, with regard to the impact of global warming. climate change on local variables that are ultimately relevant to food security, "she wrote.

According to Mr. Otto, the underlying message is that "climate change is really present and happening now and we can not afford (in every sense of the word) to continue to ignore it."

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