Desertification, drought, and despair—that's what global warming has in store for much of Africa. Or so we hear. Emerging evidence is painting a very different scenario, one in which rising temperatures could benefit millions of Africans in the driest parts of the continent.
Scientists are now seeing signals that the Sahara desert and surrounding regions are greening due to increasing rainfall. If sustained, these rains could revitalize drought-ravaged regions, reclaiming them for farming communities.
This desert-shrinking trend is supported by climate models, which predict a return to conditions that turned the Sahara into a lush savanna some 12,000 years ago.
Bold added because, you know, it's sort of a stunner that this didn't make it into Al's powerpoint slides. [National Geographic photo]
Now, just a minute, Don...
I thought climate change wasn't happening...
I thought the climate models were so much scientific nonsense...
I thought...
You can't have it both ways! If I'm to accept this story (which, actually, is quite consistent with climate change theory), you have to let me accept the validity of climate models and all of the other aspects of climate theory: vanishing arctic ice, southwestern US drought, extended range of tropical diseases.
Well?
I'm waiting.... :)
Ed
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We report, you decide. db