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Another global warming catastrophe: the Sahara Desert is actually getting greener
Hotair ^ | 06/02/2015 | Jazz Shaw

Posted on 06/03/2015 7:16:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind


This story is actually quite fascinating and it obviously has something to do with changes in the climate, but just how to explain it all remains a subject of contention. You would think that increasing temperatures would make things worse in the deserts of the world, but in a rather counterintuitive instance of planet watching, it appears that the Sahara desert may actually be shrinking.

A few thousand years ago, a mighty river flowed through the Sahara across what is today Sudan. The Wadi Howar—now just a dried-out riverbed for most of the year—sustained not just fish, crocodiles, and hippopotamuses, but also agriculture and human settlement. As late as 1,000 B.C., a powerful fortress stood on its shores. But then the Sahara dried out, turning from a green savannah into an inhospitable desert. The culprit: climate change. According to desert geologist Stefan Kröpelin, who has studied geological data for the eastern Sahara going back 6,000 years, the desert spread as temperatures dropped. Global cooling meant that the air had less capacity to hold moisture from the oceans, leading to fewer rains and more arid climes.

Now, that same process is happening in reverse. As temperatures rise, the Sahara and other dry areas are greening on the edges. “I’ve been studying the Sahara for 30 years and can definitely say that it’s getting greener,” says Kröpelin, who specializes in desert archaeology and climate history at the University of Cologne. Where there used to be nothing but desert, he says, there is now not just grass but shrubs and acacia trees–and he has the photos from 30 years of extensive field study to prove it. “The nomads are taking their camels to graze in areas where they’ve never been able to graze before.” Satellite data showing more green on the southern edge of the Sahara also bear him out. “There are always winners and losers if weather patterns change,” he says. “But as a general rule, warmer temperatures inevitably mean that the air picks up more moisture from the oceans, which will lead to more rainfall. If you look at the geological records in the Sahara, there have been repeated periods where the Sahara was greener when temperatures were warmer than today.”

So the desert was originally created around six thousand years ago under this theory. (Clearly caused by the hydraulic fracturing taking place in the Garden of Eden. Darned industrialist snakes…) But now the warmer temperatures are causing more rain at the edges of the desert? The subject is endlessly fascinating. Over the years I’ve heard all sorts of theories being tossed out in the scientific community regarding the planet’s biggest, baddest desert. One of the most recent ones – and for some reason I thought this was generally accepted, but perhaps not – is that the planet’s orbital tilt drifts over time. Around the same time period they’re talking about in this article, the tilt began to change, shifting the planet into a less inclined tilt from then until now.

The widely-held belief is that the Sahara dried up due to a change in the Earth’s orbit, which affects solar insolation, or the amount of electromagnetic energy the Earth receives from the Sun. In simpler terms, insolation refers to the amount of sunlight shining down on a particular area at a certain time, and depends on factors such as the geographic location, time of day, season, landscape and local weather.

Climate scientist Gavin Schmidt, of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, explained that around 8,000 years ago, the Earth’s orbit was slightly different to how it is today. The tilt changed from around 24.1 degrees to the present-day 23.5 degrees.

“Additionally, the Earth had its closest approach to the Sun in the northern hemisphere (with) summer in August,” Schmidt said. “Today, that closest approach is in January. So, summertime in the north was warmer back then than it is now.”

Earlier theories speculated that there was a growing “rain shadow” effect caused by the continually rising Himalayan Mountains, disrupting weather patterns and stopping the rainfall in some areas. Still other have said that eccentricities in the earth’s orbit around the sun (a different consideration than the orbital tilt) have periodically thrown things off kilter in either direction which also contributed to the growth or recession of major deserts.

In either event, even if we can’t nail down exactly what’s causing it and to what degree the effects are felt, this must at least be some good news for farmers and herders in Africa. Party on, folks.


TOPICS: Science; Weather; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: amazon; catastrophism; drought; globaldusting; globalwarming; globalwarminghoax; godsgravesglyphs; greening; popefrancis; romancatholicism; sahara; water; yesterday
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1 posted on 06/03/2015 7:16:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I don’t like the whole climate change debate in general. I think the science gets very lost in the partisanship. But I have always wondered whether the scientific community presenting the case for climate change has not underestimated the ways in which the planet will compensate for higher temperatures in just the way that this article is arguing. And it’s not just the Sahara. There are huge areas of subarctic tundra where tree growth is exploding.

So high carbon leads to warmth, warmth leads to plant growth, plant growth soaks up excess carbon and the warming moderates again.


2 posted on 06/03/2015 7:27:35 AM PDT by babble-on
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To: SeekAndFind

I don’t like the whole climate change debate in general. I think the science gets very lost in the partisanship. But I have always wondered whether the scientific community presenting the case for climate change has not underestimated the ways in which the planet will compensate for higher temperatures in just the way that this article is arguing. And it’s not just the Sahara. There are huge areas of subarctic tundra where tree growth is exploding.

So high carbon leads to warmth, warmth leads to plant growth, plant growth soaks up excess carbon and the warming moderates again.


3 posted on 06/03/2015 7:27:36 AM PDT by babble-on
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To: babble-on

Huge self adjusting systems? Sounds right to me. It’s a natural.


4 posted on 06/03/2015 7:30:58 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
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The earth’s climate is always changing, but those changes have nothing to do with molecular level changes in CO2 produced by human activity. Why did the Sahara dry up 6,000 years ago when human activity at the time added little to the global levels of CO2? The sun, the oceans, variations in the tilt of the earth’s axis and volcanic eruptions have far more to do with alterations in climate than any amount of CO2. The big lie is that human caused increases in CO2 resulting in global warming is the only significant cause of climate change.


5 posted on 06/03/2015 7:38:50 AM PDT by The Great RJ (“Socialists are happy until they run out of other people's money.” Margaret Thatcher)
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To: MeshugeMikey

“It’s a natural.”

What do you mean nature? Why, that implies something other than our self-appointed gods control the Earth. Can’t have that!

Before you know it, the people will be worshiping God...


6 posted on 06/03/2015 7:41:59 AM PDT by Paulie (America without Christianity is like a Chemistry book without the periodic table.)
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To: MeshugeMikey

Humans debating global warming is like three mites claiming to push the elephant they are hitching a ride on.


7 posted on 06/03/2015 8:05:33 AM PDT by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Now, that same process is happening in reverse. As temperatures rise, the Sahara and other dry areas are greening on the edges. “

Another ‘warm globally, cool locally’ alert!


8 posted on 06/03/2015 8:10:40 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: babble-on

You can say that again!


9 posted on 06/03/2015 8:11:19 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: The Great RJ
As the global temperature of Earth has dropped over the last 8,500+ years the amount of CO2 has increased.


10 posted on 06/03/2015 8:13:34 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: SeekAndFind

2015 Southern Ocean Iceberg Forecast | Mini Ice Age 2015-2035
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4aVclYH5xI

Earth is Doomed to Decades of Cooler Temperatures
http://drsircus.com/world-news/earth-is-doomed-to-decades-of-cooler-temperatures

June all-time record low shattered in Boston
http://iceagenow.info/2015/06/june-all-time-record-low-shattered-in-boston/

Norway snow driver – “Never experienced anything like this before”
http://iceagenow.info/2015/06/norway-snow-driver-never-experienced-anything-like-this-before/
“I’ve been in this job for many years, and in my time we have never had to close because of bad weather in June, but today we had no choice,” says Tor Helge Tveit, who has coordinated plowing service on Hardangervidda many years.

Norway – School bus blown off road in snowstorm
http://iceagenow.info/2015/06/norway-school-bus-blown-off-road-in-snowstorm/#more-16503

Blizzards in Scotland
http://iceagenow.info/2015/06/blizzards-in-scotland/


11 posted on 06/03/2015 8:17:46 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: SeekAndFind

And all this heat is making the glaciers grow!

http://www.iceagenow.com/List_of_Expanding_Glaciers.htm


12 posted on 06/03/2015 8:22:08 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

A clear easy to understand from lush to desert.
Now let’s move to the California desert. Dingbat Brown is running around on the global warming witch hunt and California has no water. Maybe he should try and increase global warming along the coast to increase rainfall. Simple idea and positive results.


13 posted on 06/03/2015 8:36:17 AM PDT by Kozy
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To: Paulie

“Before you know it, the people will be worshiping God...”

its awkward.. but it’s inevitable!


14 posted on 06/03/2015 8:38:40 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
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To: SeekAndFind

OH NO THE GREEN GRASS, LUSH VEGETATION AND WATER ARE CREEPING IN ON THE CAMELS.

WE CAN'T HAVE THAT.

WE NEED TO SEND MORE MONEY TO THE GLOBAL WARMING SCIENTISTS SO THEY CAN COME UP WITH A SOLOUTION.

NEXT THING YOU KNOW WE WILL BE CALLING THE CAMELS LLAMAS. OH YEAH RIGHT, LLAMAS AND CAMELS ARE RELATED.

15 posted on 06/03/2015 9:11:50 AM PDT by seawolf101
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To: SeekAndFind

Very cool and unexpected by me. I will say, the Earth has her own buffer systems to maintain world temperatures in a fairly well known range. We know the temperatures at the height of the ice ages and the temperatures for the warming periods between ice ages.

It is nature folks. Man has a negligible impact on the climate or the direction or magnitude of long term trends in world temperature changes.

Amazing how an entire propaganda machine has spun that fact on its head. I can’t wait until the theory of anthropomorphic global warming from CO2 emissions is so widley debunked that it is common knowledge to every layman in the nation.


16 posted on 06/03/2015 9:33:16 AM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (Lord God help us.)
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17 posted on 06/04/2015 1:53:03 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free

It would be funny if the changes that scientists make to combat global warming would cause an ice age!


18 posted on 06/04/2015 2:10:50 PM PDT by citizen352 (I have done no harm. But I remember now. l am in this earthly world...)
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Note: this topic is from 6/03/2015. Thanks SeekAndFind.

19 posted on 09/15/2015 9:18:10 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW)
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Note: this topic is from 6/03/2015. Thanks SeekAndFind.

20 posted on 09/15/2015 9:18:21 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW)
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