The World Daily
Human activity linked with rainfall, study finds

Photo:PTI

 

By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | JULY 7th 2021 

 

According to a recent study, human activity that leads to the releasing of greenhouse gasses and subsequent changing climates and lands may in fact be linked with higher rainfall, and thus with an increased risk of such disasters as flooding.

An incline in flooding and landslides has been observed all across the world in the past recent years, largely caused by more extreme rainfall in some places at certain times of the year. Whenever the rain or snowfall exceeds the norm of a given region, the likelihood of such a disaster is all the more probable.

The study itself, published in Nature Communications on Tuesday and performed by researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), worked to understand just how much human activity such as land-use change and greenhouse gas emission would impact the likelihood of extreme weather events and higher rainfall.

By looking at global records and data of observed precipitation over the years, the researchers were able to determine how human activity affected the severity of extreme weather events, keeping in mind that extreme weather may occur even without human intervention of any kind – but that its intensity may change.

“It is vital to identify the changes [to precipitation patterns] caused by human action, compared to the changes caused by natural climate variability,” said Gavin Madakumbura, the lead researcher on the study.

He added: “It allows us to manage water resources and plan adaption measures to changes driven by climate change.”

The data set produced by the study works on a global scale, whereas all previous research of this kind has been restricted to individual countries. What they had confirmed was that the release of greenhouse gasses lead to warming temperatures, and higher water temperatures lead to greater precipitation – and thus to higher rainfall and flood risk, all over the world. 

 

“The dominant mechanism [driving extreme precipitation] for most regions around the world is that warmer air can hold more water vapour,” said Madakumbura. “This fuels storms.”

Climate models in previous studies of this kind had confirmed that human activity and greenhouse gas emissions were linked with more extreme precipitation events and flood risk, but had failed to show it on a global and historic scale. This UCLA study had found the necessary evidence, however.

“This is the first time anyone has taken into account these deep uncertainties to detect a human influence on extreme precipitation over the whole globe,” said the study’s senior author Alex Hall, director of the UCLA Center for Climate Science, which is a part of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

He added: “These findings further elevate the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to prevent even larger impacts down the road.”

Though there are differences in the global data that vary by the region, with some even growing drier and feeling extreme drought, the official Met Office data does appear to show that global rainfall is increasing – with the wetter, rainier parts of the season growing even wetter and more extreme still.

“We know that the signs of human influence started in the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, but it takes some time for the signal to be strong enough to recognize compared to natural variations,” said Madakumbura. “We used this new methodology to build on the work that came before, and it means we can look at these disparate datasets from different regions around the world and still detect the human influence.” 

 

By Patryk Krych | © The World Daily 2021 

Source: The Guardian, The Los Angeles Daily News

 

 

Categories:
Environment
Tags:
Climate ChangeUSAGlobal Warming