Editorial : Half-hearted engineering
Climate warming is not the only consequence of rising levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases. The only way to counter all effects, including those on rainfall and ocean acidity, is to remove carbon from the climate system. Arguably, some of the most immediate impacts of a warming climate will result from shifts in global rainfall patterns. The potential threats are diverse, and include water scarcity in the lush Amazonian
rainforest; increased drought in the already parched southwestern United States; rainfall replacing snow in low-latitude mountain regions; and a rise in flooding in temperate climates. Whatever the exact outcome of
these threats, the stability of the world’s economy and ecosystem both depend on maintaining precipitation patterns more or less as they are today.
Credits: nature geoscience | VOL 1 | NOVEMBER 2008 | www.nature.com/naturegeoscience
Fair Use OK
DOWNLOAD FILE — PDF document, 186 kB (190,864 bytes)
