Over the past thirty years or so, widespread drying has occurred over much of the earth's land surface, including Europe, scientists from the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) have shown in a new study presented on 12 January.
"Global climate models predict increased drying over most land areas during their warm season, as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases increase," says NCAR's Aiguo Dai, the lead author of the study. "Our analyses suggest that this drying may have already begun."
The study adds fuel to the arguments of climate campaigners in Europe. Jan Kowalzig at Friends of the Earth said: "This new report shows what we can expect for Europe summers: hotter and drier weather, with huge social and economic costs."
Kowalzig calls for a "technological revolution in how Europe produces and consumes energy" to cut greenhouse gas emissions. "We can achieve this through increases in renewable energies and energy efficiency, which will also trigger innovation and new economic activity."
According to NCAR, global warming has caused evaporation from land areas, increasing the amount of water vapour in the air. As a result, the average global precipitation has also risen sharply.
"Droughts and floods are extreme climate events that are likely to change more rapidly than the average climate," says Dai. "Because they are among the world's costliest natural disasters and affect a very large number of people each year, it is important to monitor them and perhaps predict their variability."
