Re: Northwest Weather Warming and Drying Up

brasil97_at_despammed.com
Date: 12/23/04 

Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 00:29:37 -0800

In article <1103617074.471186.255620@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
"777thSector" <BrotherLode@tmicha.net> wrote:

> Can continual ocean warming,if not cyclical and reversible,eventually
> result in arid desertification sometime in this century?

It is well known that large scale climate change happens. Witness the ice
age, the evidence that areas of the north African deserts were recently
inhabited and forested, and so on.

However, in our own area, I would be more concerned about local
desertification than I would be about global warming. Pretty much
everywhere on earth has experienced some form of desertification, where
foliage removal has been so severe as to cause localized decrease in
rainfall. An awful lot of rich plant-filled areas have been converted
into other uses over the last 100 years. It seems obvious to me that the
effect would be the same in Oregon as it is in China or Africa.

Though, our wind currents from the ocean do tend to prevent a complete
loss of all precipitation, so complete desertification isn't going to
happen without some other major climate changes. 

-- 
-Glennl
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