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Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Now that's climate change!
Tim Blair linked to this Reuters article on the origins of the massive desert that covers Australia's interior:
SETTLERS who came to Australia 50,000 years ago and set fires that burned off natural flora and fauna may have triggered a cataclysmic weather change that turned the continent's interior into the dry desert it is today, United States and Australian researchers say.
Their study, reported in the latest issue of the journal, Geology, supports arguments that early settlers literally changed the landscape of the continent with fire.
[snip]
Mr Miller's study suggests that large fires could have altered the plant population enough to decrease the exchange of water vapour with the atmosphere, stopping clouds from forming.
The researchers, working with John Magee of the Australian National University in Canberra, used computerised global climate simulations to show that if there were some forest in the middle of Australia, it would lead to a monsoon with twice as much rain as the present pattern.
That could be the most interesting thing I've ever read, and I can't figure out why. (ED: Perhaps because it incorporates my love of history, geography, and inane trivia into one sweet little package?)
OK, carry on.
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