Climate Change Has Intensified the Global Water Cycle Climate
scientists have been saying for years that one of the many
downsides of a warming planet is that both droughts and
torrential rains are both likely to get worse. That’s what
climate models predict, and that’s what observers have noted,
most recently in the IPCC’s report on extreme weather, released
last month. It makes physical sense, too. A warmer atmosphere
can absorb more water vapor, and what goes up must come down —
and thanks to prevailing winds, it won’t come down in the same
place. The idea of changes to the so-called hydrologic cycle, in
short, hangs together pretty well. According to a new paper just
published in Science, however, the picture is flawed in one
important and disturbing way. Based on measurements gathered
around the world from 1950-2000, a team of researchers from
Australia and the U.S. has concluded that the hydrologic cycle
is indeed changing. Wet areas are getting wetter and dry areas
are getting drier. But it’s happening