“In summary, we showed that irrigation expansion has regionally masked the historical warming of hot extremes from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and all other climate drivers combined,” ETH Zurich researcher Sonia Seneviratne said, in a statement. “The climate that we experience in any particular location is due to many factors, including the national climate of the region, climate change due to greenhouse gas increases, and direct climate impacts due to human use of land, especially irrigation, said NCAR scientist David Lawrence ina statement. Lawrence is a scientist in NCAR’s Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory and received his doctoral degree from the University of Colorado. Even though there has been a direct correlation found between irrigation and climate change, the extent of the benefits is still unknown. Researches also cannot pinpoint a direct correlation between irrigation’s influence on the climate and global warming.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 19, 2020 21:00 UTC