Irrigation alleviates hot extremes driven by human-caused climate change New study finds that irrigation can offset risk of heat extremes regionallyIrrigation can cancel out -- or even reverse -- the increased risk of heat extremes associated with human-caused climate change, according to a new study led by ETH Zurich, other universities, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). How irrigation's influence on climate compares to the effects of global warming, however, has been largely unknown. “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,” said Seneviratne. Over South Asia, irrigation locally reduced the likelihood of hot extremes by about 50-88 percent, with particularly strong effects over the Indo-Gangetic Plain. About one billion people currently benefit from the reduction in hot extremes because irrigation quadrupled in area throughout the 20th century.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 16, 2020 15:00 UTC