In the current desert, precipitation will increase significantly.
In the next century, the arid regions of the Sahara Desert could become significantly greener and more rainy if the global warming rises by more than two degrees Celsius. This forecast was made by experts from Germany and the United States under the leadership of Jacob Sheve from the Institute for Climatological Research in Potsdam.
Experts suggest that the Sahara, which today is one of the driest and most lifeless places on the planet, was not always this way - in some periods of the Earth's history, a lot of vegetation appeared on it, however, when the climate changed again, the situation again became the same, as today.
Scientists believe that if global warming does not slow down, this, oddly enough, could have a beneficial effect on the region called the Sahel, which is the southern outskirts of the Sahara. As a number of climate models prepared by experts have shown, if drought occurs in many other parts of the world as a result of climate change, the Sahel, on the contrary, will become more fertile and suitable for agriculture. This will happen due to the fact that in the new climatic conditions the nature of the movement of monsoons off the coast of Africa will change, so that much more moisture will enter the Sahel.
According to the researchers' forecast, if the global average temperature overcomes a certain "milestone", the Sahel will become significantly greener in just five years or even less. At the current rate of global warming, something like this can happen at the end of the 21st century, scientists emphasize.
The new study was published in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Despite the fact that, for example, in many regions of Russia this summer cannot be called hot, scientists assure that the threat of human-induced global warming is becoming more and more significant. In this regard, recently, a number of climatologists, as well as others, have called for a focus on the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement, concluded in 2015. By the way, just over a month ago, Donald Trump announced the US withdrawal from this agreement.