The greenhouse gases which are ever-present in the earth’s atmosphere help to keep a constant and livable temperature for all manner of life on the planet. Over the years, we have pumped far too many of these gases into the atmosphere in the form of fossil fuels and carbon, causing the planet’s temperature to rise.

Global warming is a legitimate threat which is guaranteed to affect many regions and ecosystems in our own lifetime. The consequences of letting this phenomenon continue to persist and incalculable. The ice caps are melting already, causing the water levels to rise due to thermal expansion. The amount of carbon in our atmosphere is destroying coral reefs, devastating biodiversity. These are just a few of the adverse affects we’re witnessing today.

Global warming is a complete climate change. Whether it’s long-term or short-term, this is also affecting our desert regions. Deserts warmed up in temperature between 1978 and 2000 at an average rate of 0.2-.08 degrees Celsius. This is much higher than the natural occurring increases which do take place. This rise has been attributed to the increase in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. Global warming is expected to induce an overall increase in rainfall, however, high latitudes are projected to warm more than the mid to low-latitudes. This will result in more rainfall in higher latitudes, reducing rainfall in subtropical ones.

It is hard to grasp that while anthropogenic warming of the global atmosphere already sufficiently warms and dries deserts; deserts habitually cool the adjacent global atmosphere. This is a state that is also projected to further intensify due to global warming. This is due to the direct reflection of solar radiation by the earth’s surface. In contrast to the direct cause of enhanced warming, the actual effect of deserts is that of cooling the global atmosphere. While this may seem quite the paradox, it is actually simple in principle. Desert regions and their surrounding ecosystems thrive in their own climate. The have the desert increase in temperature, thus decreasing surrounding temperatures, it upsets the balance of nature which occurred naturally, and over thousands, if not millions of years.

Deserts cover over a quarter of the earth’s land surface, so it is worth assessing the carbon storage and sequestration potential of all deserts combined. Soils sequester carbon in inorganic and organic compounds. It is the organic carbon that is most sequestered, as long as rainfall allows. Studies are being performed regularly and returning the same results. Most would think that a desert being hot is nothing unusual. But just as a few degrees can melt the ice caps and forever change the world, so can a few degrees in one of the world’s deserts.

There’s more at stake than just some dried up wasteland which is relatively uninhabitable by people. Millions of peoples’ lives are dictated by the temperature of the desert. If they do not remain constant, surrounding areas will indeed suffer. Deserts are also home to vast ecosystems. Just under the dried up clay and sand, life is thriving and needs the climate that it’s accustomed to in order to survive.

Tags: desert, drought, famine, global warming, solar radiation

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 8:18 am and is filed under Deserts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.