Thursday 27 April 2023

Deadly African drought ‘not possible’ without climate change

Climate change was to blame for the drought in the Horn of Africa, which led to the death of 43,000 people in Somalia.

More than 4.3 million people have been left in desperate need of humanitarian aid, as Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia have been hit by merciless weather.

The World Weather Attribution (WWA) has released a report stating that rising greenhouse gas emissions made this crippling drought 100 times more likely.

Since 2020, the three nations have experienced five failed rainy seasons in a row – with the scientists revealing that not all of these would have been a failure without human-induced climate change.

Aside from no rail falling in the Horn of Africa, any water that is in the soil or atmosphere is evaporating.

The study found that if the world’s temperature was 1.2°C lower the drought would not have occurred.

The scientists do project the region to receive some rain this year but nowhere near enough to help re-establish farming procedures and operations.

Scientist Joyce Kimutai, who worked on the study, said: “Climate change has made this drought exceptional. This drought is primarily due to the strong increase in evaporative demand caused by high temperatures.”