According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Chad ):
"Lake Chad is believed to be a remnant of a former inland sea which has grown and shrunk with changes in climate over the past 13,000 years....Climate change, due in part to global warming, and increased demands on the lake's water have accelerated its shrinkage over the past 40 years....It seems likely that the lake will shrink further and perhaps even disappear altogether in the course of the 21st century....The lake nearly dried out in 1908 and again in 1984 and has an average depth of only 1.5 metres."
If Lake Chad has shrunk repeatedly in the past, then why is it now so worrisome? Is its current shrinking part of a normal cycle for the lake, or is global warming (or human usage or something else) making this worse than the past shrinkages? Is this shrinking permanent?
Lake Chad is often used as a prime example of global warming, but I don't understand how the current shrinkage is different than in the past.
2006-11-03
04:36:10
·
1 answers
·
asked by
ohyesidid
2