floods n droughts r cyclic and global warming should not be blamed?

Answer 1

If you look hard enough there are some vague cycles that appear in the flood and drought patterns in the past, but then, if you look hard enough you can find patterns when you randomly pick cards from a pack.

Some people have tried to find patterns where they don't exist and to this end have manipulated the figures. They point out there is a 400 year cycle but when you look at it there isn't - unless 3, 10 and 17 are multiples of 4.

Correlation would be a better term to use than cycle and the correlation is between changing temps and increased / decreased precipitation.

About 1000 years ago there was a period when the planet warmed almost to the same level as it is today, it's often referred to as the Medieval Warm Period or incorrectly as the Climatic Maximum or Climatic Optimim. Written records and geological evidence indicates there were severe floods and droughts back then.

What we do find is that the times of droughts and floods conincide with periods of above average temperatures and this is exactly what we would expect to find.

With the rising temps in the past decades we've seen a directly proportional increase in the amount of precipitation - it couldn't be any other way. Higher temps mean greater evapouration from the seas and oceans and so more precipitation.

In my own country (the UK) we've seen flood records broken twice this year, the odds of that happening ordinarily (called the return period) is one in 4.8 million years. And that's just the floods this year, add in all the other adverse weather events that have affected the UK since the turn of the millenium and the return period works out at once in 13 billion years.

The floods side of things is simple - higher temps = more evapouration = more precipitation. The drought side of things is a little bit more complicated.

Essentially, temperature is the driver for many of our weather and climate systems, changes to temp have a knock on effect. The greater the temp difference for example the greater the potential for winds caused by changes in atmospheric pressure, the greater the pressure difference and the closer the diffrences the stronger the winds.

As a consequence wind patterns change, wind is the delivery mechanism for precipitation. The winds carry moisture laden air to different parts of the planet, some places receive more rain and others receive less.

Let me know if you want it explaining in more detail.

Answer 2

Wrong. Floods and droughts occur naturally, of course. But global warming is causing climate changes. Some of the changes will--and perhaps already are--cause more and wors floods and droughts.

Answer 3

Global warming should not be blamed on a lot of things but it is because of the fraudulent claims of many organizations attempting to captilize on the wave of fear that these organizations are propagating. Droughts and floods and mild winters can be more easily linked to phenomena such as El-Nino and La-Nina which themselves are still not fully understood, and deserve more attention than global warming theories. ENSO effects on weather patterns, loss of life and global economic impact are much more clearly evident than the theory and or effects of global warming.