"The only explanation can be the link to climate change" (Monsoon season in Pakistan)

[SoCalDem]

Pakistan floods shows threat from warmer world-scientists
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSGE6780D0._CH_.2400
Tue Aug 10, 2010 4:55am EDT

By David Fogarty and Augustine Anthony

SINGAPORE/ISLAMABAD, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Floods that have devastated Pakistan could be a sign of the future as climate change brings greater extremes of weather to the region.

snip

And for Pakistan's 160 million people, many already facing regular droughts and floods, that could cost more lives and threaten cotton, wheat and rice crops and infrastructure. It could also add to the security challenges in what is already one of the world's poorest and volatile nations that is battling Islamic militancy. The government has been heavily criticised over its poor response to the crisis. Scientists say Pakistan could also suffer in the long-term from declining amounts of meltwater from glaciers feeding the Indus River, which is nation's life-blood . For the current floods, rainfall of about 400 millimetres (16 inches) in mountainous areas in the far north of Pakistan and adjoining parts of Afghanistan between July 28 and 29 triggered a torrent of water down the Indus and Kabul Rivers.

"That was a record," said Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, director-general of the Pakistan Meteorological Department. "The only explanation can be the link to climate change. Because that area very rarely receives monsoon rains," he told Reuters, pointing to the risk of the monsoon belt shifting as well as changes in the intensity of the monsoon.

LIMITS

He said the current floods could also be blamed to some degree on deforestation and more people living in flood-prone areas as the population keeps growing.

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[LawnKorn]

1. .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x255729

[dipsydoodle]

2. ditto

was just about to post that myself. The background to both the floods in Pakistan and the heatwave in Russia have the same net cause - the jetstream being both stationary and bunched up with higher peaks and troughs , not moving east as per normal.

Not a denial of climate change - just a different cause for a change.

[SoCalDem]

3. Climate Change upsets "normal" patterns

India, apparently is NOT getting the monsoonal rains they need, and instead Pakistan is being deluged..

It's all connected..

[dipsydoodle]

4. I've seen this analysed

in depth on TV here in the UK. The fact is the stream which takes the shape more or less of a sine wave is stationary - that may be why its missing India which is further east than Pakistan. Russia is getting the hot weather which should be in the Med and Pakistan is getting what's been sucked up from the Ocean which India would normally get.

[LawnKorn]

5. Global warming puts more energy into the system

With the atmosphere warming, the climate is changing. Expect noticeable changes at both extremes.

Higher temperatures are only one indication of the problem. The weather is railing from one condition to the opposite. When the deniers make the amateur correlation that "We have record cold therefore there is no global warming." I reply that we have record cold because global warming has thrown the climate out of whack.