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Reliable News and Analysis in
Climate Science
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SPRING 2003 - Number 4 |
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Reliable News and Analysis in
Climate Science
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SPRING 2003 - Number 4 |
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Pdf newsletter available for download (click). Land Use affects climate “as much El Niño does”Roger Pielke: Even climates of faraway places are affected by regional land use practices |
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| Contents |
The 2 figures to the right show a computer simulation
of thunderstorm cloud development over the Great Plains with two types
of landscapes. At the top, the "real landscape" of crops, shrubs,
and grasslands was used. The model simulated a large thunderstorm (which
actually occurred in the real world). At the bottom, the "original
landscape" of shortgrass prairie was used. The original landscape
had less vegetation,so there was less water vapor to fuel thunderstorms.
As a result, the model simulated only small cumulus clouds. |
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| Modern civilization has changed the face of Earth wherever people have settled in large numbers. Farms have replaced forests, cattle ranches have replaced grazing buffalo and horses, cities and suburbs have replaced farms, forests, and marshes. Deserts have replaced grazing lands. These land use changes are known to have changed climate, but they are poorly documented before the age of satellites. In Europe and China, where land has been settled a long time, it may not be possible to know what the climate was like before human settlement began to affect it. | ||||
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According to Roger A Pielke Sr., professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University and State climatologist of Colorado, human use of the land is now altering the climate of some regions as much as greenhouse gases are doing. He claims that land use practices have impacted the climate as much as El Niño, which is famous for altering the climate of some regions for 2 to 5 years. But unlike El Niño, land use practices can not be considered temporary. |
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