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The Future of the Sahara*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

John L. Cloudsley-Thompson
John L. Cloudsley-Thompson
Affiliation:
Emeritus Professor of Zoology, University of London; Department of Biology (Medawar Building), University College London, Gower Street, London WCIE 6BT, England, UK.
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Extract

Long-term climatic variations over the past 400,000 years, disclose a cyclical alternation of cold or glacial phases. At the present time, the world is experiencing one of its warmer climatic periods. Nevertheless, summer insolation has decreased sharply during the last 9,000 years and, apart from human influences, a gradual reduction in temperature might well be expected to occur during the next 50,000 years. On the other hand, if the human-induced ‘greenhouse effect’ manifests itself as is sometimes forecast, climatic changes will take place much faster, and temperatures could reach higher levels than in any of the post-Pleistocene interglacial phases. The future of the Sahara depends to a considerable extent upon which of these trends actually manifests itself.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , Winter 1993 , pp. 335 - 338
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1993

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