Study links human-lnduced climate change to flooding

An ariel view of Okavango Delta
An ariel view of Okavango Delta

Human activities impact has been associated with climate change-induced floods that occurred in the Okavango river basin in southern Africa between 2009 and 2011, according to a modelling study.

The researchers from Botswana, South Africa, and the United States who undertook the study say the floods which reached levels last observed 20-30 years ago coincided with similar damaging disasters elsewhere, thus motivating them to assess the impact of climate change on the floods.

They used two climate models to predict how floods would change under two different climatic conditions — one with greenhouse gases resulting from climate change and the other without the gases. According to the study published in the Journal of Hydrology on April 16, human activities increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere leading to the planet warming over the past century, thus affecting the Okavango.

Editor's Comment
Closure as pain lingers

March 28 will go down as a day that Batswana will never forget because of the accident that occurred near Mmamatlakala in Limpopo, South Africa. The tragedy affected not only the grieving families but the nation at large. Batswana throughout the process stood behind the grieving families and the governments of Botswana and South Africa need much more than a pat on the back.Last Saturday was a day when family members said their last goodbyes to...

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