THE STRAITS TIMES – Rising temperatures are accelerating the world’s water cycle and triggering natural disasters such as droughts and floods, according to a new report led by Australian researchers.
The report, published in Nature journal said that the hotter temperatures are speeding up the cycle of freshwater between the clouds, the land and the ocean, leading to more extreme weather conditions with wetter areas becoming even more soaked and the dry regions becoming even more parched.
Lead author Dr Taimoor Sohail said the findings “paint a picture of the larger changes happening in the global water cycle”.
Dr Sohail said his team had analysed historical data from 1970 to 2014 to monitor the changing patterns of salt in the ocean, to estimate how much ocean freshwater had moved from the equator to the poles during that time.
