Children sit by a dug out water hole in a dry river bed in the remote village of Fenoaivo. Scientists said in a new quick analysis that they don't think climate change is to blame for the devastating famine in Madagascar. The World Weather Attribution looked at the drought in Madagascar, which had only 60% of its normal rain from July to June, and found no evidence of human-caused climate change. The study said that this was a random weather quirk that has a chance of happening once every 135 years or so. The photo is from AP Photo/Laetitia Bezain.
Scientists said in a new analysis that they don't think climate change is to blame for the devastating famine in the island nation.
The World Weather Attribution looked at the extreme weather throughout the world and found that the drought in Madagascar left it with less than half of its normal precipitation from July to June.
The group found no evidence of human-caused climate change. The researchers concluded that the drought was a random weather quirk that has a chance of happening once every 135 years or so.
Friederike Otto is a climate scientist at the Imperial College of London. Climate change is not a main driver for this type of low rain.
Otto said that swings of rain from high to low are common in Madagascar. She said that starvation has another cause.
Otto said that the driver of the famine was the high vulnerability of the people of the region. There's high poverty rates.
The team of international scientists relied on established technique of using computer simulations to figure out what would happen in a world without nearly 2.2 degrees of warming over pre-industrial times. This summer's heat wave in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and western Canada, as well as deadly European flooding, were worsened by global warming with this method.
Peer review of the latest study is still pending.
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There is a study that says climate change is not causing famine in Madagascar.
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