Climate Change Contributes to Absence of Rain
Reacting to a facebook post quoting President William Ruto’s speech at COP27 in Egypt by Standard Digital, a facebook user commented saying,
“Mr President we know the rain comes from heaven, Climate change has got nothing to do with absence of rain(s).”
CLAIM IS FALSE : RAINFALL FORMATION VS CLIMATE CHANGE
“Rain is a liquid in the form of water falling from the sky to Earth’s surface when clouds become filled with water droplets,” the National Geographic organisation.
Its “rain” formation comes after water vapour condenses around microscopic pieces of clay, salt, or solid pollutants in clouds to form raindrops.
Climate change affects the rainfall cycle through the increase in the evaporation rate affected by global warming (long term heating of the earth’s surface.)
According to the Center for climate change and energy solutions warmer temperatures enhance evaporation. This reduces the surface’s water, dries soils and vegetation and this will make periods with low precipitation drier than they would in cooler conditions.
The Center For Science Education states that changes in rainfall are generated by the ongoing rise in atmospheric carbon emissions (CO2) which is brought about by human activities such as burning of fossil fuels and industrialisation.
Higher evaporation and precipitation rates are not evenly distributed around the world which means that some areas experience too much rains hence floods and others too little rains hence drought.
Verdict:
The claim that water comes from heaven is false, not backed by science and so climate change contributes to the absence of rain.
This fact-check was produced by Debunk Media Initiative with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, International Fact-Checking Network and African Fact-Checking Alliance network.
