Warming seas contribute to prolonged drought in the sahel – Expert

By Houmi Ahamed-Mikidache

At the just concluded science conference with the theme “Our common future under climate change,” Italian-American scientist, Alessandra Giannini, linked past, present and future climate change to adaptation in African Sahel.    In 2003,  she was the first author who attributed the persistent drought in the sahel region in the 1970s  and 1980s to warming seas.

« I think that now we have a good sense of the causes of this drought. The understanding of the past can help interpret what is going on now, consistently, what it could happen in the future. It is based on the study of my institute in seasonal climate prediction», she said in the interview.

The main research  of Giannini’ has been to the Sahel drought and other countries in sub-saharan Africa. But her studies are also linked with  the dynamics of climate in the semi arid tropics in Caribbean islands.