Human-caused climate change increases likelihood of catastrophic East African drought.
Human-caused climate change has made droughts in East Africa at least 100 times as likely as they were in the preindustrial era, according to a study by an international team of scientists. The region's string of weak rainy seasons is now the longest in around 70 years of reliable rainfall records. The study estimated that periods as hot and dry as the recent one now have a roughly 5 percent chance of developing each year in the region. Climate groups have for years pointed to the calamity in East Africa as evidence of the immense harm inflicted on poor regions by global warming from emissions of heat-trapping gases.