3. Thou Shalt Not Impose Drought on People
Although drought, which is the climate effect that has thus far been most harmful to people, has occurred long before global warming began, this warming has aggravated it. This may seem counter-intuitive, because global warming causes more evaporation, which leads to increased precipitation. But it changes where the precipitation falls, so that "the wet gets wetter and the dry gets drier."[10]
Drought is so harmful primarily because it is "the single most common cause of severe food shortages in developing countries," said the U.N., and "caused more deaths during the last century than any other natural disaster."[11]
More than a billion people are regularly hungry, and this problem becomes even worse when there is prolonged drought. "The U.S. is the world's largest producer of corn and 2012 was supposed to be a banner year," but in many states, the heat and drought caused the corn to "shrivel and die." A plant biologist in Illinois said, "Its like farming in hell."[12]
Drought also causes fiercer wildfires, with longer fire seasons. In the western United States, "the fire season now lasts two months longer and destroys twice as much land as it did four decades ago."[13]
4. Thou Shat Not Increase Destructive Storms.
Global warming, by raising the temperature, increases the amount of water the atmosphere holds, thereby resulting in more precipitation.
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