Global warming brings oasis to Sahara?

While some Italian environmentalists are worrying about the expanding of Sahara Desert, evidences show some areas of the desert have been experiencing a green recovery.

According to the scientific journal Biogeosciences, images taken from 1982 to 2002 reveal a growing vegetation in Sahel, the southern border of Sahara, reported National Geographic. The reason, said Martin Claussen of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, is because the hotter air, thanks to the global warming, is able to hold more water, thus creates rainfalls. It's certainly is an exciting sign. If the trend remains, is it possible that the largest desert on the planet is going back to what it was some 12,000 years ago - a flourishing forest? The answer is uncertain. According to the science journal Geophysical Research Letters, rainfall from the wet season of July to September will rise up to two millimeters a day by 2080, which will certainly make the region more green. However, Claussen said it's very difficult to forecast how the changes in weather will affect an area as vast as the desert. For example, the high-altitude winds which control monsoon rains, are hard to predict. "Half the models follow a wetter trend, and half a drier trend," he added.