Climate has constantly changed throughout Earth’s geological history, which is 5 billion years old. In Girona and in the plain of the Selva in the Secondary Era the climate was tropical and there were rhinos. However, we must bear in mind that 700 years ago in the High Middle Ages, cherry trees bloomed in January in the Iberian Peninsula, the climate was warmer than today. The climate has always changed in the past and will also change in the future, but the current problem is that climate change is the increase in greenhouse gases, it is almost only of human origin, while in the past the percentage of warming of the climatic changes were in a much smaller percentage, the emission of greenhouse gases was much less important than at present. But the climate also changed by the effect of man, since there were great clearings of trees in the two plateaus and the Depression of the Ebro in the Middle Ages. At that time, a large part of Iberia was deforested. This deforestation probably also affected temperatures and especially rainfall, since the evapotranspiration of the leaves of forest trees increases evaporation and the water cycle and increases the precipitation of a given area compared to an area without vegetation. On the other hand, we must also mention that before the Sahara desert was an extensive forest mass, with a humid climate. It is also important to find out what climate change will look like in the future, climate change projections are currently being made. It is said, without foundation, that much of Spain will be a desert in 2050, it will probably increase the area with a semi-arid climate, but it will not be a desert. Convective precipitation may increase, due to storms in the southeast, east and northeast of the peninsula and also in general throughout the Iberian Peninsula thanks to the warming of the Mediterranean Sea. There are many uncertainties. Climate warming is expected to be more important in summer compared to winter in Spain, and more important in the center of the peninsula than on the coast. On the other hand, rainfall will decrease in summer with an increase in latitude of the continental tropical air mass, with the increase in latitude of the Hadley cell. But there will be an increase in extreme weather situations. It is necessary to adapt to these climatic alterations, making a more rational spatial planning, where geographers have a lot to say, since we have the knowledge and tools, the Geographic Information Systems to know and delimit the areas likely to have more climatic risks , floods, gales, hailstorms, cold waves, heat waves, etc.
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