Talk:Lake Chad

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• It is important to note that the facts and figures may vary with this lake due to the lake's characteristics and locale. Em3rald 18:22, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Size of the lake

According to a swedish newspaper the size of the lake is not more than 304km², instead of the 1540km² suggested in the article. ~ Dodde 05:03, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Depth of the lake

The correct depth is 1.5m, not 4.1 like the info box says, I'm removing an old reference that is way too out of date for a lake that changes this quick. Going to figure out how to fix the infobox Drunken Pirate 07:10, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Al Gore's example

Science writer Michael Chrichton said:

• It turns out Lake Chad has actually been dry multiple times in the past: in 8500 BC, 5500 BC, 2000 BC and 100 BC. Though Wikipedia and a paper in Journal of Geophysical Research on the topic agree that global climate change may have played a role, they also report that the major factors were significant local changes - a rapidly expanding population drawing water from the lake, the introduction of irrigation technologies and local overgrazing. Yes, these are anthropogenic causes, but they are neither global nor warming, and are utterly independent of CO2 . In addition, Africa as a continent experienced a dramatic shift towards dryer weather in the end of the 19th century that is not generally attributed to CO2. (Coe, M.T. and J.A. Foley, Human and natural impacts on the water resources of the Lake Chad basin. Journal of Geophysical Research (Atmospheres) 106, D4, 3349-3356. 2001) [1]

Is this significant? Should we write about the history of this lake drying up in the past? Are journal articles about the cause relevant?

I think readers would like to know whether human activity other than CO2 emissions have been a factor in turning this lake into a swamp. --Uncle Ed (talk) 20:10, 28 November 2007 (UTC)