From K. V. Ramesh and P. Goswami last week in Geophysical Research Letters, evidence that India’s monsoon, bringer of the rains to feed the farmers who feed the residents of one of the world’s largest nations, may be in decline:

We show here, based on an analysis of daily gridded observed rainfall data for the period 1951–2003, that there are decreasing trends in both early and late monsoon rainfall and number of rainy days, implying a shorter monsoon over India….

The results emphasize need for careful regional analysis in drawing conclusions regarding agro-ecological sustainability in a changing climate.