Climates on a rotating Earth

Robert H. MacArthur

The distribution of the world’s climates is too regular to be due to accidents of history. The world’s deserts are mostly at 30° N or S latitude and usually on the west side of continents. Just farther toward the poles on these west sides of continents we come up ‘Mediterranean climates’ and farther poleward yet, the heavy rainfall, especially in the winter, that causes the temperate rain forests of Washington and southern Chile. The equatorial regions are usually wet by frequent thunderstorms of short duration. These, and innumerable other patterns, suggest that we can understand the climate as a consequence of the earth’s geography, particularly its rotation.

Fonte: MacArthur, R. H. 1972. Geographical ecology. Princeton, PUP.