When Saskia met his eye again, Alastair continued: "I’m not saying that the monsoon would stop . It never stopped in the 1990s after the Pinatubo eruption. It is a dizzyingly complicated interaction having to do with where the sun is in the sky, the topography of the Himalayas, the albedo of the land, jet streams, Coriolis effect, ocean currents, and so on. El Niño even enters into it. Lately, it has been drier than the historical norm, even while the rest of the planet has been much wetter. When the monsoon rains are heavy, they cause regional flooding that can lead to more death and destruction than a dry spell. So this is not a simple matter."