Some doubt how connected we are and how regional or local events can have an impact half way around the globe. Here's a photo of dust from North Africa wending or rather winding up over Great Britain. So if 20,000 Libyans or Tunisians sneeze at the same time: France, Belgium, Nhe Netherlands, England and Sweden can catch cold? If half the trees in the Amazon or the Congo are cut down - there is less humidity rising up in the air and the shifting of the winds and rains back and forth - north and south is changed.