This planet is drying up. And these are the consequences – global problems

By 2050, droughts could affect an estimated three quarters of the world’s population. Source: Miriet Abrego / IPSby Baher Kamal (Madrid)Thursday 01 December 2022Inter Press Service

MADRID, 1 December (IPS) – Drought is one of the most “devastating” natural disasters in terms of loss of life caused by impacts such as widespread crop failure, wildfires and water shortages.

In other words, droughts are one of the “world’s most feared natural phenomena”; They devastate farmland, destroy livelihoods and cause untold suffering, as reported by the world’s leading specialized body: the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

They occur when an area becomes short of water supplies due to a lack of rainfall or a shortage of surface or ground water. And they can last weeks, months or years.

Exacerbated by land degradation and climate change, droughts are increasing in frequency and severity, by 29% since 2000, affecting 55 million people each year.

By 2050, droughts could affect an estimated three quarters of the world’s population. This means that agricultural production will need to increase by 60% to meet global food needs in 2050.

This means that about 71% of the world’s irrigated land and 47% of major cities will experience at least intermittent water stress. If this trend continues, scarcity and associated water quality issues will lead to competition and conflict among water users, the convention adds.

Most of the world is already affected

The warning is loud and strong, coming from a number of the world’s most knowledgeable organizations.

First, on November 29, 2022, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that most of the Earth was drier than normal in 2021, with “cascading impacts on economies, ecosystems and our daily lives.”

water

Between 2001 and 2018, UN-Water reported that a staggering 74% of all natural disasters were water-related.

Currently, over 3.6 billion people lack adequate access to water for at least one month a year, and this number is expected to rise to more than five billion by 2050.

The unusually dry areas also included South America’s Rio de la Plata area, where a prolonged drought has plagued the region since 2019, according to the WMO report The State of Global Water Resources.

Drying rivers, lakes

In Africa, major rivers such as the Niger, Volta, Nile and Congo had below-average water flows in 2021.

The same trend has been observed in rivers in parts of Russia, western Siberia and Central Asia.

On the other hand, there were above-average flows in some North American basins, the northern Amazon and South Africa, as well as the Chinese Amur River Basin and northern India.

Cascading Effects

The impacts of climate change often come through water — more intense and frequent droughts, more extreme floods, more erratic seasonal rainfall and accelerated melting of glaciers — with cascading impacts on economies, ecosystems and all aspects of our daily lives, the WMO secretary said. General Petteri Taalas.

“Changes in cryosphere water resources impact food security, human health, ecosystem integrity and preservation, and result in significant impacts on economic and social development,” the WMO said, sometimes causing river flooding and flash flooding due to glacial lake outbursts.

The cryosphere — namely glaciers, snowpack, ice caps and, where present, permafrost — is the world’s largest natural reservoir of fresh water.

floors

Because water – or rather its scarcity – is a major cause of the rapidly accelerating degradation of natural resources and the resulting damage to the world’s food production, the theme of World Soil Day 2022 on December 5 is “Soils: Where Food Begins.”

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO):

95% of our food comes from soil.18 Naturally occurring chemical elements are essential for plants. Land supply 15. Agricultural production must increase by 60% to meet global food needs in 2050. 33% of the soils are degraded.

Dangerously poisoned

Alongside human, animal and plant life, one of the sectors most dependent on aquatic plants is now at serious risk.

Since the 1950s, the UN recalls, innovations such as synthetic fertilizers, chemical pesticides and high-yield crops have helped mankind dramatically increase the amount of food grown.

“But these inventions would be meaningless without agriculture’s most valuable commodity: fresh water. And it is, researchers say, now in danger.”

In addition, pollution, climate change and over-abstraction are beginning to threaten the lakes, rivers and aquifers that support agriculture around the world, reports the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Salted and plasticized

This applies, among other things, to the increasing salination and “plasticization” of the world’s soils.

In fact, there are currently an estimated 833 million hectares of saline soils around the world (8.7% of the planet). This implies the loss of the soil’s ability to grow food, as well as increasing impacts on water and the ability to filter pollution.

Soil salinization and sodification are major soil degradation processes that threaten ecosystems and are recognized as one of the most important issues on a global scale for agricultural production, food security and sustainability in arid and semi-arid regions, according to the UN on the occasion of the 2021 World Soil Day.

sewage

Among the main causes highlighted by this international body is that in some arid regions, the amount of wastewater used to grow crops has increased.

“The problem can be exacerbated by flooding, which can inundate sewage systems or fertilizer stores and pollute both surface and groundwater.” Fertilizer runoff can cause algal blooms in lakes.

Meanwhile, the amount of freshwater per capita has fallen by 20% over the past two decades, and nearly 60% of irrigated cropland is arid.

The implications of this scarcity are far-reaching: Irrigated agriculture contributes 40% of the food produced worldwide.

Soils are living organisms

“Did you know that there are more living beings in a tablespoon of earth than there are people on earth?”

Soil is a world of organisms, minerals and organic components that provide food for humans and animals through plant growth, declares this year’s World Soil Day.

Agricultural systems lose nutrients with each harvest, and if soils are not managed sustainably, fertility is progressively lost and soils produce nutrient-poor crops.

Soil nutrient loss is an important soil degradation process that threatens nutrition. It is considered one of the most critical issues on a global scale for food security and sustainability around the world.

“Hidden” hunger

Over the past 70 years, the levels of vitamins and nutrients in food have declined drastically, and it is estimated that 2 billion people worldwide suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, known as hidden hunger because it is difficult to detect.

“Soil degradation causes some soils to become depleted of nutrients and lose their ability to support plants, while others have such high concentrations of nutrients that create a toxic environment for plants and animals, polluting the environment and causing climate change.”

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