UN Warning: Increase in Permanently Dry Land is 'Redefining Life on Earth'

[C0RI0LANUS]

Just over 75 percent of the world's land has been left "permanently drier" over the previous three decades, with massive implications for agriculture, food production, the eco-system, and mass forced migration the UN warns.



Dry land now covers around 40% of the Earth's land mass, excluding Antarctica, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) study found, cautioning the shift could affect up to five billion people by 2100.

"Some 77.6% of Earth's land experienced drier conditions during the three decades leading up to 2020 compared to the previous 30-year period."

This is an "existential threat" posed by seemingly irreversible trends. Dry land regions where agriculture is difficult increased by 4.3 million square kms between 1990 and 2020, an area a third the size of India.

At the same time that land is being depleted, global demand for resources is increasing. By 2030, food production is estimated to require an additional 300 million hectares of land.

The changes are largely attributed to global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions, which alter rainfall and increase water evaporation. The effects of the chronic water shortages include soil degradation, ecosystem collapse, food insecurity, and forced migration.

Already, 2.3 billion people live in expanding dry areas with projections showing a "worst-case scenario" of five billion people living in the conditions as the planet continues to warm.

This will add to the countless numbers of refugees trying to escape desertification, drought, poverty, famine, misery, and the attendant violence associated with desperate resource mongering, like we see in Haiti today.


North African migrants swimming from an overcrowded dinghy on 27 July 2015. Up to 30 refugees may have drowned that day according to the International Office of Migration (IOM). (Photo: Santi Palacios / AP)


Sources:

https://www.unccd.int/news-stories/press-releases/three-quarters-earths-land-became-permanently-drier-last-three-decades

https://www.earthday.org/desertification-and-land-degradation-threaten-global-well-being/

https://www.treehugger.com/what-is-desertification-5115926