Quote:

'An existential threat affecting billions' Three-quarters of Earth's land became permanently drier in last 3 decades Climate change is causing unprecedented drying across the Earth — and five billion people could be affected by 2100, a new UN report has warned. Climate change has made three-quarters of the Earth's land permanently drier in the last three decades, a landmark United Nations (UN) report has warned. 77.6% of Earth's land has become drier in the last three decades compared to the 30 years prior, with drylands expanding by an area larger than India to cover 40.6% of the land on Earth, except for Antarctica. And the findings, released in a new report by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification ((UNCCD), warn that if the trend continues, up to five billion people could live in drylands by the century's end — causing soils to deplete, water resources to dwindle, and vital ecosystems to collapse. "For the first time, the aridity crisis has been documented with scientific clarity, revealing an existential threat affecting billions around the globe," Ibrahim Thiaw, the UNCCD executive secretary, said in a statement. "Droughts end. When an area's climate becomes drier, however, the ability to return to previous conditions is lost. The drier climates now affecting vast lands across the globe will not return to how they were and this change is redefining life on Earth."

https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/climate-change/an-existential-threat-affecting-billions-three-quarters-of-earths-land-became-permanently-drier-in-last-three-decades

Related:
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/climate-change/precipitation-the-source-of-all-fresh-water-can-no-longer-be-relied-upon-global-water-cycle-pushed-out-of-balance-for-1st-time-in-human-history


Maybe I could have posted this in Environment but why change a trend of discussing anything but the environment there? Besides which the mentally deficient Mod there has me banned on some bullshit reason.

Climate Change causes a change in the distribution of rainfall. Total rainfall globally, is not the problem. Formerly arid areas are getting more rain (and this could be good for Australia: the north will still be fertile even with less rain, but most of Australia is arid or desert.)

The problem is, that high rainfall where it was previously arid, does not make good farming land (and it certainly isn't good for native species.) The map of good soils, is pretty much the map of good rainfail for the last few centuries and millenia. It takes centuries for good rainfall to produce good soil (and it's also necessary that vegetation is established, not cropped or grazed which remove the carbon capture to soils.)

Rain on the deserts does not make up for drought on good arable land.

But we can survive. Artificial fertilizers can be made from gas or coal (both of which we have plenty of, unlike oil.) If you don't care about the oceans turning into carbon-rich wastelands of algae and jellyfish, and breeding up airborne fungi hungry for the flesh of humans and other animals ... if you only care about terrestrial food supply, then we will always be able to feed our human population.

We're going to need better air conditioners. We're going to need what Neil Stephenson called "Earth Suits." That is air-conditioners you wear if you ever need to go outside. We'll need indoor grills, to cook our vat-grown meat.

But we'll be fine. So glad I don't have children.

Jovial Monk wrote on Dec 10^th, 2024 at 12:00am:

Besides which the mentally deficient Mod there has me banned on some bullshit reason.

Insulting them doesn't seem like the best way to get your ban lifted.

Is the ban permanent?

Yes.

He and “Lisa Jones” abused me there then Booby banned me permanently—for abuse! He really is that stupid.

More info:


Quote:

MOST OF THE WORLD’S LAND IS DRYING Rising aridity—the growing, long-term loss of available, life-sustaining moisture by terrestrial climates—is threatening people and environments in almost every global region. Increasingly, aridity-related land degradation and water scarcity are contributing to food and water insecurity, poor soil fertility, losses in crop and plant productivity, biodiversity declines, ecosystem degradation, intense sand and dust storms, wildfires, poor health and large-scale human migration. More than three-quarters of all land on Earth experienced a drier climate during the three decades leading up to 2020, compared to the previous 30-year period, and global drylands expanded by about 4.3 millionkm2—an area equal to half the size of the continent of Australia/Oceania—to cover 40.6 per cent of globallands (excluding Antarctica).

https://www.unccd.int/sites/default/files/2024-12/aridity_brief.pdf

What is happening, of course, is that as seas and atmosphere warm there is more evaporation. This would normally mean more precipitation except that the warmer air can carry more moisture so there is not the same proportion of water vapor that condenses then precipitates. There is less precipitation despite the extra evaporation.