Climate change is causing more and more extreme rainfall and flooding worldwide. But at the same time, the same climate change has made more than three-quarters of the Earth’s land surface permanently drier. This was written by the UNCCD, the United Nations body that combats desertification, in a statement published on Monday report.
In the period between 1990 and 2020, 77.6 percent of the land surface was drier than in the previous thirty years, according to the UN. Moreover, from 1990 to 2020, the total area of “aridlands” worldwide grew by more than 4 million square kilometers. That is about a third more than the land area of India.
Nearly 41 percent of the global land area, excluding Antarctica, is now arid areas. According to the UN, “hotspots” for desiccation were located in the western United States, around the Mediterranean Sea, and in the northeast of Brazil, where the Amazon rainforest is located.
Less farmland, more forest fires
“Most of these landscapes were moist but are now parched,” the UN said. “This has serious consequences for agriculture, ecosystems and people in those areas.” The authority speaks of an “existential crisis” that is drastically changing life on earth.
For example, desertification is the main cause of agricultural land becoming less fertile, something that is already happening on 40 percent of the usable agricultural land on earth. Drying out of the landscape also causes more and larger forest fires. As a result of climate change, Europe in particular will have to deal with the latter.
In 2020, 2.3 billion people lived in dry areas worldwide, the majority in Asia and Africa. If greenhouse gas emissions do not decline, the UN expects that by 2100 some 5 billion people will be living in a desiccated environment.
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