- Following this path, by the end of the century, more than 5 billion people will live in the arid lands. This would lead to many humanitarian, economic and social problems.
Over the past 30 years, 4.3 million square kilometres of dry land have been dried in the world, according to a report published by the United Nations. The study was presented in the context of the COP16 congress. It is reflecting on the idea that some theorists have been making for a long time that the climate emergency has not only been caused by carbon emissions and global warming, but also by the loss of biodiversity and the water cycle. ARGIA journalist Urko Apaolaza said the same thing in this Next Net, to talk also about the storms of the Mediterranean basin, and referred to the Larrun supplement we published in January: Water cycle. The other key to the crazy climate.
In the last three decades the picture has turned and if it could be made more worrying, the emergency has become such. Three quarters of the world's land has been heated "more than it should", according to the UN, and arid lands have multiplied within 30 years. The amount of land the size of Canada has undergone an "apparent change", that is, some minority margins have been exceeded and the drying routes of these lands have occurred, some of which have gone from very dry to dry. Currently, with the exception of the part of Antarctica, 40 per cent of the earth ' s land is dry.
Large areas at risk of drying
Almost all of Europe is immersed in this emergency situation, which accounts for about 96% of the continent. This is practically the entire West of the United States, all of Brazil, the eastern part of Asia and the central part of Africa.
If these large areas were to follow the above trend, serious problems would arise. In Europe, especially in the Mediterranean area, farmland would suffer irreparable damage, land drought and water scarcity or heavy rains. In South America, water scarcity would also be serious, but the authors of the study point out that forest fires are "especially worrisome". In Africa and Asia, for their part, they have highlighted the degradation and desertification of ecosystems, as there would be many species of animals and plants that would disappear.
The authors of the study are: "When the climate of an area becomes drier, the ability to return to the above conditions is lost. Now, the driest climates that affect vast lands around the world won't come back to what they were, and this change is redefining life on earth."
Damage to lifestyle
The climate emergency will cause and cause serious damage to daily life, customs or quality itself. Damage to the ecosystem would cause damage to access to water, a strain on cultivation and all this would fundamentally affect health. This trend to the question of biodiversity would increase poverty in Africa and Asia: according to the report, by 2030 there would be between 35 and 122 million more people in extreme situations.
In addition, the study notes that species habitat can be reduced by 55 per cent due to water scarcity and the collapse of agriculture.