Bonn, Dec. 9, (dpa/GNA) – Around three quarters of the Earth’s land has become “permanently drier” in recent decades, a new UN study warned on Monday.
According to the study by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), about 77% of land area has become drier during the three decades up to 2020 than in the previous 30-year period.
Over the same period, drylands expanded by about 4.3 million square kilometres – an area nearly a third larger than India – and now cover 40.6% of all land on Earth, with Antarctica excluded.
“In recent decades some 7.6% of global lands – an area larger than Canada – were pushed across aridity thresholds (i.e. from non-drylands to drylands, or from less arid dryland classes to more arid classes),” the study also found.
The convention’s Bonn-based office released the findings at the 16th UN conference on desertification in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which is being billed as the largest UN land conference to date.
“For the first time, the aridity crisis has been documented with scientific clarity, revealing an existential threat affecting billions around the globe,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, the UNCCD’s executive secretary.
“Unlike droughts—temporary periods of low rainfall—aridity represents a permanent, unrelenting transformation,” he added in a statement. “Droughts end. When an area’s climate becomes drier, however, the ability to return to previous conditions is lost.”
The chief cause is carbon emissions from power generation, transport, industry and changes in land use heating up the planet. This affects precipitation, evaporation and plant life, creating conditions that increase drought.
The report recommends various measures to manage the dry conditions. These include better monitoring in order to improve the speed and quality of drought interventions, as well as incentives for sustainable land use and the deployment of technologies such as rainwater collection, wastewater recycling and targeted irrigation.
GNA