A group of American scientists has recently found that land is drying up so fast that it is contributing more to sea level rise than glacial melt.
Scientists have found that the loss of water from the soil, lakes and underground aquifers contributes to the rapid rise in sea levels, and this phenomenon is spreading rapidly around the world. The territory of arid regions is growing at an alarming rate. Some arid regions have already begun to merge with each other, forming large barren areas of land.
One of these areas now covers the territory from the southwestern coast of the United States to Mexico. Previously, the drying of one region was compensated by an increase in humidity in another. However, nowadays, arid regions are forming much faster than humid ones. Every year they occupy new territories that are twice the size of California. Currently, 101 countries in the world are rapidly losing freshwater reserves. Shortage of drinking water could threaten 75% of the world’s population.
«In many places where groundwater is depleting, it is not being replenished on a scale that is affordable to humans. Protecting the world’s groundwater reserves is of paramount importance in the face of global warming and on continents that we now know are drying up», — the authors of the study emphasize.
They analyzed satellite images taken from 2002 to 2024, tracking how water is stored on the earth’s surface, in lakes, rivers, snow, soil, underground aquifers, and even inside plants. Scientists have concluded that global warming is the key cause of the changes, but human activity has greatly exacerbated the problem.
As land becomes increasingly arid, people use more and more water from underground sources. These water reserves are not being replenished as quickly, which is contributing to an even more rapid spread of drought. A study has shown that due to groundwater depletion in the Central Valley in California and the Colorado River Basin, these arid areas have merged with the arid regions of Central America.
«Continued overuse of groundwater, which in some regions, such as California, is occurring at an increasing rather than a steady or declining rate, is undermining regional and global water and food security in ways that the world does not fully understand», — the scientists emphasize in their report.
Researchers call for urgent adoption and implementation of the necessary solutions both nationally and internationally. Such a valuable resource as water should be preserved for future generations.
The results of the study were published in the journal Science Advances
Source: BBC Science Focus
Spelling error report
The following text will be sent to our editors: