Between 1990 and 2020, 4.3 million square kilometres of wetlands were converted into drylands.
More than 75 percent of the world’s land has become drier in the last three decades, warned the UN in a report published on Monday that reveals a crisis that could affect up to five billion people by 2100.
Between 1990 and 2020, 4.3 million square kilometres of wetlands were converted into drylands, an area larger than India, according to the document released at the UN conference on desertification (COP16) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
This is a phenomenon triggered by a major climate change that could redefine life on Earth, according to the study of a group of scientists under the auspices of the UN, entitled “The Global Threat of Drying Lands”.
Aridity, a chronic water shortage that hampers agriculture, currently extends to “40.6% of the earth’s surface”, excluding Antarctica, against “37.5% 30 years ago”, according to scientists who indicate that the most affected areas include the Mediterranean zone, Southern Africa, Southern Australia and certain regions of Asia and Latin America.
“Unlike droughts, which are temporary, aridity represents a permanent transformation,” warned Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
This crisis is “redefining ecosystems, economies and livelihoods,” he said.
According to the report, the trend is largely attributed to global warming caused by emissions of greenhouse gases, which alter precipitation and increase evaporation.
“For the first time, a UN scientific body warns that burning fossil fuels is causing permanent drought in much of the world, with potentially catastrophic impacts on water access, Bringing people and the nature of disastrous breakpoints even closer together,” warns Barron Orr, chief scientist at UNCCD, quoted in the report.
The consequences of aridity are multiple: soil degradation, ecosystem collapse, food insecurity and forced migration.
“More than 2.3 billion people” already live in drylands, a number that could exceed five billion by the end of the century if greenhouse gas emissions are not drastically reduced, says the report.
In Africa, aridity has caused a “12% decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) between 1990 and 2015,” while global agricultural yields of corn, wheat and rice are expected to fall by tens of millions of tons by 2040, the document said.
To counter this trend, scientists recommend “integrating drought into drought monitoring systems”, improving soil and water management and supporting the “most vulnerable communities”.
The 16th UN conference on desertification began on 02 in Riyadh, emphasizing the link between desertification, environment and climate. COP16 ends on the 13th.
Source: Jornal de Notícias
