Unraveling the Megadrought Crisis: What It Means for Our Planet and Your Future

Climate change is having a big impact on our world, and one of the most pressing issues is drought. A recent study highlights that multi-year droughts have been on the rise since the 1980s. This research aims to raise awareness about the growing severity of this problem, pushing for better policies to tackle it. The study was published in Science.

Chile is a prime example of a region facing a severe drought, often referred to as a megadrought. This situation is marked as the longest in the area for a thousand years, causing dwindling water supplies that threaten various industries and public health.

Droughts often go unnoticed until they escalate into serious issues. To understand this trend, researchers analyzed weather data from around the globe from 1980 to 2018. The results were alarming: droughts are not only happening more frequently, but they also last longer and cover larger areas. This trend is expected to worsen as climate change continues, particularly due to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Since 1980, the area affected by drought each year has expanded by about 50,000 square kilometers—that’s roughly the size of Slovakia or the combined area of Vermont and New Hampshire. This loss is devastating for agriculture, ecosystems, and energy production, as noted by senior author Francesca Pellicciotti from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA).

The study examined changes in rainfall and a process called evapotranspiration, where water from soil and plants evaporates into the air. These measures helped assess the effects of long-lasting droughts, even in remote or poorly studied areas.

Interestingly, rising temperatures and prolonged droughts have led to drier and browner local ecosystems, even when rainfall events have become heavier. This supports a recent phenomenon called hydroclimate whiplash, where extended droughts are suddenly followed by intense rainfall, disrupting the environmental balance.

Megadroughts have most severely impacted temperate grasslands, particularly in regions like central and eastern Mongolia, southeastern Australia, and the western United States where long-term droughts are well-documented.

On a different note, the study found that boreal forests and tundra react differently to warming and drought conditions. These areas are experiencing longer growing seasons since cold weather is typically the main growth limit, rather than lack of water.

The research underscores a concerning trend: megadroughts are intensifying across the globe. Surprisingly, the Arctic is also becoming greener.

Pellicciotti emphasizes that current strategies mostly view droughts as seasonal events, which overshadow the reality of longer and more severe megadroughts in our future. The team aims to create a public inventory of droughts to help policymakers develop better preparation and prevention strategies.

For further information, check out the sources from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria and Science.