Three-quarters of the Earth’s land has become permanently drier, says UN report

Three-quarters of Earth’s land has become permanently drier in the last three decades, according to a recent research by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which was published on Monday, December 9.

According to the report, drylands now make up 40 per cent of the world’s land, excluding Antarctica. Those areas have turned from humid regions to arid ones, where agricultural activities are no longer possible.

Drylands are regions where most of the rainfall water is lost to evaporation, while only a small 10 per cent is left for the vegetation. According to the study, two-thirds of the land on earth will retain less water by midcentury.

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The scientists discovered that the growing aridity between the years 1990 and 2015 in Africa has resulted in a 12 per cent loss in its GDP. In particular, some crops like maize are significantly affected, with yields projected to be halved in Kenya by 2050.

It is predicted that in the next half decade, Africa will see a decline of 16 per cent of its GDP while Asia will witness about 7 per cent.

“Unlike droughts—temporary periods of low rainfall—aridity represents a permanent, unrelenting transformation,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the UN convention to combat desertification (UNCCD).

“Droughts end. When an area’s climate becomes drier, however, the ability to return to previous conditions is lost. The drier climates now affecting vast lands across the globe will not return to how they were, and this change is redefining life on Earth.”

A global conference under the UNCCD in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh that will conclude on Friday, December 13, is halfway through. Despite being one of the world’s most arid countries and a driving force for desertification across the world, Saudi Arabia has shown reluctance till now, including at the UN framework convention on climate change conference of the parties (Cop) in Azerbaijan the previous month.

According to the report by UNCCD Science-Policy Interface (SPI), the UN body for assessing the science of land degradation and drought, human-caused climate change is the primary driver of this shift as the world fails to tackle the greenhouse gas emissions, intensive agriculture, and other human activities. This leads to warming of the planet and affects the rainfall, plant life, and evaporation, leading to increased aridity.

As of 2020, about 30 per cent of the world’s population, which is 2.3 billion people, lived in dryland areas, according to UN SPI. By 2100, the number is expected to double if the carbon emissions are not controlled.

(With inputs from agencies)