biodiversity, agricultural yields and economies<\/a>. Scientists project that all six countries involved in the study will need to deal with water stress, potentially through shifting crop varieties or irrigation. Therefore, the amount of adaptation required to deal with the increase in drought increases with rising global temperatures.<\/p>\nJeff Price, associate professor of Biodiversity and Climate Change at UEA, said: \u201cCurrent pledges for climate change mitigation which are projected to still result in global warming levels of 3 \u00b0C or more, would impact all the countries in this study.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, with 3 \u00b0C warming, more than 50% of the agricultural area in each country is projected to be exposed to severe droughts lasting longer than one year in a 30-year period.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing standard population projections, it is estimated that 80 to 100% of the population in Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Ghana – and nearly 50 per cent of the population of India – are projected to be exposed to a severe drought lasting one year or longer in a 30-year period.\u201d<\/p>\n
India and China both have large areas of \u2018permanent\u2019 ice and snow. In a three degrees warming scenario, 90% of frozen areas are projected to face severe droughts that last for more than 30 years. As many of these areas form the countries\u2019 major river systems, meaning the water supply for millions of people will decline.<\/p>\n
Urban areas generally show the same pattern as frozen areas. Areas along rivers, streams and reservoirs in particular, may face increased competition for water resources.<\/p>\n
In most of the countries, the projected increase in drought probability increases linearly with increasing temperatures. The researchers found that Egypt was an exception, where even a slight temperature increase would lead to large increases in drought probability.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only does the area exposed to drought increase with global warming, but it also increases the length of the droughts. In Brazil, China, Ethiopia, and Ghana, droughts of longer than two years are projected to occur even in a 1.5 \u00b0C warming scenario,\u201d explained Professor Rachel Warren, who led the study.<\/p>\n
Meeting the conditions of the Paris Agreement<\/h3>\n The team argued that meeting the conditions of the Paris Climate Accords, which is to keep rising temperatures well below two degrees, would significantly reduce the risks associated with droughts and temperature increase.<\/p>\n
Dr Price commented: \u201cWe found that meeting the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement, that is limiting warming to 1.5 \u00b0C above pre-industrial levels, is projected to greatly benefit all of the countries in this study, greatly reducing exposure to severe drought for large percentages of the population and in all major land cover classes, with Egypt potentially benefiting the most.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meeting the Paris Accords could have major benefits in terms of reducing severe drought risk in these six countries, in all major land cover classes and for large percentages of the population worldwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis requires urgent global scale action now to stop\u00a0deforestation (including in the Amazon) in this decade, and to decarbonize the energy system in\u00a0this decade, so that we can reach global net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,\u201d concluded Professor Rachel Warren, lead author of the study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Researchers have found that frequent droughts caused by rising global temperatures pose significant risks to people and ecosystems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":25769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24433],"tags":[689],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Alarming links between rising global temperatures and drought discovered<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n