Climate change is exacerbating worldwide drought, deluge and displacement. What more to know and how to help this WORLD WATER DAY.
Climate change continues to reshape our world. And one of its biggest tolls has been on our water resources. Once flowing rivers are now reduced to trickles. Abundant lakes are now empty beds. Groundwater taps are drying up. And because many freshwater resources originate in forested areas, more severe and abundant wildfires further contaminate freshwater.
Drought
Because of our warming climate, unprecedented levels of drought are impacting many regions. In the northern hemisphere, droughts are now 20 times more likely to occur, with nearly half of mainland US currently afflicted.
Europe is facing its worst drought in the last 500 years, and is now seeing historic drought markers in their rivers, like that in the Czech Republic’s River Elbe.
Every continent, with the exception of Antarctica, and approximately 55 million people are currently impacted by drought. By 2050, nearly two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortage.
Deluge
More intense rainfall patterns caused by climate change have resulted in some of the worst deluges in recent history, including the 2022 floods in Pakistan, which claimed over 1,700 lives and displacing millions, and Sudan.
Since 2000, deluges have risen by 134%, with the greatest economic loses recorded in Asia. Extreme monsoonal floods and record-breaking rainfalls are currently impacting China and Asia Pacific, including India and Bangladesh.
And in Africa, floods are now 80 times more likely due to climate change. Research indicates that because of climate change, rainy seasons are now 20% wetter than they should be.
As our planet continues to warm, more extreme events are likely to occur, further impacting the world’s water supply in the form of contamination and global health problems. This WORLD WATER DAY, let’s fight climate change and help HUMANITY by donating through VAKOVAKO.
