The weather has continued to be unusual this year and no long-term relief is in sight.
Along with the record-breaking high temperatures, again many locations this summer didn’t have nearly enough rain. And, other places — like the Bahamas in the path of a Category Five hurricane — got too much water at once.
In recent years, some areas have also swung from far too little rain for one year to way too much the next. In either circumstance, land suffers.
Shocking Losses
According to a German Environmental Agency 2015“Press Release“, every year 10 million hectares, or close to 25 million acres, of land suitable for crops are lost across the world. Researchers also said almost four years ago, “The Earth Has Lost a Third of its Farmable Land in the Last 40 years”. All the while, the number of people needing to eat continues to grow.
Without any food, humans can’t last more than a few weeks. However, even more concerning is what is happening to the water supply. Without water to drink, we all know people die in a matter of days.
The New York Times, on August 6, 2019, ran an article covering water scarcity titled, “A quarter of humanity faces looming water crises”.
The same day, the World Resources Institute also ran one titled, “17 Countries, Home to One-Quarter of the World’s Population, Face Extremely High Water Stress“.
Water
Note, one of the places seriously lacking water is the already volatile Middle East.
Photo credits: Storm in Desert by Lucy Chian, License: CC0; Dried-up Lake bed by Redcharlie, License: CC0.
