Mon Dec 09 10:23:31 UTC 2024: ## UN Report Reveals Dramatic Global Drying Trend, Threatening Billions
**New Delhi, December 9, 2024** – A new United Nations report reveals a stark reality: over 77% of Earth’s land has experienced a drier climate in the three decades leading up to 2020. This unprecedented drying trend has resulted in a 4.3 million square kilometer expansion of global drylands – an area larger than India – now encompassing more than 40% of the planet’s landmass.
The report, released by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) at their 16th conference in Riyadh, paints a grim picture for the future. If greenhouse gas emissions remain unchecked, an additional 3% of currently humid areas are projected to become drylands by 2100. This exacerbates an already dire situation, as the number of people living in drylands has doubled to 2.3 billion over the past three decades, with projections reaching five billion by 2100 under a worst-case climate change scenario.
Hardest hit regions include approximately 96% of Europe, parts of the western U.S., Brazil, Asia, and central Africa. South Sudan and Tanzania show the highest percentage of land transitioning to drylands, while China experiences the largest total area shift. Asia and Africa alone house roughly half of the world’s dryland population, with densely populated drylands found in California, Egypt, Pakistan, India, and northeastern China. Future expansion is predicted for areas including the Midwestern United States, parts of Mexico, South America, the Mediterranean, and southern Australia.
UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw stressed the significance of the findings, stating that this report definitively documents the aridity crisis, revealing an existential threat impacting billions. Unlike temporary droughts, aridity represents a permanent change, irreversibly altering life on Earth.
First Piper 