Human-induced climate change has increased the likelihood of summer droughts in the Northern Hemisphere “at least 20 times”. This is what a group of scholars decided on A study published on Wednesday During the last summer of the disaster, especially for agricultural crops.
Such a drought on Earth, which has hit Europe, China and the United States, is more likely to happen once every 20 years with the current climate, compared to once every 400 years or less without warming, researchers say. Refer the weather in the worlda network of pioneers researching the attribution of extreme events to climate change.
This summer, drought hit several European countries, most notably France, with rivers drying up and restrictions imposed in certain areas. Certain parts of the United States and China have also been hit hard.
The effects were felt in the agricultural sector, with lower yields and potential impacts on already high inflation. This situation has also led to wildfires and disruption of energy production, especially hydropower and nuclear power.
environmental drought
The probability of a lack of soil moisture in the root zone, the part of the underground soil 1 meter underground where plants obtain water for their nutrition, is increased by a factor of “at least 20”. When that area is affected, we are talking about an “agricultural” or “ecological” drought.
The probability of moisture deficiency in the soil at the surface (above 7 centimeters) increases by a factor of “at least 5”.
“Exact numbers are uncertain, as is usually the case for difficult-to-observe quantities,” the authors caution. Estimates of the impact of climate change in the study are conservative: the true impact of human activities is likely to be greater.
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