Drought and high temperatures are among the most important factors that negatively affected the world during previous periods, and according to the Mexican newspaper Expantheon, severe drought events will increase 10 times in the scenario that contains the highest emissions of polluting gases by the end of this century.

The newspaper pointed out that the Nature Sustainability magazine, which specializes in climate change, published a study in which it confirmed that the availability of water around the world will have greater risks for more than 90% of the population.

The study indicated that severe drought events will increase 10-fold in the scenario with higher polluting gas emissions by the end of this century, which will affect the availability of water globally.

She added that this impact would not only have a negative impact on vegetation or terrestrial carbon sinks but combined with higher temperatures, would affect more than 90% of the world's population, with more severe impacts in more vulnerable areas such as rural areas.

The study authors concluded that the combined effects of extreme heat and drought would have a much greater impact than considering these two phenomena separately. Another important factor, they added, is that combined drought and heat wave (CDHW) events will also affect the functioning of social systems and ecosystem systems, which will ultimately impact GDP.

"By combining satellite observations with field measurements and reanalysis, we show that Earth's water storage and temperature are negatively related, and possibly driven by similar atmospheric conditions (eg, water vapor deficit and energy demand)," the study authors note.

They used "large model" simulations and a new carbon budget dataset generated by machine learning, to determine "the response of ecosystem productivity to global thermal and water stressors," Jiabo Yin, one of the authors of the new study and a researcher at Wuhan University, explained in a statement.

Source: The Seventh Day website