The UK has gone through the wettest 18 months on record, as climate change brings more extreme weather.
It might seem counter-intuitive, then, that the world is running out of water.
In fact, three-quarters of Earth’s land became permanently drier in the last three decades, according to findings released this week in a new report by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification ((UNCCD), “which warn that if the trend continues, up to five billion people could live in drylands by the century’s end — causing soils to deplete, water resources to dwindle, and vital ecosystems to collapse.”
One consequence is likely to be an increase in climate refugees [and this analysis comes from a Swiss insurance company…]
And looking at a very pertinent example, there has been much discussion about how drought linked to climate change helped cause the Syrian civil war, although according to a piece published yesterday, the Syrian Civil War showed how complicated the climate change-conflict connection can be.
Back in these parts, it’s also ‘complicated’, as UK winters ‘will get wetter and summers drier’ as extreme weather ramps up [and this analysis comes from the Daily Express…]
The Big Issue reported that former Environment agency flood incident commander Dave Throup warned: “Statistically these are One-in-100 year events but because of climate change they are now happening regularly. There is no way we can simply build our way out of this. We need to adapt and respond – fast.”
Mr Throup added that from a topographical perspective, Britain is a lot less capable of absorbing water than it used to be thanks to the loss of wetlands and the hardening of the soil. These conditions have already started to force families to move to avoid losing their homes. On some places, you’ve had tarmacking over floodplains, building developments, that sort of thing. But more significantly, agriculture has meant the mass draining of land, which leads to harder soil. So the rain just runs off the top.”
To conclude , returning to the report from scientists convened by the United Nations which opened this piece, we have, then, a problem with our soil [and this is from the latest Imagine newsletter from The Conversation]
Climate change has also made the weather more volatile. When drought does cede to rain, more of it arrives in bruising downpours that slough the topsoil. A stable climate would deliver a year’s rain more evenly and gently, nourishing the soil so that it can nurture microbes that hold onto water and release nutrients...
How do we adapt our relationship with the land to remoisturise the world? Anna Krzywoszynska, [a sustainable food expert at the University of Sheffield] argues that there is no easy solution, but the future of food-growing “is localised and diverse”. “To ensure that we eat well and live well in the future, we’ll need to reverse the trend towards greater homogenisation which drove food systems so far.”
The good news is that farmers are experimenting with methods that restore the soil even as they produce a diverse range of nutritious food, she says. These innovators need rights and secure access to the land, the opportunity to share their experiences and financial and political support. “Regenerating land is a win-win, for humans and their ecosystems, if we dare to look beyond the immediate short-term horizon.”
Anna Krzywoszynska, a sustainable food expert at the University of Sheffield.
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