NASA warns of an impending global crisis!

NASA revealed that the world’s vital freshwater resources have been “suddenly” depleted over the past decade.
Billions of people rely on freshwater sources for drinking water and energy generation. And around the world, 70% of it is used for agriculture.

At least 10% of animals live exclusively in freshwater environments. More than a decade ago, scientists warned that the shortage would affect more than half of the world’s population in the future by 2050 if governments did not take urgent action.
Using data from satellites belonging to the NASA-German Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) project, an international team of scientists was able to determine that the Earth’s freshwater stock has experienced a sharp decline starting in May 2014.

Between 2015 and 2023, measurements showed that the average amount of freshwater on land was 290 cubic miles less than the average levels recorded between 2002 and 2014.

The loss of freshwater may indicate that the continents of the Earth have entered a continuously drier phase.

Matthew Rodell, a water scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement: “This is equivalent to one and a half times the volume of the missing Lake Erie.”

These results reflect a shift in the Earth’s climate, as the continents may have entered a permanent drought phase. The freshwater shortage in Brazil began as a result of widespread drought, which was followed by further drought waves in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Australia.

Scientists pointed out that one of the strongest El Niño events since 1950 (a climatic pattern that causes the Pacific current to shift southward and eastward, leading to warmer and drier conditions in the northern United States) altered weather and rainfall patterns worldwide in the mid-2000s.

And even after the end of the El Niño pattern, the world’s freshwater has not regained its health, with satellites recording 13 of the strongest droughts in the world since January 2015.

Climate change may contribute to this depletion, although it is difficult to definitively link the decline in freshwater to global warming, as there are uncertainties in climate predictions.

Climate change leads to more extreme weather events. Long periods of drought between heavy rains allow the soil to dry out and become more compact, reducing the amount of water it can absorb when it rains.

Michael Bosilovich, a meteorologist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, said: “The problem when you have heavy rainfall is that the water ends up running off instead of being absorbed and replenishing groundwater supplies.”

He pointed out that “the rise in temperatures increases the evaporation of water from the surface to the atmosphere and the atmosphere’s ability to retain water, which increases the frequency and intensity of drought conditions.”

This year is expected to be the warmest ever on Earth. Roudil pointed out that the nine warmest years on record have coincided with a decline in freshwater.

Therefore, scientists warn that the sudden decline in freshwater may be the beginning of a long-term global drought phase, necessitating urgent actions by governments to adapt to this change through improved water management and combating climate change, with the aim of ensuring the availability of freshwater for future generations.