'Precipitation, the source of all fresh water, can no longer be relied upon': Global water cycle pushed out of balance '

[Judi Lynn]

'Precipitation, the source of all fresh water, can no longer be relied upon': Global water cycle pushed out of balance 'for 1st time in human history'

By Ben Turner published 6 hours ago

Climate change and chronic water mismanagement are placing "unprecedented stress" on the world's water systems, according to a new report.


More than half of the world's food production is at risk of collapsing in the next 25 years due to a growing global water crisis, a new report warns.

Climate change, destructive land use and the consistent mismanagement of water resources mean that nearly 3 billion people and over half of global food production are in areas facing "unprecedented stress" on their water systems, the Global Commission on the Economics of Water said in a report released Oct. 17.

If the trend is not reversed, the growing deficit will have a seismic impact on humanity and the environment. Several cities are already sinking due to a loss of groundwater. Moreover, up to 8% of the global gross domestic product (GDP), and 15% of the GDP of lower-income countries, will be lost by 2050, according to the report.

"Today, half of the world's population faces water scarcity," Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and one of the commission's four co-chairs, said in a statement. "As this vital resource becomes increasingly scarce, food security and human development are at risk — and we are allowing this to happen.”

More:
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/climate-change/precipitation-the-source-of-all-fresh-water-can-no-longer-be-relied-upon-global-water-cycle-pushed-out-of-balance-for-1st-time-in-human-history

[Bayard]

1. Scary stuff

Once again, humans prove they are the authors of their own destruction.

[Think. Again.]

2. We certainly are determined to end everything, aren't we.

[calimary]

3. Scary! Is anybody paying attention???

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Seemingly not

This is not a new phenomenon, it is a progressive one, which started some time ago…
https://www.unicef.org/wash/water-scarcity
https://earth.org/depleted-aquifers-causes-effects-and-solutions/
https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/groundwater-decline-and-depletion
https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2425
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00070-3
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/24/climate/groundwater-global-study-scn/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/28/climate/groundwater-drying-climate-change.html

In the US, our solution to depleted aquifers is to… drill deeper.
https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/land-subsidence


Detailed Description
Approximate point of maximum subsidence in the San Joaquin Valley, California. Land surface subsided ~9 m from 1925 to 1977 due to aquifer-system compaction. Signs on the telephone pole indicate the former elevations of the land surface in 1925 and 1955.
Photograph by Richard Ireland, U.S. Geological Survey

NASA has been documenting ground water using GRACE.
https://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/29/15-years-of-grace-earth-observations/

15 Years of GRACE Earth Observations

For 15 years, the GRACE mission has unlocked mysteries of how water moves around our planet. It gave us the first view of underground aquifers from space, and shows how fast polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers are melting.

Credit
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory