Over a quarter of the world’s land could become significantly drier even if global warming is limited to the target of two degree Celsius, according to scientists including one of Indian origin.
The change would cause an increased threat of drought and wildfires.
However, limiting global warming to under 1.5 degree Celsius would dramatically reduce the fraction of the Earth’s surface that undergoes such changes.
Researchers from University of East Anglia (UEA) in the U.K. and Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in China studied projections from 27 global climate models.
They identified the areas of the world where aridity will substantially change when compared to the year-to-year variations they experience now, as global warming reaches 1.5 or two degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Aridity is a measure of the dryness of the land surface, obtained from combining precipitation and evaporation.
“Our research predicts that aridification would emerge over about 20-30 per cent of the world’s land surface by the time the global mean temperature change reaches two degrees Celsius,” said Manoj Joshi from UEA.
“But two thirds of the affected regions could avoid significant aridification if warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” said Mr. Joshi, one of the authors of the study published in the journal Nature Climate Change .
“Aridification is a serious threat because it can critically impact areas such as agriculture, water quality, and biodiversity. It can also lead to more droughts and wildfires,” said Chang-Eui Park from SusTech.
