Is Earth facing a planetary drought?

[Delta4Embassy]

A third of the world s biggest groundwater basins are in distress

"Two new studies led by UC Irvine using data from NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites show that civilization is rapidly draining some of its largest groundwater basins, yet there is little to no accurate data about how much water remains in them.

The result is that significant segments of Earth's population are consuming groundwater quickly without knowing when it might run out, the researchers conclude. The findings appear today in Water Resources Research.

"Available physical and chemical measurements are simply insufficient," said UCI professor and principal investigator Jay Famiglietti, who is also the senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Given how quickly we are consuming the world's groundwater reserves, we need a coordinated global effort to determine how much is left.""

rest at link

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Funny seeing a thread on the Big 3 newscasts later that night.

 

[Muhammed]

There was a couple of mallard ducks paddling around in my back yard last weekend. So I don't think we're experiencing a drought here.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

There was a couple of mallard ducks paddling around in my back yard last weekend. So I don't think we're experiencing a drought here.

Ya right, if you're standing in a puddle there can't be a drought because the entire world revolves around you.

 

[Muhammed]

There was a couple of mallard ducks paddling around in my back yard last weekend. So I don't think we're experiencing a drought here.

Ya right, if you're standing in a puddle there can't be a drought because the entire world revolves around you.

Technically, it certainly does, because motion is relative to the observer.

 

[waltky]

18 Million at Risk of Food Insecurity in Eastern Africa...

Drought Puts 18 Million at Risk in Eastern Africa
December 23, 2015 — The United Nations says more than 18 million people across eastern Africa are at risk of food insecurity due to El Niño weather patterns and conflicts in the region.

The East African bloc IGAD warned Wednesday the persistent drought affecting eastern and central Africa would continue for at least three more months. IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center Director Guleid Artan said east African nations would receive more rainfall, but not until March. “The drought in the northern sector will continue till the next rainy season while the rains will subside in half of Kenya but will have above average rain in Southern and Western Kenya and Uganda, Tanzania especially around the Great Lakes area,” said Artan. El Niño, a climate phenomena, occurs when temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean become warmer than average, causing a shift in atmospheric circulation. El Niño’s impact was felt in eastern Africa as far back as early May when drought conditions affected parts of Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia.

Families begin their journey home from the Estayesh food distribution site in Denkena Kebele, Meket Woreda, Ethiopia, Dec. 14, 2015. The government is appealing for $1.4 billion from the international community and donors to help feed more than 10 million people.​

According to Pete Manfield from the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), an estimated 18.5 million people are at risk of starvation due to drought and conflicts in the region. “There are a number of conflict dynamics in the region which are new this year which are adding quite a significant strain to the new humanitarian requirement, particularly conflicts in Burundi, South Sudan and in Yemen, and this is requiring a scale up in short-term life-saving interventions,” he said. The regional drought has hit Ethiopia especially hard, and the government there is appealing for $1.1 billion to help feed more than 10 million people. Neighboring South Sudan and Somalia both have internal strife on top of drought.

U.N. World Food Program spokeswoman Challis McDonough said the fighting made it hard for aid agencies to reach those most in need of aid. "And then combined with that we now have erratic rainfall and the harvest in some of the non-conflict areas that have been kind of the bread basket of South Sudan are not as good as we would have hoped ... I think in Somalia you are facing a similar combination of kind of conflict-related concerns,” she said. An estimated 300,000 people across east Africa have been displaced from their homes due to the drought.

Drought Puts 18 Million at Risk in Eastern Africa

 

[waltky]

Ethiopian children especially vulnerable to drought...

Ethiopia's Drought Takes Toll on Children
May 02, 2016 — Ethiopia is dealing with its worst drought in decades. Its crops failed last year, contributing to food shortages affecting at least 10 million of the east African country’s 99 million people.

Approximately 6 million of them are children, and they’re especially vulnerable to disease, hunger and thirst, according to UNICEF, the United Nations’ children’s fund. It estimates 435,000 of them risk acute malnutrition. Beriti Hawas brought her malnourished 3-year-old child to a clinic in central district of Metahara district, saying, "My baby got sick because there is no food."

Malnutrition is especially problematic for children, because it can slow or halt brain development and thinking abilities, explained Samuel Terfa of the nongovernmental organization Child Fund. He said it also could have immediate consequences, such as aggravating diarrhea. Child Fund is among the humanitarian organizations helping the Ethiopian government to supply food. Over $800 million in emergency funding has been provided, but Ethiopia’s government and the United Nations estimate a total of $1.4 billion is needed this year. The bulk of the money is to provide food.

Only by receiving aid can Alko Bultum can feed her six children. "Because of the drought, we have nothing except the government's support,” she said, adding, “We have nothing at home. We have nothing to feed our children. We don’t have drinking water." Food aid will be needed into 2017 in Ethiopia and in other drought-stricken parts of eastern and southern Africa, experts say. The poor conditions are believed to be caused by the periodic weather phenomenon El Nino.

Ethiopia's Drought Takes Toll on Children

See also:

Climate Change Could Make Parts of Middle East Uninhabitable
May 02, 2016 - Climate change may render parts of the Middle East -- now home to over 500 million people -- too hot for humans, according to a new study.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the Cyprus Institute say “very hot” days in the region have “doubled” since 1970. "In future, the climate in large parts of the Middle East and North Africa could change in such a manner that the very existence of its inhabitants is in jeopardy," says Jos Lelieveld, Director at the Max Planck Institute and Professor at the Cyprus Institute.

A man walks his camel across the Liwa Oasis, southwest of the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi​

Researches say that even if global temperature rise is capped at two degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era, “the temperature in summer in these regions will increase more than twofold.” That means by mid-century, during the hottest part of summer, “temperatures will not fall below 30 degrees at night, and during daytime they could rise to 46 degrees Celsius.”

More heatwaves

Further out, midday temperatures in the region could reach as high as 50 Celsius, and there could be a tenfold increase in the number of heat waves. Those heat waves are likely to last longer, too, with an average of 80 extremely hot days by the middle of the century compared to 16 now. "If mankind continues to release carbon dioxide as it does now, people living in the Middle East and North Africa will have to expect about 200 unusually hot days, according to the model projections," says climate change expert Panos Hadjinicolaou, Associate Professor at the Cyprus Institute.

The study also looked at the amount of “fine particulate air pollution” in the region and found that dust in the atmosphere over Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria jumped 70 percent since the start of the century. This, they say, could be due to an increase in the number of sand storms caused by climate change. The researchers created two models -- one in which global temperatures are capped by reductions in greenhouse gases, and another, a “business as usual” model where nothing is done to stem climate change. Under both scenarios, the future of the region is not good, they say, adding that “climate change can result in a significant deterioration of living conditions for people living in North Africa and the Middle East, and consequently, sooner or later, many people may have to leave the region.”

Climate Change Could Make Parts of Middle East Uninhabitable

 

[SixFoot]

I have a deep well, 360ft in the ground, and a hand pump on an 80ft well coming soon. This limestone hill will not be running out of water any time within mine or my children's lifetime. My fruit orchard and veggie garden love it, as do my livestock.

 

[Old Rocks]

I have a deep well, 360ft in the ground, and a hand pump on an 80ft well coming soon. This limestone hill will not be running out of water any time within mine or my children's lifetime. My fruit orchard and veggie garden love it, as do my livestock.

Well, I hope you are correct. However, how many other people are pumping out of that aquifer? There are far too many places where the aquifers are being drained by feet per year, and recharged in inches per year. We are mining the water, and will soon pay for that nonsense.

 

[SixFoot]

I have a deep well, 360ft in the ground, and a hand pump on an 80ft well coming soon. This limestone hill will not be running out of water any time within mine or my children's lifetime. My fruit orchard and veggie garden love it, as do my livestock.

Well, I hope you are correct. However, how many other people are pumping out of that aquifer? There are far too many places where the aquifers are being drained by feet per year, and recharged in inches per year. We are mining the water, and will soon pay for that nonsense.

Not sure how many (if any) share it, much less how deep their wells are. I do know that 3 of the 5 adjourning properties run off of county water, though (those being the larger farms in the area). This property is land-locked, and required a well when the neighbor refused an easement of county plumbing lines through his property.

It's incredibly expensive just to break the water table at 60ft, much less 360. Plus, I'm the only one on this hill, and underground streams outnumber above ground bodies of water by orders of magnitude in this State. Couple that with the insane flooding we had earlier this year, and supplies are looking good, at least in the near term.

I also have a rain catch (illegal in some areas, so check your local ordinance) for the dry summer months as a backup. The plants love that living organic water more than anything. With 0.5" of rainfall and the 600 sq ft section of roof I have for it, I get just under 200 gallons of fresh rain water per drizzle, with an 800 gallon capacity.

IMO, the only way to solve any water problems would be much along the same lines as energy independence; people wanna catch sun rays for energy, why not catch rainwater for sustenance, too?

 

[Old Rocks]

Here in Oregon we have the old West Water Right laws. So rain falling on your property belongs to the people with prior water rights. However, there has recently been law changes to exempt that falling on your roof from those laws.

State Rainwater Harvesting Laws and Legislation

Oregon

Rainwater harvesting is allowed in Oregon, but may only be done from roof surfaces. Oregon Revised Statute §455.060 allows for alternate methods of construction of rainwater harvesting systems. The Oregon Building Codes Division (BCD) has approved the use of rainwater harvesting systems as an alternate method to the state plumbing code. It created methods for both potable and non-potable systems.

Senate Bill 79 (2009) directs the BCD to increase energy efficiency, by including rainwater harvesting, in new and repaired buildings.

Additional Resources:

• Oregon Smart Guide - Rainwater Harvesting

 

[SixFoot]

It always amazes me when governments give people "permission" to do things, like holding on to rainwater for more than a day after it fell from the sky.

 

[Muhammed]

There was a couple of mallard ducks paddling around in my back yard last weekend. So I don't think we're experiencing a drought here.

Ya right, if you're standing in a puddle there can't be a drought because the entire world revolves around you.

It's simply conclusive evidence that there is not a worldwide drought.

 

[Old Rocks]

When you are drawing down aquifers at the rate of feet per year, and replenishing them at the rate of inches per year, you are going to run out of water in that aquifer.

 

[Steven_R]

So build desalination plants and pipe water to people. It isn't like there isn't an essentially unlimited amount of water in the oceans.

And if it comes right now to it, we can always nudge a few comets our way.

 

[Old Rocks]

Now that would be some expensive water.

 

[SixFoot]

I've always been told that global warming would cause lots of heavy storms. Water doesn't just disappear (hell, we drink the same water the Dinosaurs did), but I agree we might have to eventually start finding alternate sources of fresh water. Times always change.

 

[Old Rocks]

Unfortunetly, those storms ofter occur where the water is not needed.

 

[Mr Natural]

The money grubbers haven't figured a way to crank up the price of water just yet. But give them time, they will.

 

[SixFoot]

Unfortunetly, those storms ofter occur where the water is not needed.

Then rain catches or what ever equivalent would need to be placed where they are needed most, along with becoming a normal sight to behold anywhere one finds a rooftop.