CHR News Desk | New Delhi
Climate change and the prevalence of high temperatures and drought significantly correlate, leaving broad-reaching impacts on human health, according to a recent report.
The study, conducted by scientists from Switzerland, India, the Netherlands, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom, revealed that human-induced climate change has significantly increased the likelihood of observed soil moisture drought events, impacting various sectors including human health, energy, agriculture, and municipal water supply.
The findings, published by the World Weather Attribution service, come as the world grapples with extreme weather events. The report indicates that the drought experienced in Europe, China, and North America between June and August is likely to occur approximately once every 20 years.
Throughout the summer of 2022, Western Central Europe, North America, China, and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere faced water shortages, extreme heat, and soil moisture drought conditions, resulting in severe impacts such as extensive fires, high food prices, and substantial crop losses.
The study highlights heat waves and remarkably low rainfall across the Northern Hemisphere as contributing factors to these adverse conditions. Particularly dry soils in regions such as France, Germany, and other central European countries exacerbated the risk of wildfires and significantly impacted agricultural yields.
Observation-driven land surface models indicate that extremely low summer surface and root-zone soil moisture levels, as observed in 2022, typically occur once every 20 years in today’s climate in both West-Central Europe and the Northern Hemisphere extratropics.
The historical trends in soil moisture levels suggest that the dry conditions observed in 2022 would have been less likely to occur at the beginning of the 20th century, the report said.
Furthermore, the study concludes that human-induced climate change significantly increased the likelihood of observed soil moisture drought events in both regions, with the change in likelihood being more pronounced in observation-based data compared to models.
For West-Central Europe, human-induced climate change made the 2022 root zone soil moisture drought approximately 3-4 times more likely, and the surface soil moisture drought about 5-6 times more likely.
In the Northern Hemisphere extratropics, human-induced climate change significantly increased the likelihood of observed soil moisture drought events by a factor of at least 20 for the root zone and at least 5 for the surface soil moisture.
Climate models suggest that soil moisture drought will continue to escalate with additional global warming, aligning with projected long-term trends outlined in reports such as the IPCC AR6.
The findings of this study emphasise the urgent need for coordinated efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change and adapt to changing environmental conditions.
