A new study warns that Earth's supply of freshwater is rapidly vanishing from our warming world.What's happening?Since 2002, the planet has seen...
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network
What's happening?
Since 2002, the planet has seen what a press release from Arizona State University calls an "unprecedented" loss of freshwater. Led by ASU researchers, a new study of two decades' worth of satellite data has identified four "mega-drying" regions in the Northern Hemisphere, with freshwater lost to extreme heat, extended droughts, and significant draws on groundwater supplies.
Groundwater sources have been tapped by agricultural producers, municipalities, and corporations, according to ProPublica's coverage of the study. With surface waters drying up, aquifers are increasingly tapped for purposes such as farming.
Unfortunately, runoff from such activities ends up in rivers and streams, ultimately flowing into oceans and mixing with saltwater rather than replenishing pools underground.
Lead author Hrishikesh Chandanpurkar told ProPublica that the study, published in July in Science Advances, "provides a glimpse of what the future is going to be."
Attached link
https://www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/depleting-groundwater-freshwater-scarcity-drought-agriculture/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic/environmentTaxonomy
- Groundwater
- River Studies
- Freshwater
- Freshwater Ecology
- Arizona, United States