Over 75% of Earth’s Land Is Permanently Drying: UN Report

Over 75% of Earth’s Land Is Permanently Drying: UN Report

Much of Earth’s lands are drying out and damaging the ability of plant and animal life to survive, according to a United Nations report released Monday at talks where countries are working to address the problem.

The report was released at the U.N. summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on combating desertification — once-fertile lands turning into deserts because of hotter temperatures from human-caused climate change, lack of water and deforestation.

It found that more than three-quarters of the world’s land experienced drier conditions from 1970 to 2020 than the previous thirty-year period.

At the talks, which started last week and are set to end on Friday, nations are discussing how better they can help the world deal with droughts — a more urgent lack of water over shorter periods — and the more permanent problem of degrading land.

If global warming trends continue, nearly five billion people — including in most of Europe, parts of the western U.S., Brazil, eastern Asia and central Africa — will be affected by the drying by the end of the century, up from a quarter of the world’s population today, the report warned.