7.2 News about Drought around the World
Recent News
Simmering Earth
Climate Change is indeed a significant global concern!
The UN secretary-general has expressed concern “climate change is out of control”, as on July 3, 2023, the earth experienced its hottest day ever, setting a new benchmark for the planet’s escalating climate crisis. According to data collated by the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), the average global temperature reached an all-time high of 17.18C (62.9F).
Concurrently, the United Nations declared the arrival of an El Niño weather phenomenon, with the last major El Niño in 2016, which intensifies climate heating and poses a significant threat to human lives. These two related developments have raised concerns about the immediate and long-term consequences of global warming, urging immediate action.
The Earth Observation and Geospatial industry has the potential to provide valuable data and analysis to help inform decision-making and develop effective solutions for mitigating these impacts.
Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage. More than half of the world's largest lakes are shrinking as a result of human activity and higher temperatures due to climate change. This is according to a study in the scientific journal Science. The amount of water stored in large lakes has decreased over the past three decades due to both human and climatic drivers. Yao et al. used satellite observations, climate models, and hydrologic models to show that more than 50% of both large natural lakes and reservoirs experienced volume loss over this time. The declining water storage could affect a quarter of the world's population, Fangfang Yao, a surface hydrologist who conducted the research with the University of Colorado Boulder, told ABC News.
Drought increasing threat to Southern Europe: 'It is in very bad shape' - NOS news, 14 May 2023.
A Record-Challenging Heatwave heads for Spain late this week. Extreme April Temperatures close to +40 °C possible, Published: 25/04/2023, Global weather
Climate change: Spain breaks record temperature for April, BBC News, Published: 28/04/2023
19) Climate change makes droughts “more frequent, longer, and more severe
Droughts and Climate Change | U.S. Geological Survey - 25 March 2023
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Climate change makes droughts “more frequent, longer, and more severe”. Drought is a serious environmental threat across the United States. Climate change exacerbates droughts by making them more frequent, longer, and more severe. The USGS works with state and federal partners to study, monitor, and help mitigate drought impacts across the US.
Check out the USGS Drought Website to see up-to-date news and publications on drought and water supply.
18) Europe Is Drying Up
WIRED UK - 14 March 2023
Europe Is Bracing for (Another) Devastating Drought
After unusually low amounts of rain and snow this winter, the continent faces a severe water shortage.
17) Climate change: Six tipping points ‘likely’ to be crossed
BBC News Climate and Science, 9 September 2022
Current rates of warming will put the Earth at risk of crossing six "dangerous" climate tipping points, according to a new analysis. Crossing these thresholds would disrupt the Earth's systems triggering the collapse of ice sheets and the loss of coral reefs.
Scientific commentators have previously said that reaching such a point would be a "climatic emergency". The researchers analysed evidence for tipping points from 200 recent papers. They considered:
At what temperature the tipping points would be reached
What impacts there would be for Earth's other systems
Over what timescales the impacts would be felt.
The research which is published in Science Journal on 9 September 2022, based on data published since 2008, found that at current levels of global heating the world is already at risk of triggering six dangerous climate tipping points, and risks increase with each tenth of a degree of warming.
The Climate Action Tracker group estimates that even under an optimistic scenario if current global climate targets are achieved, the world will see average warming of 1.8 C.
16) Summer 2022 was the hottest on record in Europe!
According to Copernicus Climate Change Service (abbreviated as C3S) provided by the European Union's Copernicus Programme published on 8 September 2022, this summer was the hottest in European history.
According to data from EU satellite monitoring, summer 2022 (June – August) was characterised by hot and dry conditions over much of western Europe; sustained by heatwaves, these conditions affected agriculture and transport as well as facilitated the intensification and spread of wildfires. A series of extreme heatwaves and prolonged drought saw June, July and August broke previous temperature records.
Data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service showed that August in Europe was the hottest on record by "a significant margin".
According to the researchers, on a global level, August 2022 was the third warmest yet recorded.
Europe also experienced the worst drought conditions in 500 years. For more info, see News No. 13) List of some of the droughts & News below. Around the globe, the high temperatures in August persisted widely, with drought conditions also affecting China. But it wasn't a uniform picture. For example, many areas had significant downpours resulting in flooding. As we've seen most recently in Pakistan, wetter-than-average conditions have triggered huge floods, leading to loss of life and property. Climate scientists say that both extreme wet and heat conditions are to be expected in a warming climate where emissions of warming gases from human activities have driven up temperatures by over 1.1C at present.
15) Because of the drought this year in the USA, many corn stalks are of no value for livestock
#Drought #DairyFarm #ConeStalks #NitrateTest #Toxic #CattleDeath #MitigateRisk #NitrateAccumulationCornSilage
BERTRAND, Nebraska, United States — The severe lack of rainfall has made this year challenging for many producers, and because of the drought, many corn stalks can end up being toxic if fed to cattle.
AUGUST 26, 2022- Dr. Marshall said the cow fetus is able to get more nitrate poisoning than the cattle. He said grazing or bale, feeding these corn stalks will result in abortions or poor growth at the least or acute death at the worst (NTV NEWS, by Risell Ventura, Saturday, August 27th 2022).
Dr. Larry Marshall, owner of the Bertrand Veterinary Clinic, talked to NTV News about the importance of farmers testing their corn stalks, specifically testing for nitrate levels.
“What happened this year is that at a very crucial time when this plant was needing water, and it was drawing nitrate up to the plant, it ended up with some ear development but as you can see right at the time this ear was trying to develop, it ended up with not enough water,” said Dr. Marshall grabbing a corn stalk with toxic levels of nitrate. “This ear ended up being a small, deformed, and undernourished ear.”
The lack of water doesn’t allow the opportunity for photosynthesis or good nutrient development to happen. This means the nitrate around the bottom part of the corn stalk. Leaves die, and nitrate is not utilized like plan protein anymore. At the same cornfield, there might be corn stalks that develop just fine.
“Maybe it’s on an area where there happened to be more moisture,” Dr. Marshall said. “You never know where in the field the ones with high levels of nitrate will be, but this year due to the drought circumstances, and heat, we lost many corn stalks to the drought and accumulated high nitrates in our stalks.”
Recently the Bertrand Veterinary Clinic made a Facebook post about test results. The test looked at two stalks that were side by side. The toxic level test result was harvested at windrower height (5”). The lower (marginal) test level came from corn cut at 13" confirming that the nitrate is trapped in the lower part of the plant when leaves die from drought. “The difference in that 8 inches was great,” Dr. Marshall said. “That 8 inches harvested a lot of nitrates.”
When nitrate is consumed, it's converted into nitrite. In the presence of excess nitrate that conversion can’t happen quick enough, and there won’t be enough bacteria digestion going on to allow the nitrites to form into protein.
“What happens is nitrites enter the blood streams they tie to the hemoglobin in the blood,” Dr. Marshall said. ”The animal will then try to breath and try to get oxygen to their system. Nitrate toxicity can be very fatal, cows can be normal one day and be found death a day after.”
Dr. Marshall said the cow fetus is more able to get nitrate poisoning than the cattle. He said grazing or bale-feeding these corn stalks will result in abortions, or poor growth at the least, or acute death at the worst.
The message Dr. Marshall wants to say to farmers is "test your corn stalks." “Fortunately, we have laboratories available to us throughout the state, and those laboratories will provide nitrate analysis for us,” Dr. Marshall said. “It is important that you contact that laboratory and find out exactly how they want you to collect and handle that sample so you don’t alter the result of that test.” Dr. Marshall added that farmers would need to take a broad sample, and collect 10 to 12 corn stalks that are a representative sample of how their fields are doing.
Nitrate levels can be reported using different forms. In the nitrate/nitrogen test anything bellow the 2,000s is considered to be safe or marginal, anything over 4,000 is on toxic levels.
Dr. Marshall also explained how corn stalks that have high levels of nitrate could still be safely utilized. “Start with testing, know where you are at, realize there are ways that we can mitigate that the risk, and that would be possibly ensiling," Dr. Marshall said. "If we ensile we know we can reduce nitrogen by half, that could still mean that we could have some hotspots in our silage pile, so we need to be careful. Another thing would be to blend it, we can collect stalks from dry land, and pivot corners, but that takes diligence, you need to identify those bales, but you need to make sure you grind them and use them with some other field corn stalks you know are safe."
In conclusion, ways to reduce nitrates in corn silage (from literature):
1) Severe and long-term drought causes the accumulation of nitrates in corn. We also learned that the worst case is that it rains after a period of drought. Therefore, the harvesting of corn that has been under drought conditions and has taken place at the end of the growing period of rains should be postponed until the nitrate level in the plant is lowered. Also, cloudy days often increase the amount of nitrate because the enzymes that convert nitrate to protein are less active in these conditions. Thus, harvesting the crop on sunny and bright days and Not harvesting the crop for at least 3 days after rain after a period of dry weather.
2) Nitrate accumulation rate is lower in the older parts of the plant. Stems and roots have the highest amount of nitrates compared to leaves or leaf corners. The best way to reduce nitrate levels in corn silage is to harvest the corn above the ground. For example, harvesting from a height of 6 to 8 inches compared to 2 to 4 inches can reduce nitrate by 20 percent. Thus, harvest from a height of at least 6 inches!
3) Do not remove the silage from the silo until the fermentation process is completed. Fermentation reduces nitrate levels by 30 to 50 percent.
4) Avoid using animal manure or chemical fertilizers in drought-affected soils.
5) Minimizing the stress in the plant as a result of nutritional deficiencies. The lack of nutrients such as phosphorus, potassium and manganese increases the nitrate concentration.
6) Diluting corn silage with high nitrate with edible seeds or fodder.
Also, see:
Drought blamed for dozens of cow poisoning deaths in Italy, Issued on 18/08/2022 - France24.
Fact Check-Death of Kansas cattle in June 2022 caused by extreme temperatures, officials and industry say, By Reuters Fact Check.
14) Spain and Portugal are experiencing the driest climate in 1,200 years
In mid-July, according to the European Drought Observatory - the latest map of the Combined Drought Indicator 47% of the EU territory is in Warning conditions and 17% is in Alert conditions. Conditions have deteriorated further due to the many heat waves of recent times.
Spain and Portugal are experiencing the driest climate in 1,200 years, according to research in the journal Nature Geoscience. The water reservoirs in Galicia, Catalonia and Andalusia are only 40 percent full. Moreover, due to increased water consumption and evaporation, these reserves decrease by 1.5 percent each week.
See the full research paper here.
13) List of some of the droughts & News
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_droughts
Also see Chapter 1: Problem definition.
News about Drought | Euronews
18-07-2022 · www.euronews.com › tag › drought
Europe's drought on course to be worst for 500 years, European Commission researcher warns
Victoria Seabrook, Climate reporter @SeabrookClimate, 9 August 2022, UK
This year is set to be even worse than in 2018 when unusually favourable conditions in some parts of the bloc protected it from drought elsewhere, and the worst since the sixteenth century, a senior scientist working on the European Commission's drought data warns.
"We haven't analysed fully the event, but based on my experience I think that this is perhaps even more extreme than in 2018," he said, responding to a question from Sky News during a briefing.
"2018 was so extreme that looking back at this list of the last 500 years, there were no other events similar," due to the compounding hot and dry weather explained Mr Toreti, who published a study on historical droughts a year after the event four years ago.
That year, particularly dry and hot weather left central and northern Europe with yields of key crops up to 50% lower, but "favourable" wet conditions in southern Europe saw harvests shoot up.
The extremely rare "seesaw" effect buffered the bloc from the impacts of the regional drought by preventing higher volatility and price spikes.
This year "on the contrary, most of Europe" is exposed to compounding heatwaves and dry weather, he said, as droughts impact food and energy production, drinking water and wildlife.
The latest data from the European Drought Observatory (EDO) shows that Italy is one of the worst affected by the current ongoing drought, declaring a state of emergency for areas surrounding the River Po, which accounts for more than a third of the country's agricultural production. France has set up a crisis team to deal with its worst drought on record that has left parched villages without safe drinking water and farmers warning of a milk shortage in winter. Large areas of Romania, Hungary and Ukraine are also withering, and tinderbox conditions are fuelling wildfires in Spain and Portugal. The growing lack of water in reservoirs, rivers and stored underground means the territories now need higher than normal rain to compensate.
The causes of drought are climate change affects it in two key ways. It concentrates rainfall into shorter and more intense bursts, making it harder to retain, and brings hotter temperatures which evaporate more water.
Drought - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk › news › topics
https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c8z0lk3537et
How climate is linked to drought, From BBC
Experts will also be looking at the wider question of the links between heatwaves, drought and climate change. The UK has experienced regular periods of drought in the past, including the last official drought in 2018-19. And to a certain extent, drought is normal and part of natural weather cycles across the world. But dry conditions are also expected to become more frequent and intense as Earth moves beyond the 1.2°C of climate change we have seen to date. The ten warmest years on record in the UK have occurred in the 21st century, with data stretching back to 1884.
Climate scientists say that the UK's extreme heat in July 2022 would have been "almost impossible" without human-induced climate change. July was the driest in England since 1935, with many areas seeing far less rainfall than average.
The latest set of simulations for the UK project hotter and drier summers, plus warmer and wetter winters, with larger changes in summer compared to winter rainfall. That means water companies and farmers will have to plan how to harvest and store rain in winter to address shortages in the summer.
12) Megadrought in Southwest US worst in a millennium
The worst drought in 1,200 years: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60396229”
The lack of consistency and predictability with (winter) weather conditions, in a word, inconsistent. According to researchers said the human-caused climate crisis has made the megadrought 72% worse.: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/14/us/west-megadrought-climate-wastewater-recycling/index.html. Experts say that the term "drought" may be insufficient to capture the region's current hydrology. "Aridification" might be more accurate.
In a report by CNN Business on August 18, 2022 says “American farmers are killing their own crops and selling cows because of extreme drought”. Nearly three quarters of US farmers say this year's drought is hurting their harvest -- with significant crop and income loss, according to CNN Business and a new survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), an insurance company and lobbying group that represents agricultural interests. This year's drought conditions are taking a harder toll than last year's, as 37% of farmers said they are ploughing through and killing existing crops that won't reach maturity because of dry conditions. That's a jump from 24% last year, according to the survey. The AFBF estimates nearly 60% of West, South and Central Plains are experiencing severe drought or higher this year. "The effects of this drought will be felt for years to come, not just by farmers and ranchers but also by consumers. Many farmers have had to make the devastating decision to sell off livestock they have spent years raising or destroy orchard trees that have grown for decades," said Zippy Duvall, AFBF president. The AFBF survey was conducted across 15 states from June 8 to July 20 in extreme drought regions from Texas to North Dakota to California, which makes up nearly half of the country's agricultural production value.
In California -- a state with high fruit and nut tree crops -- 50% of farmers in the state said they had to remove trees and multiyear crops due to drought, the survey revealed, which will affect future revenue. And 33% of all US farmers said they've had to do the same, nearly double the number from last year. Farmers in Texas are being forced to sell off their cattle herds earlier than normal due to extreme drought -- as water sources dry out and grass burns up. Farmers in the Lone Star state reported the largest reduction in herd size, down 50%, followed by New Mexico and Oregon at 43% and 41% respectively. "We haven't had this kind of movement of cows to market in a decade, since 2011, which was our last really big drought," said David Anderson, a professor of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M told CNN last month.
July 2022 was the third-hottest on record for the US and ranked in the top 10 for every state in the West except for Montana, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.
The US Department of Agriculture's weekly weather and crop bulletin ending the week of August 6 reported that "rapidly intensifying drought gripped the central and southern Plains and mid-South, depleting topsoil moisture and significantly stressing rangeland, pastures, and various summer crops."
US consumers can also expect to spend more on certain food products because of the drought, according to the report. "For cattle and beef, once the market processes the excess animals sent to slaughter and has a smaller breeding herd to operate off of- [price increases] could be six months to well over a year. "In general, the outlook for the 2022 crop volume is more pessimistic than a month ago and much more than two months ago," a July report from The Almond Board of California notes. The key culprits were drought, low water supply, and the removal of orchards. The Bureau of Labor Statistic's August inflation report shows US consumers are spending 9.3% more on fruits and vegetables than a year ago.
US government's new strategy:
11) Heatwaves and Fires Scorch Europe, Africa, and Asia
In the summer of 2022, heatwaves around the world felled records and fueled wildfires as temperatures climbed above 40 degrees Celsius.
Ahvaz in Iran became the hottest place on earth
NASA, says:
🔹️ "The summer of 2022 has set a record heat wave in the world."
🔹️ NASA has shown the hottest places on the planet by publishing a video, and Ahvaz in the south of Iran has been the hottest place on the planet on July 15, 2022 with a temperature of 46.5 degrees Celsius above zero.
In Iran, temperatures remained high in July after reaching a scorching 52 degrees Celsius in late June 2022.
In Italy, the record heat contributed to the July 3 collapse of a portion of the Marmolada Glacier in the Dolomites. The avalanche of snow, ice, and rock killed 11 hikers.
In the U.K., the Met Office issued extreme heat or amber warnings as temperatures were expected to continue to climb, possibly breaking all-time highs.
In North Africa, Tunisia has endured a heatwave and fires that have damaged the country's grain crop. On July 13 in the capital city of Tunis, the temperature reached 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking a 40-year record.
In China, the summer has brought three heatwaves that have buckled roads, melted tar, and popped off roof tiles. The Shanghai Xujiahui Observatory, where records have been kept since 1873, recorded its highest temperature ever: 40.9 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 13, 2022. High humidity and dewpoints, along with warm overnight temperatures, created potentially deadly conditions.
“Such extreme heat has direct impacts on human health, as well as having other consequences, including these fires that are occurring now in Europe and Africa, and which have been rampant over the past few years in North America,” Pawson said.
10) Ancient Spanish network of irrigation canals are being dug out and cleaned
NOS News • 3 May 2022
Ancient Spanish network of irrigation canals are being dug out and cleaned again to irrigate the parched land. See here.
The canals are hundreds of years old and were used by farmers to get water to their land. "It was the way to use all the available water and distribute it well," points out Sergio Cortes, who works as a biologist on the project. "The waterways are everywhere, they are thousands of kilometres together. It is now up to us to restore them."