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We’re back on “water watch” in today's newsletter as scientists find that world groundwater levels are showing an “accelerated” decline amid record droughts in South America.
Groundwater is a major source of fresh water for farms, households and industries, and depletion could pose severe economic and environmental threats, including falling crop yields and destructive land subsidence, particularly in coastal areas, according to a study published in the Nature scientific journal.
"One of the most likely major driving forces behind rapid and accelerating groundwater decline is the excessive withdrawal of groundwater for irrigated agriculture in dry climates," said Scott Jasechko from the University of California, Santa Barbara, one of the paper's co-authors.
But drought, driven by climate change, was also having an impact, with farmers likely to pump out more groundwater to ensure their crops are irrigated, he said.
Speaking of climate change driven dry weather, the drought that hit all nine Amazon rainforest countries – including Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru – is expected to worsen in 2024 after the rainy season begins to recede in May, scientists told Reuters.
Global warming made the drought 30 times more likely, drove extreme high temperatures and contributed to lower rainfall, according to the analysis by World Weather Attribution, an international group of scientists. The study focused on June to November last year.
