Humanity has overspent and depleted freshwater in the world’s aquifers, glaciers, wetlands, and other natural reservoirs to an irreversible degree, according to a new United Nations report.
drought
Posted inEditors' Highlights
How Satellite Data Helped Avoid Hunger from Drought
Satellites detecting anomalies of the spectral reflectance of crops in Uganda successfully foretold imminent crop failure and automatically triggered timely governmental disaster relief.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
An Ecosystem Never Forgets
A new study in southwestern China shows how ecosystems may exhibit “hydrological memory,” which affects how they react to extreme climate events such as heat and drought.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Climate Variations in Tropical Oceans Drive Primarily Extreme Events
Severe droughts and floods are primarily driven by climate variations in tropical oceans, with interannual and decadal patterns playing key roles.
Posted inNews
Grandes Sequias Coincidieron con el Colapso Maya Clásico
El entendimiento de cómo las ciudades individuales respondieron al estrés climático ayudará a crear imágenes holísticas de cómo estas sociedades funcionaban.
Posted inNews
Are “Day Zero Droughts” Closer Than We Think? Here’s What We Know
A new study warns that day zero droughts—when reservoirs fail to supply taps—could become common within this decade.
Posted inNews
Fire, Not Deforestation, Is Now the Amazon’s Biggest Carbon Emitter
Forest degradation in the Amazon increased by 400% in 2024. It was largely driven by wildfires during the forest’s worst fire season in more than 20 years.
Posted inNews
Major Droughts Coincided with Classic Maya Collapse
Understanding how individual cities responded to climate stress will help create holistic pictures of how these societies functioned.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Droughts Sync Up as the Climate Changes
A new study reconstructs roughly 800 years of streamflow history in India’s major rivers, showing an increase in synchronous drought linked to anthropogenic climate change.
Posted inNews
Fallowed Fields Are Fueling California’s Dust Problem
New research shows that unplanted agricultural lands are behind most of the state’s anthropogenic dust events.