In a special feature article published in the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences, researchers examine water scarcity under climate change. The research set out to “explore uncertainties and to synthesize the current state of knowledge about the impact of climate change on renewable water resources…”
Using multimodel ensemble projections, the researchers show that climate change will likely exacerbate existing regional and global water scarcity. In addition, they project that 15% of the global population will face a severe decrease in water resources, and the number of people living under absolute water scarcity will increase.
They conclude “that the combination of unmitigated climate change and further population growth will expose a significant fraction of the world population to chronic or absolute water scarcity. This dwindling per-capita water availability is likely to pose major challenges for societies to adapt their water use and management.”
An article published in The Guardian explains that the researchers’ results in the paper and a related series of papers demonstrate that policymakers pay insufficient attention to the connection between climate risks, and as a result, have underestimated the impacts. The point is bring everything together so that it can be evaluated for what it is.
Read the abstract
Read the study
Written by Marta Weismann