[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]According to researchers in a recent study, human consumption and global warming are causing lakes around the world to dry up.
A new report released on Thursday claims that more than half of the world’s lakes have shrunk.
Global warming and human activities were identified as the main offenders by an international research team, according to their findings, which were published in the journal Science.
Only around 3% of the water on Earth is fresh, and 87% of it is found in natural lakes and reservoirs.
The necessity for water management solutions was stressed in the research.
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What were some of the findings?
The study, directed by hydrologist Fangfang Yao of the University of Colorado, found that during the early 1990s, the size of the world’s large lakes and reservoirs had decreased.
Several of the world’s most important freshwater sources, according to the team of experts, have been losing water at a cumulative rate of roughly 22 gigatonnes per year for almost three decades.
Yao stated that “more than half of the decline is primarily attributable to human consumption or indirect human signals through climate warming,” noting that warming was “the larger share of that.”
Additionally, researchers discovered that global decreases in lake levels had been brought on by variations in rainfall and runoff, sedimentation, and warming temperatures.
Almost 30 years of satellite data used
Based on satellite data gathered between 1992 and 2020, the researchers measured the change in water levels in roughly 2,000 lakes and other bodies of water throughout the world
Over the course of 28 years, Lake Mead in the US lost two-thirds of its water.
The investigation also discovered that lakes like the Aral Sea in Central Asia and the Dead Sea in the Middle East dried up as a result of unsustainable human use.
Rising temperatures affected lakes in Afghanistan, Egypt, and Mongolia, which increased the rate of surface evaporation.
According to scientists, in order to avoid the effects of climate change, global warming must be kept to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). At the moment, the earth is warming at a rate of about 1.1C.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
