Drought and Desertification

Today is World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. Learn more by visiting the UNCCD’s website and by checking out the definitions and reading list we’ve compiled below.

Drought

Drought is essentially the absence of water, or shortages in water supply that persist over time. Droughts are typically triggered by periods of low rainfall and more intense heat. These weather patterns devastate natural water supplies and soil moisture. Droughts are a naturally occurring phenomenon, but they have been made more extreme by climate change.

Desertification

Desertification is the degradation of once-fertile land to an irreversible point, a point at which the land can no longer maintain the same plants that it once could. Desertification occurs on a human timescale and is typically triggered by human activity.

Drought is one of the deadliest natural disasters in terms of loss of life. It has impacted 1.5 billion people in the last two decades, making it “the disaster affecting the second-highest number of people, after flooding.” 

Drought is typically triggered by periods of low rainfall and more intense heat. They’ve always been a part of nature but have been exacerbated by land degradation and climate change that have resulted from human activity.

Rethinking the Way We Approach Drought and Desertification

To learn more, check out the articles in this reading list we’ve compiled on all things related to drought and desertification.

Drought Around the World

Drought in Numbers 2022

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) offers a look at drought around the world and how we can plan for the future, in this report themed “restoration for readiness and resilience.”

Read it here.

The current drought is worldwide. Here’s how different places are fighting it by Celina Tebor

The world is experiencing unprecedented levels of drought. To learn about how different states in the U.S. and different countries around the world are responding, check out this piece. 

Rising temperatures, dying cattle: Iraq is reeling from climate change by Simona Foltyn

Temperatures in Iraq are rising twice as fast as the global average. Human civilization first emerged in Iraq’s wetlands some 7,000 years ago, but today that habitat is threatened by water scarcity. Many towns in this region rely on water economic activities. With no water, the economic life in these towns is dead. 

Drought in the U.S.

Will California’s New Groundwater Rules Hurt Small-Scale Farms and Farmers of Color? by Anne Marshall-Chalmers

Every year, 40-60% of California’s water supply comes from groundwater. After a long history of unregulated agricultural pumping, the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in 2014 promised to “cut groundwater withdrawal and stabilize water levels,” but critics worry that small farmers and farmers of color are not being adequately included in the planning processes surrounding the implementation of the law. Nearly 80% of farms in  California are designated as small farms, and “nearly a quarter are farmed by BIPOC, refugee, and immigrant farmers.”

Learn more here. 

A Wild, Windy Spring Is Creating a Soil Erosion Nightmare for Farmers by Virginia Gewin

“Dust storms fueled by climate change, tillage, and drought are causing the loss of tons of topsoil throughout the Great Plains.” Learn more about how farmers, experts, and policymakers are responding here. 

Amid Drought, Billionaires Control A Critical California Water Bank by Chloe Sorvino

Water is an invaluable resource, and in California that is more true now than ever. But where does our water come from? And how is it distributed? And who gets to make those decisions? 

Check out this article for an insight into the power dynamics surrounding water control in the state.   

Drought-hit Colorado River water supplies near "moment of reckoning" by Rebecca Falconer

The Colorado river, which provides drinking water to 40 million people in seven states and 30 tribal nations, is the most endangered waterway in the U.S. The nation’s two largest reservoirs - Lake Powell and Lake Mead - also live on the river and have both reached historic lows this year. 

Experts are weighing in on the actions needed to prevent a water supply crisis next year. Learn more about the crisis - and how it intersects with our food systems - here.

What does “recovery” look like?

A Growing Movement to Reclaim Water Rights for Indigenous People by Kayla Devault

“For Indigenous peoples, water goes several steps further than just providing sustenance.” In Massachusetts, the Wampanoag have fought the construction of offshore wind turbines that would hinder access to sacred sunrise practices. In California, the Winnemem Wintu’s cultural resources may be flooded out if the height of the Shasta Dam is raised. In the Pacific Northwest, the Suquamish have demanded the removal of dams that interfere with salmon migration. 

“Especially in the Southwest, tribes have had to desperately fight for their rights to the water systems their ancestors used for years, but which now come to them in the form of hard-earned “paper rights”—essentially, promises on paper that often are not kept. The point is, water is necessary, and through a combination of red tape, contamination, lack of physical or spiritual access, scarcity due to climate change, or development on ancestral and archaeological sites, tribal communities are disproportionately affected.”

This Prairie Grassland Project Collects Native Seeds by Kylie Mohr

As part of the Fort Belknap Indian Community Grassland Restoration Project – a partnership between the reservation in central Montana and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) –  young adults gather seeds from the reservation’s most sensitive plant populations. “Gathering seeds from healthy plots is the first step in restoring dry, dusty degraded land in the area, a visible mark of colonization,” and it gives the young adults involved in the project ownership over restoring the land. 

Learn more about the program here.

Prairie restoration taking root in Iowa: Conservation groups eye new solutions by Kim Norvell

Iowa has been described as “one of the most altered landscapes on the planet.” Since the last Ice Age 16,000 years ago, Iowa had been mostly covered in tall grass prairie and flowering plants called forbs. Then white settlers arrived and plowed through the land, exposing the rich, black soil. Now, nearly 90% of Iowa’s land is under crops and only 0.1% of the original prairie remains. 

The loss of the native prairie has resulted in soil erosion. Native plants grow long, deep roots that help control erosion by keeping soil in place. “It also helps absorb rainfall, providing better soil and water quality by absorbing and filtering stormwater before it enters rivers and streams, and can help prevent flooding by slowing the flow of water.”

Learn about efforts to restore Iowa’s prairies here.