Warming for each additional degree takes away the Earth’s water resources: what it can lead to
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Due to the climate crisis, the snow cover in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere has decreased significantly over the past 40 years. Scientists say the trend of diminishing water resources is putting millions of people at risk.
This is stated in a study by Dartmouth College scientists, published in the journal Nature, writes CNN.
Scientists note that due to global warming, areas in the southwest and northeast of the United States, as well as in Central and Eastern Europe, received several times less snow than before. According to their calculations, it is about 10-20% per decade.
“It is quite obvious that climate change has a negative effect on snow and water. And each additional degree of warming will take more and more of the snow water resources“, said the author of the study Oleksandr Gottlieb.
| Photo: bennymarty/Depositphotos |
The researchers found that snowpack loss accelerates when the average winter temperature rises above -8°C. The melting of snow is also affected by a moderate increase in temperature.
Climate change will also cause many problems in densely populated areas that depend on snow as a source of drinking water. And due to the lack of snow, the water basins of many lakes and rivers already have a lower level than normal.
Snow also helps prevent wildfires or can reduce their intensity. Unlike rain, which runs off quickly, snow melts slowly and can provide long-term release of water into the soil.
The decrease in the amount of snow will also affect business – winter recreation may become unavailable in the near future. In some places, the temperature is approaching such indicators that it will be impossible to maintain the activity of the resorts even with artificial snow.
It will be recalled that earlier scientists found a chain of underwater volcanoes in the Southern Ocean. They suggest that these underwater volcanoes may be influencing the melting of Antarctica.
Other researchers speculate that an unusually hot core may be causing certain glaciers to melt.
Therefore, environmentalists sound the alarm, because due to the loss of snow and ice, more than 20% of freshwater fish in the world are under threat of extinction.
Read also: 2023 became the hottest year in the entire history of observations – UN
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