Almost 216 million people to migrate by 2050 due to drought
Date
11/29/2023 7:51:00 AM
(MENAFN) According to projections, approximately 216 million individuals worldwide are expected to be compelled to migrate by 2050 due to drought-related factors such as water scarcity, rising sea levels, crop failures, and excessive population growth.
Experts highlight that the regions that are most severely impacted will be the Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Middle East, where meteorological models indicate a 30 percent reduction in precipitation.
The Drought in Numbers 2022 report, issued by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in May of the preceding year, disclosed that around 55 million people globally are directly impacted by droughts annually.
From 2000 to 2019, over 1.4 billion people experienced the effects of drought, making it the second-most impactful disaster after flooding, as per the report.
“More than 10 million people died due to major drought events in the past century, causing several hundred billion US dollars in economic losses worldwide. And the numbers are rising,” the report mentioned.
If the projected scenario of global warming reaching three degrees Celsius by 2100 materializes, as some forecasts suggest, drought losses could surge to five times their current levels. The most significant rise is anticipated in the Mediterranean and Atlantic regions of Europe, according to the report.
To mitigate the impact of drought, Hasan Tatli, the head of the Geography Department at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, emphasized the imperative for all countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, underlining the necessity for concerted efforts to achieve recovery in the realm of drought management.
“If you surpass a certain threshold, even if you later zero out emissions, you cannot prevent climate change. The majority of scientists agree that we have already passed that stage,” Tatli cautioned.
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