Based on 22 years of satellite observations, an international research team concluded that Earth’s continents have suffered an unprecedented loss of freshwater since 2002 due to climate change, overuse of groundwater, and extreme droughts. Dry terrestrial areas are expanding by an area twice the size of California every year. The US survey highlighted four “mega-drying” regions, all in the Northern Hemisphere: southwestern North America and Central America; Alaska and northern Canada; northern Russia; and Pan-Eurasia, the Middle East, and North Africa, which includes major cities in Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran, food-producing regions such as Ukraine, and metropolises in Spain, France, Germany, and China. In 2014 and 2015, drying regions shifted from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere, while wet regions moved in the opposite direction (Science Advances, July 25).
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