Dear MEL Topic Readers,
The world’s largest lakes are shrinking dramatically, and scientists say they have figured out why
Lakes and reservoirs play a vital role in our lives as they hold almost 90% of the surface freshwater for drinking, irrigation, and power generation. A recent study of the world’s 2,000 largest lakes and reservoirs, the total of which holds around 95% of freshwater storage, in the last three decades found that over half of them have lost substantial amounts of water. The report suggests that the majority of the water loss in natural lakes seems to have been caused by human activities and climate change. The amount of water in lakes and reservoirs changes by several factors like temperature, precipitation, runoff, evaporation, and human use. For example, the warmer the temperature is, the more water evaporates. Also, when ice sheets melt, water beneath the ice sheets is exposed to the air and evaporates. As the world’s population has increased by nearly 2.5 billion in the last three decades and is expected to add another two billion in the next decades while global warming is accelerating, we may have severe water shortages in many parts of the world while experiencing storms and floods in low-lying areas. Will humans take preventive actions to secure enough water or wait to be awakened by severer droughts?
Enjoy reading the article and learning about how volatile the freshwater reserve is in the world.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/18/world/disappearing-lakes-reservoirs-water-climate-intl/index.html
The world’s largest lakes are shrinking dramatically, and scientists say they have figured out why
Lakes and reservoirs play a vital role in our lives as they hold almost 90% of the surface freshwater for drinking, irrigation, and power generation. A recent study of the world’s 2,000 largest lakes and reservoirs, the total of which holds around 95% of freshwater storage, in the last three decades found that over half of them have lost substantial amounts of water. The report suggests that the majority of the water loss in natural lakes seems to have been caused by human activities and climate change. The amount of water in lakes and reservoirs changes by several factors like temperature, precipitation, runoff, evaporation, and human use. For example, the warmer the temperature is, the more water evaporates. Also, when ice sheets melt, water beneath the ice sheets is exposed to the air and evaporates. As the world’s population has increased by nearly 2.5 billion in the last three decades and is expected to add another two billion in the next decades while global warming is accelerating, we may have severe water shortages in many parts of the world while experiencing storms and floods in low-lying areas. Will humans take preventive actions to secure enough water or wait to be awakened by severer droughts?
Enjoy reading the article and learning about how volatile the freshwater reserve is in the world.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/18/world/disappearing-lakes-reservoirs-water-climate-intl/index.html
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