Global warming is wreaking havoc on the planet’s water cycle

Record temperatures are over The year has pushed the global water cycle to “new climate extremes,” according to Global Water Monitor 2024 Report. The document, produced by an international consortium led by Australian National University researchers, says these climatic anomalies have caused devastating floods and droughts that have killed more than 8,700 people, displaced 40 million people and caused more than $550 billion in economic losses.

The report was conducted by an international team and led by ANU Professor Albert van Dyk. It reveals that 2024 was warmest year For nearly 4 billion people in 111 countries so far, and Earth’s surface air temperature is 1.2°C higher than recorded at the turn of the century and 2.2°C higher than at the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Van Dyck claimed that water systems around the world were affected. “From historic droughts to catastrophic floods, these severe climate changes affect lives, livelihoods and entire ecosystems. Water is our most important resource, and its extreme state is among the greatest threats we face,” he said.

The report’s authors analyzed data from thousands of ground and satellite stations that collect near-real-time information on critical water variables, including rainfall intensity and frequency, soil moisture and flooding.

“We have seen rainfall records being broken on a regular basis. For example, record-high monthly precipitation was achieved 27 percent more frequently in 2024 than at the beginning of this century, while daily precipitation records were achieved 52 percent more frequently. Record lows were 38 percent more frequent, so we’re seeing worse extremes on both sides,” Van Dyk said.

As a result, sea-surface temperatures have risen, intensifying tropical cyclones and droughts in the Amazon basin and southern Africa, the study says. Global warming has favored slower storm formation in Europe, Asia and Brazil, causing some areas—such as Valencia, Spain—to experience extremely high levels of rain. Massive flash floods have occurred in Afghanistan and Pakistan, while rising water levels in the Yangtze and Pearl rivers in southern China have damaged rice crops.

“In Bangladesh, heavy monsoon rains and dam releases have affected more than 5.8 million people and wiped out at least 1 million tons of rice. In the Amazon basin, forest fire The hot, dry weather caused more than 52,000 square kilometers to be destroyed in September alone, releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases,” Van Dyck said.

Changes in the water cycle have exacerbated food shortages, damaged shipping routes and disrupted hydropower generation in some regions, the study added. “We must prepare for and adapt to the inevitable more severe extreme events. This could mean adopting stronger flood defences, developing new food production systems and creating more drought-resistant water supply networks,” suggests van Dyk.

World leaders have pledged to implement measures and policies to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century, but the World Meteorological Organization has noted that current efforts are insufficient. The WMO estimates that there is an 80 percent chance that average global temperatures will exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in at least one of the next five years. The estimate suggests that humanity is far from meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and raises new concerns about the progress of climate change.

Securing financial resources is another challenge. The United Nations Environment Program estimates that the funding gap for climate change adaptation is $194 billion to $366 billion annually.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “we are teetering on a planetary tightrope. Either leaders close the emissions gap or we are headed for climate catastrophe, with the poorest and most vulnerable suffering the most. The countdown to action has begun.”

This story originally appeared Wired in Spanish and translated from the Spanish.