Global catastrophe: factor dooming tens of millions of people to starvation named

Droughts around the world are leaving tens of millions of people starving to death, experts say in a report. Water shortages are affecting crops, energy and health care as the crisis gathers pace amid a worsening climate.

Drought is pushing tens of millions of people around the world to the brink of starvation in a global crisis that is rapidly worsening due to climate change, The Guardian reports.

More than 90 million people in eastern and southern Africa are facing acute hunger after record drought in many areas has caused widespread crop failure and livestock deaths. In Somalia, a quarter of the population is now at risk of starvation and at least a million people have been displaced.

The situation has been developing for years, The Guardian points out. Last August, a sixth of South Africa's population needed food aid. In Zimbabwe, last year's maize harvest was 70% lower than the year before, and 9,000 cattle died.

These examples are just the beginning of a growing global disaster, according to a drought report released Wednesday. In regions around the world, drought and poor water management are leading to shortages of food, energy and public health.

Mark Svoboda, founding director of the US National Drought Mitigation Center (NMDC) and co-author of the report, says: “This is not a drought. This is a slow-moving global disaster, the worst I have ever seen.”

The report, published by NMDC, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and the International Alliance for Drought Control, looks in detail at more than a dozen countries in four main regions: Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Mediterranean. Using information from governments, academic institutions and local sources, the authors were able to paint a picture of human suffering and economic devastation.

In Latin America, drought has already led to a sharp drop in water levels in the Panama Canal, halting shipping, dramatically reducing trade and increasing costs. Between October 2023 and January 2024, shipping volumes fell by more than a third.

By early 2024, Morocco had suffered six consecutive years of drought, leading to a 57 percent water deficit, The Guardian continues. In Spain, a 50 percent drop in olive production due to lack of rainfall has led to a doubling of olive oil prices, while in Turkey, land degradation has left 88 percent of the country at risk of desertification, with agricultural demand depleting aquifers.

“Mediterranean countries are the canaries in the coal mine for all modern economies,” the report says. “The struggles of Spain, Morocco and Turkey to secure water, food and energy amid persistent drought offer a glimpse of the future of water resources under unchecked global warming. No country, no matter its wealth or capabilities, can afford to be complacent.”

The study authors concluded that El Niño weather patterns over the past two years have exacerbated the underlying warming trend. “High temperatures and lack of rainfall have had severe impacts in 2023 and 2024, such as water shortages, food shortages, and power rationing,” they wrote.

The effects of the drought extend far beyond the affected countries. The report warns that the drought has disrupted production and supply chains for key crops such as rice, coffee and sugar. In 2023-24, dry conditions in Thailand and India have led to sugar shortages, sending U.S. sugar prices up 9%.

The report, published on Wednesday, follows a series of recent warnings about a global water crisis. Demand for fresh water is greater than ever, but global warming – which is changing rainfall patterns, making dry areas even drier and turning constant rain into more intense torrential rains elsewhere – and widespread water mismanagement and pollution have pushed the world to the brink.

Demand for freshwater will exceed supply by 40% by the end of this decade, and more than half of the world's food production will be at risk in the next 25 years, according to the largest report on the state of the world's water resources released last fall.

Separately, the March report highlighted “unprecedented” glacier loss, which threatens the food and water supplies of 2 billion people worldwide. Last month, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said the global area affected by drought had doubled in the past 120 years, and the cost of drought impacts had also risen sharply. The average drought in 2035 is projected to cost at least 35% more than today.

Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, a global treaty signed in 1992 to prevent the worst effects of drought, said the problem had been given too little attention. “Drought is a silent killer. It creeps up on us, depletes resources and destroys lives in slow motion,” he said. “The scars are deep.”

He added: “Drought is no longer a distant threat. It is here, it is growing, and it requires urgent global cooperation. When energy, food and water disappear simultaneously, society begins to disintegrate. This is the new normal we must prepare for.”