Article Summary
Drought has seriously affected both human society and the natural world. There are estimations that drought usually increases when there are cases of climate changing globally. As a result, evaluating the risks of occurrence of drought due to global climate change is a vital area of conducting climate research. Recommendations have been made that the increase in the average temperatures globally needs to be controlled to a range of 1.5 °C to 2 °C beyond the levels that are pre-industrial, as a way of reducing the effects of adverse climate change. However, various studies have focused on how relatively significant the average temperature rise of 0.5 °C globally is and the nature of effect it might have on drought and aridity across the globe. Due to this, the article aimed at contributing to the understanding of the importance of 0.5°C.
The study in the article showed that a warming of 2 °C led to more severe aridity and more regular years that are dry in most of the regions across the world in comparison to 1.5 °C. This indicates that several parts of the globe might experience more drought frequently at a warming of 2 °C than at 1.5 °C, with some regions experiencing a severe impact. These findings demonstrate that there is a need for making efforts toward reducing warming to 1.5 °C beyond the pre-industrial levels. It is essential to consider how 0.5 °C of warming has regional effects, particularly regarding any relaxation of the target of 1.5 °C in the future.
Work Cited
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo. “0.5°C of additional warming has a huge effect on global aridity.” ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200917105348.htm