Long before climate change was evident, California began planning a system of canals and reservoirs to carry water from the mountains to drier farms and cities. It’s no longer enough.
Several of California’s reservoirs were at less than one-third of their capacity in early December 2021.
Martha Conklin
A Western scholar proposes allocating water from the Colorado River based on percentages of its actual flow instead of fixed amounts that exceed what’s there – and including tribes this time.
A climate measuring station in Chile’s Atacama desert.
Alexander Siegmund
This hardy desert plant lives in the hostile Atacama Desert in Chile by sucking moisture out of passing fog. As water resources become ever more scarce, humans could follow suit.
Higher temperatures cause drought, and can lead to food insecurity.
Guido Dingemans, De Eindredactie/GettyImages
Many of the temperatures presently being recorded in Africa, and those projected in the next decade, are already close to the limits of human survival, or “liveability”.
The aftermath of the 2021 earthquake in Haiti.
EPA-EFE/ORLANDO BARRIA
Collaboration can have immediate benefits in the most dire circumstances.
Each year the global temperature is 1 C above the 1951-80 average temperature, glaciers lose, on average, about 0.8 metres of water equivalent depth.
(Jeff Walllis/flickr)
Policy-makers need the courage to commit to meaningful reductions of greenhouse gas emissions if we want to avoid the widespread loss of mountain glaciers.
Tree rings can tell us about periods of drought, warmth and heavy rainfall in the past.
Rbreidbrown/Wikimedia Commons
The picture seems hopeless, but with mitigation and adaptation strategies and policies driven through COP26, southern Africa can reduce the impacts of climate change on local livelihoods.
A firefighter checks homes after a mudslide that killed 23 people in Montecito, Calif., in 2018.
Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Studies show climate change is raising the risk of cascading hazards that alone might not be extreme but add up to human disasters. Communities and government agencies aren’t prepared.
Flooding is seen in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia after the remnants of Hurricane Ida, Sept. 2, 2021.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
More than half of the world’s population lives in cities, and that share is growing. Rapid climate change could make many cities unlivable in the coming decades without major investments to adapt.
Activists hold placards during a climate change protest in Kenya.
James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
As surface water diminishes in the Western US, people are drilling deeper wells – and tapping into older groundwater that can take thousands of years to replenish naturally.
Dead animal carcasses lie outside of the village of Dambas in Kenya during a drought in 2006.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Monsoons are weather patterns that bring thunderstorms and heavy rains to hot, dry areas when warm, moist ocean air moves inland. They’re challenging to forecast, especially in a changing climate.
In some drought-stricken parts of the Southwest, water arrives by truck.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Cities and farmers in the Southwest are resorting to unsustainable strategies to pull in more water. Iran has tried many of these strategies and shows how they can go wrong.