Aridity has been consistently growing in the Mediterranean and southern Europe, but if the global temperature rise reaches two degrees Celsius, from one degree today, that will greatly aggravate the situation.
This is one of the conclusions of a report by a team of researchers led by Dr. Manoj Joshi from East Anglia University, UK, just published in the periodical Nature Climate Change.
The report stressed that it is crucial to keep global warming below 1.5C, as that would dramatically reduce the area of the earth’s surface that is hit by aridification. A greater temperature rise would threaten Greece and regional countries with an increased number of wildfires.
The report projects that up to 30 percent of the world will experience substantially greater aridity if the global temperature rises to 2C.
According to the report, if the global temperature rise is kept below 1.5C, the areas that will benefit most are southern Europe, Southeast Asia, South Africa, Central America, and Southern Australia, which all together account for 20 percent of the global population.
