Richard Tafoya
Jun 5th, 2006, 11:31 AM
AP:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2039766&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
Desert areas make up almost one quarter of the Earth's surface, or 13 million square miles, and are home to some 500 million people, more than previously thought.
Most of the 12 desert regions whose future climate was studied face a drier future, the report said. Experts predicted that rainfall would fall by as much as 20 percent by the end of the century due to human-induced climate change.
Compounding the threat is the melting of glaciers. A large fraction of water used for agricultural and domestic purposes in deserts in the southwestern United States, Central Asia and South America come from rivers that originate in glaciers and snow-covered mountains, the report said.
The glaciers on the Tibetan plateau, for example, may decline by as much as 80 percent by the end of the century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists advising the United Nations.
"When the glaciers disappear, you are in serious trouble," said Andrew Warren, one of the report's authors and a professor of geography at University College London.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2039766&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
Desert areas make up almost one quarter of the Earth's surface, or 13 million square miles, and are home to some 500 million people, more than previously thought.
Most of the 12 desert regions whose future climate was studied face a drier future, the report said. Experts predicted that rainfall would fall by as much as 20 percent by the end of the century due to human-induced climate change.
Compounding the threat is the melting of glaciers. A large fraction of water used for agricultural and domestic purposes in deserts in the southwestern United States, Central Asia and South America come from rivers that originate in glaciers and snow-covered mountains, the report said.
The glaciers on the Tibetan plateau, for example, may decline by as much as 80 percent by the end of the century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists advising the United Nations.
"When the glaciers disappear, you are in serious trouble," said Andrew Warren, one of the report's authors and a professor of geography at University College London.