Caspian Sea loss puts Asian water supplies at risk
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UNCCD Library
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news article
The Caspian Sea’s decline means a climate-led water crisis for at least five Asian nations as inland seas dry up.
LONDON, 7 January, 2021 − The Caspian Sea − the world’s largest lake − is about to go down in the world. And with it could go the fortunes of some of the people of at least five nations. New research suggests that the Caspian Sea, already getting lower at the rate of several centimetres a year, is to go into even faster decline: later this century, it could be nine metres lower than it is now. Or even 18 metres lower.
In the paradoxical world of climate change, sea levels will rise to threaten coastal settlements, but many of the great inland lakes could be doomed to dwindle.
Dutch and German scientists report in the journal Communications Earth & Environment that because more water will evaporate each summer, and less ice will form each winter, the area of the Caspian − it covers 371,000 square kilometres, an area greater than Japan, or Germany − is doomed to shrink at an accelerating rate.
Lakeside communities, ports and industries in Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, all of which border the Caspian, could be left high and dry.
Change required
“If the North Sea were to drop two or three metres, access to ports like Rotterdam, Hamburg and London would be impeded. Fishing boats and container giants alike would struggle, and all the countries of the North Sea would have a huge problem,” said Frank Wesselingh, of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, one of the authors. “Here we are talking about a decrease of no less than nine metres, in the best case scenario.”
His co-author Matthias Prange of the University of Bremen in Germany warned that what happens to the Caspian could and will happen to the great land-locked lakes on other continents. “This has to change. We need more studies and a better understanding of the consequences of global warming in this region.”
This is not the first such warning: although much of the world’s concern has been with the dramatic loss of water from the Aral Sea, researchers have worried about the impact of evaporation on the Caspian too. It may be salty, but it is one of the world’s great inland reservoirs of water for industry, agriculture and human settlement.
It is also host to a vast range of species, including the Caspian seal, an endangered creature that depends on winter ice to protect and rear its pups. Its shallow waters provide food for migrating birds, and serve as spawning grounds for its fish, including the sturgeon endemic to the region.......
Read further from the link above
LONDON, 7 January, 2021 − The Caspian Sea − the world’s largest lake − is about to go down in the world. And with it could go the fortunes of some of the people of at least five nations. New research suggests that the Caspian Sea, already getting lower at the rate of several centimetres a year, is to go into even faster decline: later this century, it could be nine metres lower than it is now. Or even 18 metres lower.
In the paradoxical world of climate change, sea levels will rise to threaten coastal settlements, but many of the great inland lakes could be doomed to dwindle.
Dutch and German scientists report in the journal Communications Earth & Environment that because more water will evaporate each summer, and less ice will form each winter, the area of the Caspian − it covers 371,000 square kilometres, an area greater than Japan, or Germany − is doomed to shrink at an accelerating rate.
Lakeside communities, ports and industries in Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, all of which border the Caspian, could be left high and dry.
Change required
“If the North Sea were to drop two or three metres, access to ports like Rotterdam, Hamburg and London would be impeded. Fishing boats and container giants alike would struggle, and all the countries of the North Sea would have a huge problem,” said Frank Wesselingh, of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, one of the authors. “Here we are talking about a decrease of no less than nine metres, in the best case scenario.”
His co-author Matthias Prange of the University of Bremen in Germany warned that what happens to the Caspian could and will happen to the great land-locked lakes on other continents. “This has to change. We need more studies and a better understanding of the consequences of global warming in this region.”
This is not the first such warning: although much of the world’s concern has been with the dramatic loss of water from the Aral Sea, researchers have worried about the impact of evaporation on the Caspian too. It may be salty, but it is one of the world’s great inland reservoirs of water for industry, agriculture and human settlement.
It is also host to a vast range of species, including the Caspian seal, an endangered creature that depends on winter ice to protect and rear its pups. Its shallow waters provide food for migrating birds, and serve as spawning grounds for its fish, including the sturgeon endemic to the region.......
Read further from the link above
Keywords
environmental crisis
global warming
climate change
water scarcity
water management