Continents have lost so much water since 2002 that they have surpassed ice sheets as the biggest contributor to global sea level rise, a new study reveals.
Almost 70% of this loss is due to unchecked groundwater extraction, which removes water from deep aquifers and eventually transfers it to the ocean, researchers found. Together with rising rates of evaporation due to climate change, this has caused rapidly drying “hotspots” to merge into four “mega-drying” regions, the scientists said.
“There’s very few places now that are not drying,” study co-author Jay Famiglietti, a professor in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, told Live Science. “I’ve been watching it for 20 years, and it’s just gotten worse, and worse, and worse.”
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