The Watershed Death Spiral - How Humans are Killing Our Planet and Creating Climate Change
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- čas přidán 30. 05. 2023
- Human activity has disturbed the Full Water Cycle, resulting in the increasingly common and severe Flood, Drought, and Fire we are experiencing; as well as rising global temperatures and extreme climate. Join the Water Stories community to learn how we got here, how to solve these issues, and for more stories, films, community, and animations of water cycle restoration.
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The Destruction of Earth’s Hydrology
The desecration of Earth’s organs was not intentional, but rather the product of unintended consequences as civilization advanced. Forests were clear-cut, wetlands drained, and vast landscapes plowed. Rivers and waterways were dredged to make passage for boats and transport; in the process lowering the water level of the whole landscape. Levies were built and waterways disconnected from their floodplains, no longer able to deliver moisture and fertility seasonally to the surrounding lands. Hard surfaces (roads and buildings) and degraded, exposed soils severely reduced infiltration, creating even more runoff. Then, as water sources went dry, extracting groundwater - the last remaining reserves of fresh water. Earth’s landscapes were transformed from rich forests and expansive wetlands to the wastelands and deserts we see today.
The Costs and Consequences
Without space to go, the water rushes quickly downstream, resulting in flooding and erosion. Even more tragically, the life-giving force of water never has a chance to infiltrate into the earth. The landscape now quickly runs out of water, photosynthetic cooling stops, and droughts become severe. Columns of hot air rise off the bare earth, resulting in rising temperatures and high pressure heat domes. The heat domes resist the inflow of cool moist air from the coast and cause the pressure to build. Eventually the storm is powerful enough to overcome, and its force is destructive. The parched landscape is unable to absorb the intense downpour. Crops begin to fail, stress and competition increase, and wildlife populations dwindle. Eventually desert is all that remains from once fertile land.
Impact on Climate
The resulting impact on Earth’s climate is catastrophic; stronger, more severe storms, with longer periods of drought in between. The water vapor in the atmosphere, that would have previously fallen in the evening as rain, instead forms a warming haze, preventing heat from dissipating into the night sky. Temperatures rise as the impacts intensify, leading to long term drought and water scarcity. Under the stress of the extended drought, the landscapes are unable to resist fire. There is nothing “natural” about the disasters we are experiencing, they are the direct result of previous water management.
Impact on Planetary Health
What is the result for the health of our planet? The water tables sink, making water increasingly scarce and reducing quality. Springs and creeks go dry, and the rivers and waterways begin to die. Huge landscapes burn, as rich land is transformed to desert. Temperatures rise and the climate becomes increasingly extreme and erratic.
Feedback Loop
The Watershed Death Spiral is a feedback loop, the drier landscapes become, the less life they support. The lifeless landscapes are unable to effectively regulate temperature and humidity. As a result the biome desertifies - making life harder for all of Earth’s inhabitants.
These effects and impacts build on one another, the further down the spiral we go the harder it becomes to reverse. But there is another feedback loop, working to rehydrate the lands and restore the waters, that we can move towards - The Revived Water Cycle.
Thank you for this! It's the flat out best I've seen for describing the problem.
And...
You should really add a link or card to your animation of how the water cycle is supposed to work. This way is effective, but it leaves the viewer in a hopeless and disempowered state. We all need to understand that bringing things back is do-able. Also how to help. A few links added to the description would really be a positive. They also might help with the algorithm. 😀🌲
I definitely want this thing to go viral!
Thank you for nailing the physics involved, but not one mention of the corporations driving the clearcutting and irrigation etc., unrestrained by any government. Another minute of solutions would have gone down well. Even just banning clearcutting would return billions of tonnes of fresh water safely to British Columbia's landscapes alone.
We can turn this around.
Absolutely, that's what www.WaterStories.com is all about!
I'm permaculture designer from Poland. I would love to add my voice over this video in my country language so we could reach more people with this. Any suggestions for cooperation?
How do carbon emissions leading to global warming fit into all of this ? Does it have an acceleration effect ? Or is actually the degradation of the small water cycle(s) the main cause for droughts, flooding and fires ?
I always read in reports that climate change was disrupting the water cycle but looking at this I understand that water cycle disruption is causing change in climate and extreme weather events...
Are we allowed to translate this into other languages please?
All bornagain climate hysterics must unite, we must build the earth back better again.
Many of these issues are real of course: deforestation affects the water cycle and soil erosion, and impermeable land and urban surfaces also add to flooding. Unfortunately though this video (and the solutions one at czcams.com/video/WxKIQs-t-o0/video.html) came across as vague and unscientific. If I knew professional hydrologists were involved I'd find it more credible.
Increasing distributed water retention is important to adapt to increasingly erratic and intense precipitation, but to say it can 'heal planet earth and resolve the climate crisis' is surely a vast overstatement. The main resolution to the climate crisis is an end to moving fossil carbon to air and water.