Drought is a problem that affects nearly every area around the world in a different way. While on the surface droughts seem simple and straightforward, their causes and effects have huge variations in magnitude and scale. Because of this, even defining the word drought can be hard, and this causes many people to have misconceptions about what a drought really is. In this post, we will be tackling what exactly droughts are, and how they can affect not only us but the environment around us.
Defining "Drought"
Before one can begin to think of the effects of a drought, it is important to first understand what exactly a drought is. Most people consider a drought to be: "a period of dry weather, especially a long one that is injurious to crops" (dictionary.com). However, this is not all-encompassing. Depending on location, its effect and how long it lasts for, droughts can be classified as many different things. In fact, there are over 150 different definitions of a drought. Luckily, scientists have streamlined these definitions into four major categories. These are:
(thanks to livescience.com for providing the info. used in this section)
Agricultural droughts: this drought refers to a lack of water in relation to how much water is needed for crops of any kind to successfully germinate. If there is not enough rain in a specific season to cause a crop to germinate, it is considered an agricultural drought.
Socioeconomic droughts: socioeconomic droughts are related to supply and demand. When the human demand for water exceeds what is supplied through natural rain, then it is considered a socioeconomic drought. This can be caused by anything from too much irrigation to not having enough water for hydroelectric power plants.
Meteorological droughts: these droughts are what most people consider to be the "normal" drought. They are thought of as when an area does not receive the normal amount of rainfall in a specific season that it usually does. While one area may have a drought when receiving only four inches of rain, another may have one while receiving ten. It all depends on the average amount of rainfall in a specific area.
Hydrological droughts: hydrological droughts refer to low water volumes in rivers, streams, or reservoirs. Many different human activities can cause this.
What causes droughts?
So now that we have a good idea of exactly what a drought is, what causes them? There are many different causes of droughts (obviously!) that are both natural and human-caused. While it is debated how much of an effect human practices have in droughts, they do play a role in whether we have them or not. Let's take a look at what these causes are.
The simplest cause of drought is rain deficiency. This is essentially when less rain falls than expected, resulting in a a lack of water that humans, plants, and animals can use. This is the largest natural causes of droughts, and can happen strictly because of weather patterns. However, human activities can also play a role in how much rain we get. Activities like deforestation, construction, and agriculture all have an effect on how much rain an area can receive. They change the natural water cycle in a specific ecosystem.
When deforestation occurs (you can learn more about deforestation here) it prevents trees from limiting evaporation, storing water, and attracting rainfall. Additionally, without trees, soil begins to lose its ability to absorb water, which can cause desertification. While this may not sound too bad, deforestation also upsets the natural water cycle in our communities, and this can have dangerous consequences, as we have seen in recent droughts in California and other areas. Also, construction and agricultural practices can reduce the over all quantity of usable water, resulting in possible droughts.
Finally, one of the other major causes of droughts is Climate Change (which you can learn more about here). As the level of heat in our Earth rises, the amount of evaporation also rises, resulting in less water being absorbed into the ground, and thus more droughts begin to happen. As is the case with many environmental problems, when we begin to solve one, another one may be solved simultaneously.
Effects of droughts
The all important question: why should I care about droughts? While many think that a drought may only have small effects, their reach and scale can be quite menacing. They not only have effects on us, but devastating consequences on the environment as well. As we all know, water is the essential source of life for nearly every organism on this planet. As such, when there is not enough to go around, everything and everyone suffers.
The effects of droughts can be classified into three major categories: Environmental, Economic, and Social.
Environmental: many plants and animals are affected by drought
Soil quality is reduced because microorganisms die off.
Plants and other vegetation die off.
Lakes, rivers, ponds, creeks, streams, and lagoons all dry out, destroying natural habitats.
Animals are forced to migrate out of their natural habitats to find water.
Economic: droughts can even effect our economies.
Farmers are forced to spend more money to maintain their crop harvests.
Even though they spend more, many harvests fail because of lack of water.
Governments are forced to spend more money to support farmers throughout these droughts.
Businesses and industries lose millions of dollars when their resources cannot be purchased by farmers.
Communities that live off of hydro power are forced to pay more for their electricity.
Social: finally, droughts can have a huge effect on how we feel.
Waterborne diseases become more common, due to a lack of water and water quality.
Hunger, anemia, malnutrition, and even death increase in areas of droughts due to low food production.
People are forced to migrate to locations with more water, often leaving behind their entire lives.
Less water also causes in an increase in overall stress and anxiety.
Conclusion
So, it is clear that droughts are not a type of problem that should be taken lightly. They can destroy livelihoods, and even entire areas. They affect our mood, economy, and the environment around us. What's worse: these droughts would not nearly be as bad if humans did not contribute to them. It is our job as individuals to make sure that we contribute as little as possible to this problem, and that we do whatever we can to stop it. Unfortunately, I do not have space or time to talk about solutions to droughts in this post. If you would like to learn about what you can do to help stop these droughts in your own home, look to my next post as I will be discussing some solutions individuals can use to help stop droughts. Thanks for reading.
All credit for information used in this post goes to:
http://www.eartheclipse.com/natural-disaster/causes-and-effects-of-drought.html
http://www.livescience.com/21469-drought-definition.html
https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-droughts
Images:
https://www.reference.com/science/causes-drought-8e788bd462e654ff
http://grist.org/climate-energy/this-was-an-epic-year-for-droughts-floods-and-extreme-weather/
http://blog.ucsusa.org/margaret-mellon/coping-with-drought-how-to-build-a-more-resilient-agricultural-system
https://poojaverma1.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/drought/comment-page-1/#comment-76
http://www.ncdrought.org/education.php
https://mods.curse.com/mc-mods/minecraft/230763-no-rain
https://pmm.nasa.gov/education/water-cycle
http://storiented.blogspot.com/2013/09/dealing-with-drought-how-do-plants-cope.html
http://newamericamedia.org/2014/01/drought-brings-hard-times-to-california-ethnic-farmers.php
https://listaka.com/top-10-diseases-caused-by-water/
http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/05/19/51822/drought-the-psychology-of-why-some-people-aren-t-s/
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