Suggest why droughts have severe impacts on people and the environment.

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Suggest why droughts have severe impacts on people and the environment.

        A drought is a meteorological hazard, caused by a prolonged period, receiving below average levels of precipitation, than is usual in that place at that time. Droughts are often hard to predict, which can result in the effects being more severe. Droughts can reduce agricultural production, sometimes destroying crops; they can also cause severe harm to humans. When the rain returns it may take some time for water levels to get back to normal, which means that drought conditions can continue despite the rain, a bad drought may last several years and make the land completely infertile.

        In depth, there are several causes of droughts; some happen together, others take place alone; however all result in a drought, no matter how severe. One of the causes of a drought is a change in the jet stream, the normal pattern, which occurs throughout the year, is disrupted and causes unusual weather, these results in certain areas receiving less or more precipitation than they usually would at that time in the year. A second cause is unusual high pressures in the atmosphere; moisture evaporates due to warm air rising, this causes less clouds to be made, which then can’t hold much rain due to the smaller number of them, this leads to lack of precipitation. Another cause is the change in ocean currents, this links with climatic disturbances and trade winds, which are caused, by El Nino and La Nino, changing temperatures across the world, these commonly occur in California, Australia, Chile and Indonesia. Yet another cause of drought can be due to the low levels of moist oceanic air found in mid-continental areas, this is basically down to the distance of the location from the ocean, an example of this is the Gobi Desert. Another cause of drought is when prevailing winds travel across the continent, moving dry air towards the coast, making them drier than expected, because the air is coming from interior the coast. The final cause of droughts, is down to the human race, and their lifestyle demand for extra water to fulfil their needs, this puts extra pressure on supplies.

        The great Drought of China during 1876-1879 was one of the deadliest droughts in the worlds recorded history; no food at all could be grown on 386,000 square miles of farmland across nine provinces of northern China. Rivers were dry, so most crops and livestock died. An estimated nine million people died. Within 3 years the harvest failures resulted in an increase of the price of rice to 5-10 times that in a normal year, the total population of the affected areas or North China decreased by more than 20 million due to deaths and migration. Related investigations have shown hat the drought was linked with a strong case of El Nino. In the USA during the 1930’s there was also a large episode of drought, the drought came in three waves, 1934, 1936, and 1939-40, but some regions of the High Plains experienced drought conditions for as many as eight years. It affected 150,000 square mils of the Great Plains. Farmers overworking their land, removing the grasses that held the soil in place, caused the ‘dust bowl’ effect. As the land dried out, the soil blew away creating violent dust storms. It triggered the largest migration in the nations history putting 2.5 million people on the move as farming family were forced to abandon their land. A third example of a major drought is that in England between the years 1276-1305.  It first began in 1276 with a very hot, dry summer. Food prices increased and in some years farmers could not produce any hay. The summers of 1289 and 1294 however were unusually wet this led to many animals dying from starvation in 1305.

        When a drought occurs in any location, the environment is always affected, in some way. Environmental losses are the result of damages to animals, plants, wildlife habitats and overall land quality. There can be direct and indirect effects caused by drought, for example the lack of water will mean that crops will die, this is the direct effect had. Because of the lack of crop production, a famine can be caused, and people will die due to the lack of food, which is able to grow, this is an indirect effect it could cause. The damage drought cause to animals, is major, animals rely on certain sources of water to keep them alive. The increased desertification has major damage on the many different animal species, livestock numbers will decrease due to the decrease in water available and the increase in water cost, so their owners cannot afford to provide them with water. Other animals, living in the wild will die, also due to the lack of availability of water, this result in high livestock mortality rates. An example of animals affected by drought, is frogs, as they need water to lay their eggs in, and then for the tadpoles to survive in as they develop. As many creeks, rivers and wetlands dry up, certain species may not breed during the effected time zone of the drought, leading to a disruption of the reproductive cycles, this is a direct impact drought creates. Another case is the reduction of the population count of fish and other aquatic organisms due to the decreased flows, another cause for the death of living things in the water, in earlier stages of the drought, the fish and other water organisms, could migrate from one area to another where more water is found. This would result in a higher population of living things in a certain space; this causes issues, as there will be competition for food and space. This is also the case for land and air animals, the migration and then concentration creates loss of wildlife in some areas which can lead to the loss of biodiversity, and too many animals in other areas.  Either scenario, too many or too little, causes problems for other animals both meat and vegetation eaters. In areas of a high count of biodiversity, the animals which rely on plants are their source of nutrients, will face competition as many others will also be relying on the same thing. In areas, which have suffered the loss of animals due to migration, those who eat meat, such as birds of prey will suffer, as many of the animals, which they would eat such as mice, will have moved elsewhere. When animals face death due to lack of water, this is a direct effect of drought, then they migrate elsewhere and when other animals suffer threat of death, are both indirect effects as they occur due to the lack of water in the first place.

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Another cause of death in animals is when they venture onto farmland, to eat the crops, however farmers become less and less intolerant with intrusion, and will kill the animals. Consequent to the deaths, the spread of disease is large, and results in many other deaths, some carcases dry out due to the intense heat before they have a chance to decay. Not only do the Insect infestations can also occur, due to rotting animals and also the rotting crops. Diseases occur in plants, which are suffering from drought, because of the hot days and cold nights, dew forms on ...

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