Earth’s lands are drying out. Nations are trying to address it in talks this week

Associated Press

More than three-quarters of the land on Earth is permanently drying, primarily due to climate change, according to a report released Monday at a United Nations summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Nations at the conference on combating desertification — the process of once-fertile lands turning arid because of hotter temperatures, lack of water and deforestation — are discussing whether there should be a legally binding framework to protect the world’s lands from drying out. The report said nearly five billion people will be impacted by drying land, which leads to agricultural, water and biodiversity loss, by the end of the century.