[Anchor]
Global carbon dioxide concentrations broke records yet again last year. As global warming accelerates, a research study has revealed that severe heatwaves and droughts in Western Eurasia, a major global breadbasket region, have already reached an irreversible level.
This is the Signal climate change special series, reported by Seo Donggyun.
[Reporter]
The vast grassland of the Western Eurasian steppe.
Three countries located in this region—Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan—produce 15 percent of the world's wheat.
Among them, Kazakhstan's wheat production in 2023 dropped by 25 percent compared to the previous year. The European Commission's Joint Research Centre pointed to summer heatwaves and droughts as the main culprits hindering wheat growth and grain formation.
What is happening in this region?
A research team from Seoul National University analyzed data spanning 124 years from 1901 using a drought index based on precipitation and temperature.
On the screen, the darker the brown color, the drier the conditions, and the Western Eurasian region shows deep shades of brown.
The drought index graph, which had been relatively stable, plummets sharply entering the 2000s.
Heatwaves and droughts have suddenly intensified.
Let us look at the causes.
When soil has sufficient moisture, water evaporates, absorbing heat and suppressing surrounding temperature rises.
Conversely, in hot and dry weather, this cooling effect weakens, causing temperatures to climb even higher.
As temperatures rise this way, moisture disappears faster, trapping the region in a vicious cycle where heatwaves are further amplified.
[Kuk Jong-seong / Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University : The speed of change is rapidly accelerating, and regarding a tipping point from which there is no return, it seems that the Eurasian steppe region has crossed that tipping point.]
Under extremely dry climates, plants struggle to grow properly, inevitably leading to a decline in crop production.
Some research findings suggest that production could plummet by up to 40 percent.
The research team pointed out that such climate change could pose a new food security threat to South Korea, where the grain self-sufficiency rate stands at a mere 20 percent.
(Reported by Joo Yong-jin | Video edited by So Ji-hye | Design by Kim Yeji and Byun Dayoung)
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