Fresh water is disappearing at an alarming rate around the world.

▲ Continents have experienced a loss of vital water since 2022, driven by climate change, unsustainable groundwater use, and extreme droughts. Photo: Sophia Franz

Europa Press

La Jornada Newspaper, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, p. 6

Madrid. The Earth's continents have experienced unprecedented freshwater loss since 2002, driven by climate change, unsustainable groundwater use, and extreme droughts.

This is revealed by new findings obtained from a study of more than two decades of satellite observations, conducted by a team led by Arizona State University (ASU) and published in Science Advances .

The emergence of four continental-scale megadrought regions is highlighted, all located in the Northern Hemisphere (southwest North America and Central America, Alaska and northern Canada, northern Russia, and the Middle East and North Africa), and warnings of serious consequences for water security, agriculture, sea level rise, and global stability.

The research team reports that dryland areas are expanding at a rate roughly twice the size of California each year. Furthermore, the rate at which dryland areas are becoming drier now exceeds the rate at which wetland areas are becoming wetter, reversing traditional hydrologic patterns.

The negative implications of this for available freshwater are staggering. Of the world's population, 75 percent live in 101 countries that have been losing freshwater for the past 22 years. According to the United Nations, the world's population is projected to continue growing over the next 50 to 60 years, while the availability of freshwater declines dramatically.

Researchers identified the type of water loss on land and, for the first time, found that 68 percent came from groundwater alone, contributing more to sea level rise than the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets combined.

These findings convey perhaps the most alarming message to date about the impact of climate change on our water resources , said Jay Famiglietti, the study's principal investigator and a professor of Global Futures in ASU's School of Sustainability, in a statement.

Researchers evaluated more than two decades of data from the U.S.-German Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE-Follow On (GRACE-FO) missions, analyzing how and why Earth's water storage has changed since 2002.

Terrestrial water storage includes all of the planet's surface and plant water, soil moisture, ice, snow, and groundwater stored in the Earth.

“It’s staggering how much nonrenewable water we’re losing ,” said Hrishikesh A. Chandanpurkar, the study’s lead author and an ASU researcher. “Glaciers and deep groundwater are like ancient trust funds. Instead of using them only in times of need, like prolonged drought, we take them for granted. We’re also not trying to replenish groundwater systems during wet years, leading us to an impending freshwater crisis .”

Turning point

The study identified what appears to be a turning point around 2014-2015, during a period considered “mega El Niño years.” Climate extremes began to accelerate, and in response, groundwater use increased and continental desiccation outpaced the melting rates of glaciers and ice sheets.

The study also revealed a previously unreported shift: after 2014, dry regions shifted from being primarily located in the Southern Hemisphere to being primarily in the Northern Hemisphere, and vice versa for humid regions.

One of the main factors contributing to continental desiccation is the increase in extreme droughts in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, for example, in Europe. Furthermore, in Canada and Russia, the melting of snow, ice, and permafrost has increased over the past decade, and the continued depletion of groundwater worldwide is a major factor.

The study showed that, since 2002, only the tropics have continued to increase in average humidity relative to latitude, something not predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's climate models, sophisticated computer programs used to project future climate scenarios. Continuous records are crucial for understanding long-term changes in the water cycle.

Europa Press

La Jornada Newspaper, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, p. 6

Madrid. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have discovered a new state of quantum matter, similar to how water can exist in liquid, ice, or vapor.

This state exists in a material that the team believes could usher in a new era of self-charging computers capable of withstanding the challenges of deep space travel.

It had only been predicted theoretically; no one had measured it until now , said Luis A. Jáuregui, a professor of physics and astronomy at UC Irvine and corresponding author of the new paper published in Physical Review Letters , in a statement.

This new phase is like a liquid composed of electrons and their counterparts, known as holes , which spontaneously pair up and form exotic states known as excitons. Unusually, the electrons and holes spin together in the same direction.

It would emit a bright light

"It's a novelty in itself ," Jáuregui said. "If we could hold it in our hands, it would emit a bright, high-frequency light ."

The phase exists in a material developed at the University of California, Irvine, by Jinyu Liu, a postdoctoral researcher in Jáuregui's lab and first author on the paper. Jáuregui and his team measured the phase using high magnetic fields at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

The key to creating the new quantum matter was applying a high-intensity magnetic field of up to 70 teslas to the material (by comparison, the magnetic field of a strong refrigerator magnet is about 0.1 teslas), which the team calls hafnium pentatellide.

Jáuregui explained that as his team applied the magnetic field, the material's ability to carry electricity suddenly decreases, showing that it has transformed into this exotic state. This discovery is important because it could allow signals to be transmitted by spin rather than by electric charge, opening a new path toward energy-efficient technologies such as spin-based electronics or quantum devices , Jáuregui stated. Unlike conventional materials used in electronics, this new quantum matter is unaffected by any form of radiation, making it an ideal candidate for space travel.

It could be useful for space missions , Jáuregui explained. If we're looking for long-lasting computers in space, this is one way to achieve it .