“New research has found global warming has made 77 percent of the Earth’s land drier over the past three decades while rapidly increasing the proportion of excessively salty soils.”
Drylands now cover more than 40 percent of the planet. The UN puts the cost of degradation at $23 trillion by 2050 and needs $2.6 trillion by 2030. The Riyadh summit raised just over $12 billion across 80 countries and failed to agree on a binding protocol. The bill is in the trillions and the pledges are in the rounding error.