Human activity-driven climate change has exacerbated droughts, making them more frequent, last longer, and more severe. This summer is already breaking records, with all but five US states currently experiencing droughts.
The effects can be devastating, from decimating livestock and straining agricultural supply chains to reducing crop yield and threatening global food security.
In parts of Turkey, the consequences of ongoing droughts are particularly dramatic. As the BBC reports, farmlands in the country’s “breadbasket” — a region called Konya, in central Anatolia — are being pockmarked by hundreds of sinkholes, making them look like they were “attacked by a cosmic hole punch.”
Some of these holes measure hundreds of feet both across and deep, literally and figuratively threatening Turkey’s food security.
Scientists suggest it’s the result of a combination of intense agriculture draining dwindling groundwater supplies through illegal wells, ongoing droughts, and local geology.
The groundwater is part of a rare closed system and never flows into the ocean, making it a critical part of the local ecosystem in Konya. The topography is made from relatively soft karst, the result of carbonate rocks like limestone and dolomite being weathered and dissolved over time.
“Water, underground rivers in this case, act as underground structures that hold the humidity and the stability, strength of these karstic areas,” Turkish environmental agency Doğa Derneği founder Güven Eken told the BBC. “The water capacity is decreasing there because of the wrong excess irrigation policies; these underground rivers have virtually dried out.”
“So the water which once flowed underneath the Konya basin is no longer there,” he added. “The whole system has dried out.”
The area’s water issues have been going on for well over a decade. Officials have concluded that there are tens of thousands of illegal groundwater wells, representing major over-consumption that doesn’t allow groundwater to replenish.
Meanwhile, more and more sinkholes — in the hundreds — are opening up, as environmental groups call for more political oversight over agricultural practices, changes that are nowhere in sight, Eken warns.
While the sinkholes are considered to be the direct result of human activity, experts warn that the climate crisis has exacerbated the trend.
“The climate crisis, yes, has accelerated the problem further, but it’s not the underpinning cause,” Konya Technical University’s Fetullah Arık told the BBC. “The sinkholes are really the tip of the iceberg.”
More on droughts: All But Five US States Are Currently Experiencing Droughts