The globe is set to start drying out dramatically if global warming isn't stopped.
That's the message from a new environmental study published by the journal Nature Climate Change.
Over 25% of Earth will start experiencing the effects of "aridificaiton" by the year 2050 if humans don't meet the changes proposed by the Paris climate agreement .
The study claims that if the Earth's average temperature goes up by two degrees Celsius over the next 32 years, the planet will start to become a desert.
Our research predicts that aridification would emerge over about 20-30 percent of the world’s land surface by the time the global mean temperature change reaches 2ºC," said Manoj Joshi, the lead researcher of the study.
"But two-thirds of the affected regions could avoid significant aridification if warming is limited to 1.5ºC (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit)."
The study goes on to point out that reducing greenhouse gas emissions will keep global warming under the 2 degree threshold and reduce the likelihood of aridification.
An annual U.N. audit of progress towards that goal showed emissions are likely to be 53.0-55.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year by 2030, far above the 42 billion tonne threshold for averting the 2 degree rise.
Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, said climate-fuelled hurricanes, floods and drought would rapidly worsen unless ministers committed to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
"Paris was just the starting point," she said.
The Nature Climate Change study predicts the regions that will be most affected by an average temperature increase are those located in Central America, Southeast Asia, Southern Europe, Southern Africa and Southern Australia.
