A recurring lesson in history is that water scarcity is never just about water. Right now, we need to pay attention to those lessons, and what science tells us, to avoid hunger affecting billions.
Drought doesn’t only dry out soil, it destabilizes entire food systems — the networks needed to produce, transform, and distribute food to consumers.
That is why water risks due to extreme weather and food security risks linked to crop failures have always been classical converging stressors. Add climate change to the equation, and disruptions to the entire water cycle that food systems rely on is intensifying these risks.