For most of the history of our species we were helpless to understand how nature works. We took every storm, drought, illness and comet personally. We created myths and spirits in an attempt to explain the patterns of nature.
Ann Druyan
selected pictures
The Effects of DroughtS
Drought is an Old English word derived from the ancient Germanic root dreug, meaning prolonged dry weather that harms vegetation and leads to water shortages in water bodies such as creeks, rivers, and lakes.
Over millennia, drought as a natural hazard was not fully understood or defined; instead, it was often imbued with mystical connotations. As a result, droughts became the subject of mythology, curses, and folklore. The earliest known personification of drought appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Mesopotamian text (c. 2000 BCE). In this heroic tale, Gilgamesh confronts and defeats drought, embodied by the mythical Bull of Heaven. The legend tells how the bull’s insatiable appetite caused a devastating drought, bringing ruin to the people of ancient Uruk. Another well-known example is the Biblical story of Pharaoh’s Dream (Genesis 41), where seven years of famine follow seven years of abundance, highlighting the destructive potential of drought.
Despite the human suffering, socio-economic losses, and ecological consequences caused by droughts over the centuries, humanity remained powerless in its efforts to predict and mitigate their impacts. In ancient times, it seemed that the only responses available to ease the pain and loss brought on by drought were religious and folkloric rituals.
We are the first generation of humans capable of understanding and, to some extent, predicting the occurrence and severity of droughts. I find this fact both remarkable and perplexing …
I have dedicated over 25 years of my professional life to understanding and modeling this natural hazard. While numerous books and scientific articles explore this phenomenon, on this site, I aim to present photographs that capture the effects of drought on the water cycle and vegetation.
Here, I present a collection of photographs gathered over time and from various regions, illustrating the effects of drought on different aspects of the landscape.
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