Stop abusing land, scientists warn

[nitpicker]

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49149761

Stop abusing land, scientists warn

By Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst

8 hours ago

Scientists are to deliver a stark condemnation of the damage being done to the land surface of the planet. Human activities have led to the degrading of soils, expanded deserts, felled forests, driven out wildlife, and drained peatlands, they will say.

In the process, land has been turned from an asset that combats climate change into a major source of carbon. The scientists will say this land abuse must be stopped to avoid catastrophic climate heating.

Uncultivated land covered with vegetation protects us from overheating because the plants absorb the warming gas CO2 from the air and fix it in the soil. But the scientists meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, will say the way we farm and grow timber often actually increases emissions of carbon dioxide.

Between a quarter and a third of all greenhouse gas emissions are now estimated to come from land use.

The scientists will warn of a battle for land between multiple competing demands: biofuels, plant material for plastics and fibres, timber, wildlife, paper and pulp - and food for a growing population.

Their report will say we need to make hard choices about how we use the world’s soil. And it will offer another warning that our hunger for red meat is putting huge stress on the land to produce animal feed, as well as contributing to half of the world’s emissions of methane - another greenhouse gas.

The document’s being finalised this week among scientists and government officials on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

It will become the most authoritative report yet on the way we use and abuse the land. Scientists hope it will give the issue of land use greater prominence in negotiations on climate change.

At its heart will be the paradox that the land can be a source of CO2 emissions, or a sink for CO2 emissions. The question is how we use it.
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