Global warming and agriculture: the Earth’s lands are dying, warns the IPCC

Subject to the pressure of human activities and climate change, the land is suffering. However, rapid and far-reaching measures for sustainable management and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions could save them. And be part of the solution against global warming. This is what emerges from the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Three quarters of the land area – not glaciated – is exploited and a quarter can even be considered degraded. This is one of the shocking conclusions of the latest report by experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). For the very first time, the latter have in fact taken an interest in the emerged lands of the whole of our planet and the pressures they are undergoing.

Pressures due first to human activities. More and more mouths to feed. Multiplying energy crops. Land suffers from its (over) exploitation. But they are also struggling under the weight of climate change. More intense precipitation, for example, and erosion or landslides threaten. The result: degraded and less productive land.

Land that in fact – while storing the equivalent of almost a third of emissions from fossil fuels and industry – absorbs less carbon dioxide (CO ₂). And thus participate in global warming which puts them under pressure. Even though they are already responsible for no more and no less than 23% of greenhouse gas emissions. Or 37%, if we add the share of the food processing industries.