TUESDAY 6 AUGUST 2019Save our soils: scientists say we
must stop abusing land
Earth is natural carbon sink vital to fighting climate change
PHOEBE WESTON
SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
Humans need to stop abusing the land we live on if we want to avoid catastrophic levels of climate warming,
scientists on the UN’s major Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will warn at a meeting in
Geneva this week. Soils are believed to sequester 1 per cent of the planet’s total carbon, but they once
contained as much as 7 per cent. If land is farmed in a more sustainable way, carbon could be absorbed back
into the soils, making them a carbon sink.
However, currently one-third of total emissions come from the land. Researchers believe any genuine plan
to combat climate change must tackle the state of the land and production of food. This means putting a
stop to chopping down rainforest, degrading soils, killing wildlife and draining peatlands.
Kelly Levin, from the think tank World Resources Institute, told BBC News: “If we consider the climate
problem hard now, just think about how much harder it will be without the land serving as a large sink for
carbon dioxide emissions.”
Scientists will warn of increasing pressure on land to provide food, timber and plant materials for a growing
population which will make meeting emissions targets even harder.
Professor Jane Rickson, an expert in climate change and soil erosion at Cranfield University, says this latest
IPCC paper should give more evidence of how land degradation also aggravates climate change, leading to
an escalating crisis.
She says: “Climate change will intensify soil erosion, compaction, loss of organic matter, loss of
biodiversity, landslides and salinisation – many of which are irreversible. It’s important that the report
considers the effects of climate change on the state of soil quality, and how soil responds to extreme events.
Little is known about the effects of rising temperatures and heavier rainfall on soil condition – yet this
determines how soils function in provision of food.”
Scientists believe around 33 per cent of arable land is now devoted to crops to feed animals. Industrial
agriculture relies on fossil fuels to create fertilisers and machinery to harvest crops and transport animals.
Farmed animals also produce half of the world’s methane emissions. Research last year found that meat and
dairy companies could overtake the oil industry as the world’s biggest polluters by 2050.
Rob Percival, head of food and health policy at the Soil Association, said: “The intensification of farming
has fuelled soil degradation, deforestation and biodiversity loss – further intensification is not a solution to
the challenges we face. To effectively tackle the climate crisis, we urgently need to move to farming systems
that improve soil health and protect wildlife. Soil is critically important – humanity depends on it and it’s