Over 75% of Earth’s Land Areas Are Now Broken: What That Means for You
According to the world’s first evidence-based assessment of the state of the planet’s land health, more than 75 percent of the Earth’s soil surface has substantially degraded, putting the well-being of some 3.2 billion people at risk.
The new report, produced by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), took three years to compile and involved over 100 experts from 45 countries.
The exhaustive assessment, published Monday, concludes that “rapid expansion and unsustainable management of croplands and grazing lands” is the primary driver of land degradation. The problem has already reached “critical” levels in many parts of the world, the report says.
Researchers found that “the high-consumption lifestyles in the most developed economies, combined with rising consumption in developing and emerging economies” are leading to “unsustainable levels of agricultural expansion, natural resource and mineral extraction, and urbanization.”
Professor Robert Scholes, the co-chair of the IPBES report, states that “the degradation of the Earth’s land surface through human activities is pushing the planet towards a sixth mass species extinction” and that reversing this trend is an “urgent priority” to “ensure human well-being.”
If the trend isn’t reversed, researchers concluded, 95 percent of the Earth’s lands could be degraded by 2050, potentially forcing up to 700 million people to migrate in search of better food and water resources.
Wetlands, in particular, are suffering, with an 87 percent loss globally over the past 300 years. Of that loss, 54 percent has occurred since the year 1900, researchers found.
In all, less than one-quarter of the planet’s land surface remains free of human impact. By 2050, however, that figure is estimated to drop to below 10 percent. Most of this unspoiled land will be in “deserts, mountainous areas, tundra and polar areas unsuitable for human use or settlement,” the IPBES report states.
Researchers say one of the biggest barriers to action — reversing the trend — is ignorance. Simply not enough people are aware of this troubling situation. But raising awareness in itself could prove tricky. As the report notes:
“Many of those who benefit from overexploitation of natural resources are among the least affected by the direct negative impacts of land degradation, and therefore have the least incentive to take action.”
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It sounds scary.It reminds me about a movie name-2012.I know that nothing will change and the world will destroy fully,now we have to see how fast it happens.Thanks for the post.
That is scary
The earth itself will survive and heal just fine. Humans though, not so much..
Humans will survive, in some form, but billions will probably die-off in a great extinction event.
Much like what happened 11,600 years ago when the ice-age ended and flooded the civilized world, killing off what ever humanoids ruled the Earth before then.
But we all die so basically; we're going to be made infertile. By those who are supposedly handling the evolution of the human species.
Well, that is if we continue to "play" the civilization "game".
We could also simply learn what is the strict minimum of technology we want to live by, learn how to craft it ourselves using raw materials we can get our hands on, and take it all somewhere where we will preserve it and help it grow.
DYI Movement FTW
Everyone has to check themselves when we are talking population distribution.There is more than enough land to sustain every person that the world can have born into it. Eugenics is a horrendous idea and concept and whenever population is concerned this is never a route to go.
There are methods of restoring decimated land to fertile landscapes. It takes time to regenerate the natural ecosystems though. Permaculture may hold some of the solutions. The need for humans to reeducate ourselves on living in harmony with the natural world is certainly a requisite for longevity.
nice vary vary good post