Fighting back on the front lines of climate change
watercolour and crayon
©2022 Charlene Brown
'Fighting Back'
is based on a combination of internet images of the Great Green Wall in Niger, Senegal
and Mali. This African-led initiative, only
begun in 2007, has made amazing progress on the ambitious plan to grow and/or
restore an 8000km belt of biodiversity across the continent from Senegal on the
Atlantic to Djibouti on the Red Sea. This formerly lush region, known as the
Sahel, had already fallen victim to some of the challenges that humanity
could be facing this century ─ desertification, drought, food
shortages, migration and international terrorism.
Land use is one
of the best tools available to lock away tons of carbon dioxide and achieve our
climate goals. But it’s also crucial for growing food. Can these two future
demands co-exist?
It may be
possible to increase food production, protect habitats, lock away tons of
carbon, and expand renewable energy production to keep warming below 1.5 °C —
all of that, without any of these land-based changes infringing on each other’s
space.
A scenario
developed by Shell Oil shows the fairly drastic land use changes that would be
needed in order to keep temperature increases to below 1.5 °C by 2100. Much of
this change would rely on the undeveloped land across the planet to capture
carbon and produce clean energy — which would mean expanding solar and wind
farms across this territory, capturing huge amounts of carbon in soils and
habitats through nature-based solutions like reforestation and soil protection,
and some amount of carbon capture and storage.
Apparently even
the biggest changes required to meet the climate target (nature-based
solutions, which require by far the largest areas of land) wouldn’t encroach on
food production. In fact, by 2100 according to the model, 61% of global
cropland would also play host to some kind of nature-based solution. One
standout example was biochar (defined in Glossary page 60), which could provide
the largest carbon sequestration from a single nature-based solution in
farming, the researchers found. Other examples are conservation tillage,
planting nitrogen-fixing legumes, and agroforestry. As well, cropland would be able to expand
into pasture land, formerly used for livestock production, that will decline
because market pressures would apply higher costs to the production of
high-emissions food.
To meet climate
targets, a greater area of carbon-sequestering forests would need to be
protected, and forests would need to be expanded through reforestation schemes,
as well. According to the model, that would also be possible with the available
land.
The goal of on-going
research is to upend the idea that we need to protect either nature, climate,
or food. Instead, it has been shown to be possible to fit the land for major
human needs, while protecting and restoring land.
· * Excerpted
from an article by Emma Bryce in Anthropocene online, November 22, 2024
·
