by Judith Curry
Discussion thread on the new IPCC Report on Climate Change and Land.
The complete Report can be downloaded here [link].
I’m working on digesting all this, here are some articles that I’ve flagged on my twitter feed.
Comprehensive summary of the report by Carbon Brief and also a summary of media response.
Good overview by Robinson Meyer: This land is the only land there is
Good article by Jon Foley with recommendations: Farming our way out of the climate crisis
Jonathan Gilligan in support of vegetarian diets: “News and Views” commentary in Nature Sustainability on the integration of behavioral science, diet, and dietary impact on land use into integrated assessment models of climate and human activity. rdcu.be/bOaoY
George Monbiot: The IPCC and land report fails miserably
Farmers frustrated by biased reporting on IPCC climate study. Farm leaders have accused national media of twisting the facts contained in a major climate change report in order to promote their own anti-meat agendas.
Cattle are part of nature’s carbon cycle
Very provocative article: Food injustice
JC reflections
Addressing the complex issues associated with land use is, to my mind, arguably more important than dealing with greenhouse gas emissions (and of course these two issues are connected). It is good to see this issue getting the attention that it deserves. A few of my summary thoughts on this:
Growing crops for biofuels makes no sense, especially if you cut down forests to do this.
Meat will continue to be an important part of many people’s diet. I am personally sensitive to this issue since I have celiac disease, with cross sensitivities to many other foods in addition to gluten containing grains (meat is one of the few foods I can easily digest).
Land sequestration of carbon is the low hanging fruit in CO2 mitigation, with many ancillary benefits to soils, ecosystems and agriculture.