‘A perfect storm’: People must change diet and stop destroying land before it is too late, says major climate change report

‘Earth has never felt smaller, its natural ecosystems never under such direct threat,’ says UN adviser

Humans must urgently change their diets and stop destroying land so it can absorb more carbon if there is any hope of avoiding catastrophic levels of global warming, according to a major new report from the United Nations (UN).

The organisation’s first comprehensive report about the relationship between climate change and the land suggests more sustainable farming, making changes to our diet and cutting food waste will all help to tackle global warming.

Human activity has caused significant land degradation, deforestation and destruction of natural habitats, says the report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

All of this has resulted in carbon dioxide being released from the soils and into the atmosphere.

For centuries, natural land was an important way of absorbing carbon dioxide and keeping it in the land, but it is now responsible for a third of greenhouse gases.

At the same time, climate change-induced wildfires, permafrost melt and desertification are putting strain on the land, which means it is releasing even more greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere.

Read more: Independent