Food production overwhelming climare change abatement efforts

Each year our terrestrial biosphere absorbs about a quarter of all the carbon dioxide emissions that humans produce. This a very good thing; it helps to moderate the warming produced by human activities such as burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests.

But in a paper published in Nature today, we show that emissions from other human activities, particularly food production, are overwhelming this cooling effect. This is a worrying trend, at a time when CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels are slowing down, and is clearly not consistent with efforts to stabilise global warming well below 2℃ as agreed at the Paris climate conference.

Read the piece by CSIRO Senior Principal Research Scientist and Executive Director of the Global Carbon Project, Pep Canadell, and the Director of the International Center for Climate and Global Change Research, Auburn University, Hanqin Tian, on The Converation -  “Global food production threatens to overwhelm efforts to combat climate change.”

Busy and emotional time leading up to Paris climate conference

T

his year will be both busy and emotionally draining for those concerned about the welfare of the world’s climate.



Executive Director of the Global Carbon
Project at the CSIRO, Pep Canadell,
was interviewed for this story.

Concern for and interest in climate matters found a fresh energy in 2007, percolated away in 2008, reached a crescendo with the IPCC December conference in Copenhagen and feeling the effects of controversy driven by the “denial machine” collapsed into chaos.

However, climate change activists have regrouped and armed with little more than truth, and compelling evidence from around the world, now work toward success at the United Nations Climate Change Conference late this year Paris.

The Conversation considers the Paris meeting - “Paris 2015 climate summit: countries' targets beyond 2020”.