Greenhouse gas emissions from man-managed grasslands similar to global croplands - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Greenhouse gas emissions from man-managed grasslands similar to global croplands.

Study highlight need to use sustainable management to preserve and enhance soil carbon storage of grasslands

A new study shows that emissions of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) from grasslands increased by a factor of 2.5 since 1750 mainly due to increased emissions from livestock. This has more than compensated for reduced emissions from the shrinking number of wild grazers, said the study published in Nature Communications.

The net carbon sink effect of grasslands (the ability of grasslands to absorb carbon and pack it in the soil) worldwide was estimated to have intensified over the last century but mainly in sparsely-grazed, natural grasslands.

Conversely, over the last decade, grasslands intensively managed by humans have become a net source of greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, it has greenhouse gas emission levels similar to those of global croplands, which represent a large source of greenhouse gases.

To conduct the study published on January 5 2020, researchers from around the world collaborated to quantify changes in carbon storage and greenhouse gas fluxes in natural and managed grasslands between 1750 and 2012.

The processes and the greenhouse gas fluxes that are related to grassland are shown as red and blue arrows, respectively. The red-to-blue layout at the bottom of the figure indicates management intensity from high (red; intensively managed grassland) to low (blue; sparsely grazed and natural grassland)

Thomas Gasser from The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), who coauthored the study titled “Uncovering how grasslands changed our climate”, said:

“The recent trends we see towards the expansion of pasture land and higher livestock numbers lead us to expect that global grasslands will accelerate climate warming if better policies are not put in place to favour soil carbon increases, stop deforestation for ranching, and develop climate-smart livestock production systems."

In the face of climate change and increased demand for livestock products, these findings highlight the need to use sustainable management to preserve and enhance soil carbon storage in grasslands, the study said.

According to the authors, full greenhouse gas reporting for each country could facilitate the assessment of progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and better link national greenhouse gas budgets to the observed growth rates of emissions in the atmosphere.

Philippe Ciais, one of the authors associated with Laboratory for Sciences of Climate and Environment (LSCE), said, “In the context of low-warming climate targets, the mitigating or amplifying role of grasslands will depend on a number of aspects. This includes future changes in grass-fed livestock numbers, stability of accumulated soil carbon in grassland and whether carbon storage can be further increased over time or if it will saturate, as observed in long-term experiments.” (Source:downtoearth)

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Greenhouse gas emissions from man-managed grasslands similar to global croplands.

‘Time running out to reduce greenhouse gas emissions’ - ‘Future of Earth, 2020’ report - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

‘Time running out to reduce greenhouse gas emissions’ - ‘Future of Earth, 2020’ report.

The ‘Future of Earth, 2020’ report enlists five key global risks

Five global risks that have the potential to impact and amplify one another in ways that may cascade to create global systemic crisis, have been listed by “The Future of Earth, 2020”, which was released here on Thursday by the South Asia Future Earth Regional Office, Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science.

The report, released by K. Kasturirangan, former Chairman, ISRO, lists failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation; extreme weather events; major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse; food crises; and water crises, as the five global risks.
As many as 222 leading scientists from 52 countries conducted the survey by Future Earth, an international sustainability research network. The Bengaluru launch was among similar parallel ones across other parts of the world scheduled between February 13 and 21.
The report was prepared with the aim of reducing carbon footprint and halting global warming below 2 degree Celsius by 2050.
Offering examples of how the interrelation of risk factors play a role, scientists say extreme heat waves can accelerate global warming by releasing large amounts of stored carbon from affected ecosystems, and at the same time intensify water crises and/ or food scarcity. The loss of biodiversity also weakens the capacity of natural and agricultural systems to cope with climate extremes, increasing our vulnerability to food crises, they point out.
Politics, biodiversity and climate change
Among the chapters in the report is one on climate, focusing on ‘dialing down the heat’.
Lead author Diana Liverman, School of Geography and Development, University of Arizona, points out that over the last 18 months, major assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the US National Climate Assessment, and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, have all argued that time is running out to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“This has inspired declarations of a climate crisis or climate emergency by the leaders of more than 700 cities, States and governments. Yet, during 2019, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached more than 415 ppm, and the five years from 2014 to 2018 were the warmest recorded over land and ocean since 1880,” read the report.
In another chapter, ‘Populism versus grassroots movements’ author Richard Calland, University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and Associate Professor of Public Law, University of Cape Town, said “right-wing populism, a breed of politics that exploits people’s fears during times of economic decline and growing inequality, and that focuses on nationalist tendencies to clamp down on borders and reject immigrants,” is on the rise around the world. This, he argues, often leads to a denial of climate change facts or impacts.
Humans have now “significantly altered” 75% of our planet’s land area; about a quarter of species in assessed plant and animal groups are threatened, writes Cornelia Krug, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland, lead author of ‘The unravelling web of life’, in the chapter on biodiversity, pointing out that in 2018, the world’s last male northern white rhino died in his Kenyan enclosure, while the Brazillian blue parrot, Spix’s Macaw, was declared extinct in the wild. “Reversing the trends of loss of life on this planet will require some new ways of thinking about conservation,” the author says.
On food, lead author Jiaguo Qi, Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, USA, speaks about ‘rethinking global security’. “Strains on food production are expected to increase, as a result of various forces including climate change, biodiversity loss, and a global population on the rise,” the author says.
Tracking false news
False news travels six times faster and can reach up to 100 times more people, says the ‘Our future on earth’ report on the role of media.
Lead author Owen Gaffney, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Stockholm Resilience Centre, in ‘Industrializing disinformation’, says the flow of information in the world is changing, as today, around half of the planet’s 7.6 billion people are online, deeply influenced by social media, search engines and e-commerce algorithms.
“These digital platforms tend to favour the spread of information designed to engage with emotion over reason, can cause the propagation of “fake news”, and can lead to social harms like an erosion of trust in vaccines,” the author says.
Environmental health and education
Dr. Kasturirangan, who released the report, said the National Education Policy will address the question of environmental health and education at the school level."Children in the last four years of secondary education will have a reasonable grounding to be sensitive towards the environment. Without it no government rules and policies can be helpful," he told reporters on the sidelines of the launch. (Source: The Hindu)


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‘Time running out to reduce greenhouse gas emissions’ - ‘Future of Earth, 2020’ report.

Greenhouse gases surge to record in 2018, exceeding 10-yr average rate: U.N. - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Greenhouse gases surge to record in 2018, exceeding 10-yr average rate: U.N..

This continuing trend means that future generations will be confronted with increasingly severe impacts of climate change.

Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a new record in 2018, rising faster than the average rise of the last decade and cementing increasingly damaging weather patterns, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday.

Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a new record in 2018, rising faster than the average rise of the last decade and cementing increasingly damaging weather patterns, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday.
The U.N. agency’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin is one of a series of studies to be published ahead of a U.N. climate change summit being held in Madrid next week, and is expected to guide discussions there. It measures the atmospheric concentration of the gases responsible for global warming, rather than emissions.
“There is no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline, in greenhouse gases’ concentration in the atmosphere — despite all the commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
“This continuing long-term trend means that future generations will be confronted with increasingly severe impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, more extreme weather, water stress, sea level rise and disruption to marine and land ecosystems.”
The concentration of carbon dioxide, a product of burning fossil fuels that is the biggest contributor to global warming, surged from 405.5 parts per million in 2017 to 407.8 ppm in 2018, exceeding the average rate of increase of 2.06 ppm in 2005-2015, the WMO report said.
Irrespective of future policy, carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for centuries, locking in warming trends.
“It is worth recalling that the last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3-5 million years ago,” Mr. Taalas said.
Levels of methane — a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 — and nitrous oxide also hit new records, the report said.
The U.N. Environment Programme’s annual “emissions gap” report, due on Tuesday, assesses whether countries emissions reduction policies are enough. (Source: The Hindu)


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Greenhouse gases surge to record in 2018, exceeding 10-yr average rate: U.N..