It's the culmination of the hard work of 107 experts from 52 countries.
I've got some big takeaways. Buckle in – it's going to be a long thread.
Land and ocean warm at different rates (thank you @RARohde) for the great figure.
We have 12,000 years of soil debt to repay.
“What we do to our soils we do to our climate - and ourselves”
theconversation.com/ipccs-land-rep…
“Neither our individual or societal identities, nor the world’s economy would exist without the multiple resources, services and livelihood systems provided by land ecosystems and biodiversity.”
Now a couple of BIG takeaways from this latest IPCC report.
First, #ClimateChange and land degradation are THREAT MULTIPLIERS for people already living precariously, populations already sensitive to extreme weather, food insecurity, poverty.
You might be wondering - how did we end up with a land sink, and isn’t that a good thing?
Plants, especially C3 plants, do well with extra CO2 (we call this CO2 fertilization).
But there’s a limit: The CO2 fertilization effect is only possible with enough nutrients.
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…
But as GHG emissions go up, the land sink is already having a hard time keeping up.
Like a dark shirt on a sunny day, the more sunlight that gets absorbed, the warmer the Earth’s atmosphere.
climate.ncsu.edu/edu/Albedo
Longer growing seasons and more CO2 may help high latitude crops, but low latitude crops are already losing yields.
Animals are also impacted w/lower growth rates and fertility declines, more pests and disease.
There are many co-benefits of changing how we produce food and manage forests to mitigate climate change.
But there is always a cost.
“Confidence is very high that the window of opportunity – the period when significant change can be made, for limiting climate change within tolerable boundaries – is rapidly narrowing.”
/End Thread
For an epic IPCC report summary, check out @CarbonBrief carbonbrief.org/in-depth-qa-th…