男女羞羞视频在线观看,国产精品黄色免费,麻豆91在线视频,美女被羞羞免费软件下载,国产的一级片,亚洲熟色妇,天天操夜夜摸,一区二区三区在线电影
USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Home / World

Looking to the land for climate change solutions

By Alexander Mller | China Daily | Updated: 2009-12-16 07:46

The high alpine grasslands in the heart of Asia have been home to yak and sheep herders for centuries. But they are starting to disappear from much of this vast area. One major reason is overgrazing and depletion of the soil. Some parts of the grasslands are now called the "Black Beach" - a parched moonscape that has had its nutrients sucked out of the earth.

Largely gone, too, is the land's ability to hold large amounts of carbon. It's no small loss. The depleted grasslands here and around the world, along with degraded farmlands, are an open wound not only because of the loss of productive land but also because they are a lost opportunity to slow and reverse climate change.

With negotiators in Copenhagen trying to work out a new global climate deal, a key question is whether transforming the use of agricultural land, such as those in the alpine Asian terrain, will be included.

Negotiators need to look to farmers - and the use of farmland - for help. There should be no doubt today that climate change, agricultural land and food production are inextricably linked. There is no separating these powerful factors that are elemental to our survival.

First, let's think about food. The world's population is expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050 - a 50 percent increase. It means we'll need to produce 70 percent more food by then. How do we do that?

The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that $210 billion is needed in agricultural investments every year in order to produce the required amount of food. But investments in agricultural practices that promote soil carbon capture can make agriculture part of the solution in the fight against climate change, rather than part of the problem, while increasing production and improving the livelihood of small-scale farmers.

Now, agriculture is one of the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions producing, according to the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, roughly 12 to 14 percent of all emissions. But healthy soils, like trees, can be great carbon capturers. Farmers and herders need to use new practices - or adapt centuries-old practices - to put more organic matter in the soil, and then keep it there. More organic content holds more carbon; and more carbon in soils boosts agricultural production by creating higher levels of nutrients in plants and retaining greater amounts of water.

This is where the Copenhagen climate change negotiators need to step in. The question now doesn't involve science - we understand the value of better soils for food production and to capture more carbon. The question in Copenhagen should be how to finance needed innovations in agriculture to unleash these multiple benefits.

What's needed is a way to create a carbon-financing scheme in which new funding streams are literally put back into the land - funneled into wise agricultural investments to improve farming and agro-forestry practices that increase food production as well as combat climate change.

Part of the beauty in this is that this change won't take years. This isn't like developing alternative energy sources that require huge infrastructure investments, or installing new technologies to reduce emissions from current energy sources. Instead, this new green agricultural movement can begin right away.

There are several entry points. One is a massive effort to help farmers and herders build up organic matter in soils. It could mean taking herds of sheep or goats off overgrazed grasslands for several years. It could mean more careful measuring of carbon in soils to determine successes and failures and to decide where to focus efforts. And it could mean that farmers till the soil less and apply more organic fertilizers such as manure and mulch.

In many of the world's degraded agricultural lands, much has been lost. Now it's time to bring life back to these lands. Not only do we need better soils for food production, but also we need the soils to lock up carbon. Better soils will give life.

The author is assistant director-general of the Natural Resources Management and Environment Department of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.

(China Daily 12/16/2009 page9)

Today's Top News

Editor's picks

Most Viewed

Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 新宁县| 南郑县| 筠连县| 楚雄市| 天镇县| 拜城县| 余干县| 赤城县| 望城县| 谢通门县| 白朗县| 两当县| 麦盖提县| 河西区| 鹰潭市| 鹤壁市| 随州市| 阿城市| 休宁县| 石林| 汉阴县| 随州市| 磐安县| 遂昌县| 韶关市| 苏尼特右旗| 萝北县| 股票| 温州市| 饶平县| 深水埗区| 利辛县| 福建省| 曲沃县| 卓资县| 垣曲县| 囊谦县| 林周县| 景德镇市| 合阳县| 永丰县| 湘西| 沈丘县| 寿阳县| 专栏| 东港市| 江津市| 巨鹿县| 临猗县| 衡东县| 德江县| 甘泉县| 崇信县| 巴中市| 庄浪县| 望谟县| 页游| 泽州县| 加查县| 佛冈县| 麻阳| 九龙县| 密山市| 当阳市| 双鸭山市| 南投市| 靖宇县| 南溪县| 温宿县| 桐庐县| 健康| 马边| 铜陵市| 通化市| 禄丰县| 教育| 民乐县| 贡嘎县| 孙吴县| 南溪县| 临潭县| 海原县|