RE:Magnitude of the water and soil crisis addressed by Verde(1) UN press release with "stark warning" (2) fact: South America has worst soil erosion globally, (3) CV's post this weekend explaining it's not the plants but microbes that can make the process of carbon fixation 20x more efficient
https://www.unccd.int/news-stories/press-releases/chronic-land-degradation-un-offers-stark-warnings-and-practical
UNCCD’s evidence-based flagship Global Land Outlook 2 (GLO2) report, five years in development with 21 partner organizations, and with over 1,000 references, is the most comprehensive consolidation of information on the topic ever assembled. Up to 40 % of the planet’s land is degraded, directly affects half of humanity, threatens roughly half of global GDP (US$44 trillion)
If business as usual continued through 2050, report projects additional degradation of an area almost the size of South America
Nations’ current pledge to restore 1 billion degraded hectares by 2030 requires $US 1.6 trillion this decade – a fraction of annual $700 billion in fossil fuel and agricultural subsidies
As at 2017: At a continental level, the highest soil erosion reductions are estimated in South America (16%), Oceania (15.4%), North America (12.5%), and to a lesser extent in Europe (1.5%), Asia (1.2%), and Africa (1.1%). (source: https://www.nature.com)
https://twitter.com/CristianoVelos9/status/1520724512479883266?s=20&t=fA3tOaCEOOMIng__oIReOQ When it comes to fixing carbon, plants have nothing on soil bacteria that can do it 20 times faster.... the carbon fixing champs are not plants, but soil bacteria. Some bacterial enzymes carry out a key step in carbon fixation 20 times faster than plant enzymes do, and figuring out how they do this could help scientists develop forms of artificial photosynthesis to convert the greenhouse gas into fuels, fertilizers, antibiotics and other products.