In a briefing to investors, Walter Jehne, co-founder of NGO Regenerate Earth, argued that a focus on cutting emissions misses the point when it comes to understanding what a healthy biosphere could do to sequester carbon.
Biosphere fast facts
- More than 75% of the earth’s land area is already degraded, according to the European Commission’s World Atlas of Desertification, and more than 90% could become degraded by 2050.
- Deforestation and forest fires mean the Amazon Basin is now a net emitter of CO2
- Forecasts are for nine billion people on the planet by 2030, meaning a concomitant increase in pressure on existing biosystems.
Source: National Geographic: ‘First study of all Amazon greenhouse gases suggests the damaged forest is now worsening climate change’, 11 March 2021; The Times: ‘One billion to be added to world’s population by 2030’, 22 June 2017