Guest post: How land use drives CO2 emissions around the world
by Clemens Schwingshackl, Wolfgang Obermeier, Julia Pongratz on carbonbrief.org, April 25, 2023
„Around 10,000 years ago, the Neolithic revolution saw many human cultures end their nomadic lifestyles of hunting and gathering to settle and begin farming. This onset of agriculture has seen humans reshape the Earth’s surface – cultivating crops to provide food for people and animals, grazing livestock on pastures and cutting wood to be used as construction material or fuel. What started as a gradual process has grown more intensive over time.“ In this article, the authors discuss how the ups and downs of CO2 emissions and removals from land-use change in six very different parts of the world – Brazil, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Europe, Indonesia and the US.