Food, water, and lands at risk due to climate change, says IPCC report
In Motunui, north of Taranaki, the sea waves lap at the coast, eating into the dirt. Watson Irving's bach, gifted to him by his mother, sits unoccupied on the edge of the land . Any day now, it could be lost to the rising sea. In Nelson, the recovery effort for the Pigeon Valley fire is still ongoing, after months of work from firefighters to put out underground heat spots . Forestry blocks, animals, and one home were lost. In Westport, volunteers bus in and out in the dozens to help with the cleanup effort after flooding this year opened up a decades-old landfill, spilling rubbish into the pristine sea . As temperatures rise in New Zealand and around the globe, a new report by the IPCC has given the most detailed view yet on just how much the impacts of climate change are destroying and degrading the land that we all rely on every day. READ MORE: * NZ's biggest greenhouse gas emitters and their struggle to pollute less * New Zealand's agricultural future is bright if farmers can adapt * Climate change report a wake-up call for NZ farming Human use directly affects more than 70 per cent of the global, ice-free land surface in some way. As both populations and total emissions have skyrocketed, the pressure on the land has begun to reach breaking point. As rising seas recapture low-lying coastal areas, and river deltas and drylands experience extended droughts, deserts are expanding their reach. Every year for the past 50 years, the total area of the world covered by deserts has increased by 1 per cent. That's starting to add up. There are now over 500 million people living in desert areas that would not have been considered deserts before the 1980s. A full quarter of the world's ice-free land mass is subject to land degradation as a result of human activity. Droughts and heatwaves are getting longer, more intense, and more common, as are dust storms. Pairing with that, rainstorms are getting heavier and more intense. "Underlying everything is that land is absolutely central to everything we do. The food we produce, the energy we use, the things that we value in our cultures. It underpins everything, we've got to look after it," said Anita Wreford, an associate professor at Lincoln University and co-author of the report. The loss of carbon from soils and the degradation of the land is already affecting food security, and evidence is already suggesting that yields of staple crops are declining in some areas, and increased atmospheric CO2 is lowering the nutritional quality of crops. Unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced in the immediate future, the report warns of "irreversible loss in land ecosystem functions and services required for food, health, habitable settlements and production". That will lead to significant economic impacts on many countries around the world. However, the report also indicates that far more efficient farming methods could dramatically increase food output while keeping emissions in check. More people eating plant-based food, including grains, beans, nuts and seeds produced in efficient systems, could open up millions of square kilometres of productive land, as could more efficient forms of animal farming. "We still need to produce food obviously, but sustainable production is really key to ensuring that we produce food but don't damage our environment in the process," Wreford said. More advanced farming technologies, which are less intensive on the soil and make better use of resources are one area where New Zealand is leading the game. "The report is extremely relevant. It really puts what we are talking about in New Zealand right now into the global context. We are having these discussions between agricultural sector and forestry and how we use our land, whether we use it to produce food or whether we use it to grow trees to absorb emissions from other sectors." "There's a whole range of measures that are identified, but one thing I'd say is that NZ is really at the forefront in the research into reducing agriculture, so a lot of the evidence probably comes from NZ in the first place." In total, 23 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and land use, including 44 per cent of methane and 82 per cent of nitrous oxide. For New Zealand, where agriculture is a disproportionately large source of emissions, those figures are particularly important given the Government's goal of net zero carbon by 2050. Wreford emphasised that the majority of emissions were still caused by the burning of fossil fuels and that unless that was clawed back, the impacts on land would not stop. "We can't rely on land and the agricultural sector to solve this problem," she said. "We need to balance our short term decision with the long term picture. There are going to be people and groups who are going to be disrupted in the short term. We've been prioritising short term economic gain over long term environmental benefit. "Climate change will affect where we live and what we do on the land. It will affect where our houses are and the places that we love will be lost. It's about planning for the changes that will occur." Share your stories, photos and videos.