In the past 40 years ...

BRT has talked about environmental degradation quite often as a result of pollution and overshoot, now comes a frightening scenario regarding food production vis a vis our continued assault on planet earth driven, in part, by GW, fossil fuel use and habitat destruction in the form of soil erosion to the max.

A new study found that the world has lost a third of its food-producing land in the last four decades. Erosion and pollution are two of the biggest reasons that we’re losing fertile soil, and it’s happening at a rate far faster than the natural processes that replace diminished soil. Researchers are taking this message to world leaders this week in Paris, in an effort to command environmental policies that call for agricultural practices that would slow the land loss.

The study comes from the University of Sheffield’s Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, where researchers found that the losses had been “catastrophic” and that projected future land loss might necessitate major changes in agriculture. The rate of soil degradation is the most troubling aspect of the problem, since soil is being eroded up to 100 times faster than the rate at which it would normally be replenished, which takes about 500 years for 2.5cm of top soil.

Click here to download the Sheffield study that shows how man can change this path to something sustainable before it's too late. Click here to go to the Sheffield site. You will not be disappointed.