The world is quietly losing the land it needs to feed itself

To he greatest threats to our existence today are caused by human activity rather than nature acting alone, according to a recent United Nations report.

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Many people are familiar with human contribution to climate change and perhaps also the loss of biodiversity.

But there's a third environmental impact that rarely gets the attention it deserves: desertification, also known as land degradation.

The world is rapidly losing usable land for self-inflicted reasons, ranging from intensive agriculture and overgrazing of livestock to real estate development and, yes, climate change. The crisis is further fuelling food and water insecurity, as well as adding to more greenhouse gas emissions.

Environmental scientists haven't ignored the problem.

In fact, the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 led to the creation of three UN conventions: climate change, biodiversity and desertification.

The climate convention holds big COP summits each year-such as COP28 in Dubai-that now frequently make front-page headlines.