The Soil
Soil Degradation
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Land becoming drier (30 years) | 75% of Earth’s surface |
| Drylands share of global land | 40.6% |
| Dryland expansion (30 years) | 4.3 million km² |
| Land degraded annually | 100 million hectares |
| People affected | 3.2 billion |
| Global soil loss | 35.9–75 billion tonnes/year |
| US cropland soil loss | 1.70 billion tonnes/year |
| Economic cost of erosion | ~$400 billion/year |
Wetland & Peatland Loss
| System | Loss |
|---|---|
| Global wetlands since 1700 | 35%+ lost |
| US wetlands since 1780s | 50% lost |
| US wetlands 2009–2019 | 670,000 acres net loss |
| Ireland wetlands | Over 90% lost |
| Peatland emissions | 4% of global human-caused GHGs |
| Countries with degrading peatlands | 177 of 193 |
Soil Carbon Reversal
Soils are switching from absorbing carbon to releasing it. Projected losses of
0.22–0.53 Pg C/year would reduce the remaining 1.5°C carbon budget by 66%. One-third of the world’s soils are already moderately to highly degraded—and the trend is accelerating.
PFAS in Farmland
PFAS—“forever chemicals”—have been detected in farmland soils globally. Over 1 million dry metric tons of biosolids (sewage sludge) are applied to agricultural land across 41 US states every year. These chemicals never break down, accumulating in soil, water, and the food chain.
Agriculture & Land
44% of habitable land is used for agriculture, with 80% of that reserved for livestock—yet livestock provides only a fraction of global calories. Just 16% of agricultural land grows crops for direct human consumption. Between 1990 and 2020, 420 million hectares of forest were destroyed to make way for farming.
Sources
- UN SDG — Three-Quarters of Land Drier
- UN News — 3 Billion Affected
- FAO — Global Soil Status
- Nature Communications — Soil Carbon Loss
- PNAS — Pesticide Impacts on Soil
- Nature — Global Wetland Loss
- UNEP — Peatlands Degrading
- EESI — PFAS in America
- IPBES — Land Degradation
- Our World in Data — Agricultural Land