Climate change

Study: Grasslands Disappearing Four Times Faster Than Forests

Is CO₂ greening the planet or are grasslands and wetlands vanishing faster than forests can expand?

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Study: Grasslands Disappearing Four Times Faster Than Forests

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Above: Grassy plain vegetation at Canastra Range National Park in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Image credit: Jose Caldas/Brazil Photos/LightRocket/Getty Images

The Spin

Climate-concerned narrative

Grasslands and wetlands are disappearing nearly four times faster than forests, driven by livestock farming and export agriculture that destroy ecosystems that store up to 35% of global carbon. These conversions threaten biodiversity hotspots and critical ecosystem services while wealthy nations fuel demand through international supply chains. Conservation efforts fixated solely on forests allow other vital habitats to vanish unchecked.

Senckenberg

Climate-skeptic narrative

The planet is greening at an unprecedented rate, with CO₂ fertilization driving a massive expansion of vegetation equivalent to twice the continental United States. Warmer temperatures are expanding habitable zones, pushing forests into former tundra and transforming frozen wastelands into productive land. Framing CO₂ as a pollutant ignores the reality that nature thrives in a warm, bountiful world rather than the cold, famine-prone conditions of the 1850s Little Ice Age.

Peter Clack on X

Narrative C

The claim that "livestock farming destroys ecosystems" is one of the most successful 21st century propaganda pieces, as it often overlooks a critical distinction: much of the world's agricultural land is unsuitable for crop production due to terrain, climate or soil limitations. Such land may be unfit for cereals or vegetables, yet well suited to grazing. When you remove livestock from marginal agricultural land, you end up with unused grassland that produces zero human nutrition.

Sama Hoole on X