Hello i am a man is a viral and this is a planet s. O. S. The land is one of our best weapons against Climate Change but why are we destroying it Scientists Say humanity is stripping the earth of its ability to sustain life and that extends to the way we produce food but were wasting a lot of it on not feeding all who are hungry we speak to people working to transform our relationship with the land embracing Sustainable Practices and well look at whats coming up at the crop the annual climate talks taking place this year in the trades. We begin with something which quite literally supports us the land we live on its produced much phosphate from it and depend on it for other things such as fuel and clothing it since hegel to the planets carbon cycle drawing Carbon Dioxide down from the atmosphere through plants and trees and storing it in the soil but were destroying it in august the i. P. C. C. Thats the u. N. Body charged with assessing the science on Climate Change found the lands ability to sustain life is declining scientists reinforced what many farmers in vulnerable communities already know that Global Warming is obsessing food systems reducing harvests and intensifying poverty and hunger but our land practices a making the impacts of Climate Change. Change much worse one 3rd of the planets ice free land is degraded due to deforestation agriculture and other land uses which together account for nearly a quarter of Greenhouse Gas emissions the i. P. C. C. Says action taken now to allow alliance regenerate is vital in tackling the Climate Crisis protecting biodiversity and securing our future food and Water Supplies and this is going to mean a radical rethink of our relationship with the land in a moment well look at efforts to regenerate landscapes but 1st ways of living off the land in a Sustainable Way one mechanism is land concessions a system that allows for the private use of public lands david mercer traveled to the maya Biosphere Reserve in guatemala the largest Tropical Forest north of the amazon people in the village of carmelita say concessions have enabled them to live off the riches of the forest or also protecting its. Deep inside the rain forest in guatemalas northern potential region edom a town searches the forest floor for riches at a town you know earns a living harvesting shot today a palm frond used in floral arrangements in europe asia and north america the value belief is part of the prize in a unique Conservation Strategy starting in the 1990 s. 9 communities won the right to make a living from the forest as long as they do so sustainably rosa says that her peoples dependence on the forest gives them a powerful incentive to protect it. There have been many changes to our quality of life people make twice as much money harvesting shows a timber as another big allowing us to invest in social programs and infrastructure and we help all the communities by giving them Building Materials for their schools the Community Concessions now generate more than 5000000. 00 a year and have created thousands of jobs in agronomy carpentry and tourism poverty rates have fallen and migration to the United States is virtually unheard of all the while the areas under Community Management boasts near 0 deforestation rates over the past 14 years outside of the concessions there are threats to guatemalas forests clearing land for agriculture has given guatemala one of the highest deforestation rates in the americas during the Easter Holiday in 2015 baileys and farmer set fire to 3 hours of force here along the border thousands of Community Members from guatemala came out to battle the flames stopping the fire from spreading into their Community ForestsNeftali Salazar helps cut and maintain 27 kilometers of fire breaks near the baileys border his community is responsible for patrolling and protecting more than 25000 hectares of forest with little help from authorities so you know. If it wasnt for concessions to forest here wouldnt exist would be a wasteland. They be villages and pastures and the cattle ranchers would be governing things its because of small groups like us that there are still green areas here with. Roses Community Concession and others are coming up for government renewal over the next few years and with big business i mean their forests rose and her neighbors are worried empowered locals have kept the forests intact but convincing politicians you the same has not been easy david mercer in one of mahlers maya Biosphere Reserve for planet s. O. S. So we need to protect the lands but we also have to eat and the worlds population is growing by more than 200000 people every day the global footprint at work says were exceeding our planets budgets consuming its resources as if we had 1. 75 to live on and the Food Industry is a major culprit agriculture is responsible for around 75 percent of tropical deforestation worldwide it uses 70 percent of the planets fresh Water Supplies 9 times the amount of much and fertilizer is applied today compared to the 1960 s. And this produces nitric oxide a potent Greenhouse Gas and the same fertilizer produces toxic runoff which kills wildlife and reduces the lands ability to absorb carbon and then this all the methane from Record Numbers of livestock other elements such as transportation and storage on the global food system accounts for nearly 40 percent of Greenhouse Gas emissions so how do we feed everyone in a way that sustains the land and protects ecosystems i mean hey were travel to wales in the u. K. Where some farmers are working on ways to do just that. For farmers looking after the land whatever the weather is a lifetime commitment none more so than at the holden family farm in the welsh hills where they take a holistic approach to producing food no chemicals have been used on the palm of 46 years and theyve sown herbs into the pasture land to build a copper back to the soil to help offset some of the methane produced by the cows. Thats chicory and in here as well theres Yarrow Burnette and other herbal plants which the cows loved also they have deep roots and they help rian live in the soil and build the organic carbon by which we need to have to do to address Climate Change. Patrick is a pioneer of the movement to produce food more sustainably he wants governments to support and vironment friendly farming methods while taxing those that pollute and hes encouraging consumers to pay more attention to how the food on the table is produced a lot of farmers doubt whether the system could work and feed enough people but heres a which is demonstrating that this is the future the i. P. C. C. The uns body on Climate Change says Global Warming is already upset in food systems decreasing harvests an increasing Food Insecurity but it says poor land practices a contributing to 23 percent of global Greenhouse Gas emissions come from bombing agriculture and other land uses the trend towards more Sustainable Farming is something we can afford not to undertake and we need to act immediately because we probably have only 10 years left in making these changes. Irreversible Climate Change. Looking after the soil and seeing its potential for combating Climate Change is at the heart of what happens a few kilometers away blind camel and contributes to this organic balm success. Being created. For materials like grass. And. It is biologically active with millions of microorganisms working to fill the life of the foil here they aim to be Carbon Neutral but plan to be carbon negative and everything thats grown goes into the local markets. By managing the farmlands of the world you can bring carbon into a situation where it is stable within the saw oil and that will help the future not only for Climate Change per se but also for Food Production farming wherever in the world has always been tough but a changing climate makes it even more challenging some farmers believe the answer lies in overhauling current industrialised farming techniques and embracing practices that both draw from and nurture the land emma he would aljazeera in the west of wales but plan it s. O. S. Well there are many different views on how to improve the global food system supposed protect the planet and ensure everyone gets enough to eat for one take on it im joined by author and environmental activist George Monbiot was also a columnist with the Guardian Newspaper george fantastic to have you on planet s. O. S. Theres a lot to change in our feeling system where to start. The 1st place i would start is really switching away as much as possible from a meat based diet to a plant based diet livestock use roughly 3 quarters of all the Agricultural Land that we use today and yet they produce just 18 percent of our calories its a really profligate use of land it is the biggest driver of habitat loss and of the loss of wildlife farming and fishing our and livestock farming in particular because of its incredible land use and that represents a massive lost opportunity to protect our living world and also to absorb carbon which we could do if that landrys used instead to revert to nature and become wild ecosystems once more and what about the people here depend on light stuff well of course there are many people around the world who are subsistence pastoralists and the last thing i want to do is to take away their livelihood or say they shouldnt be doing what theyre doing what were talking about here i think is commercial livestock production for sale into Commodity Markets and the argument being made or almost unanimously by food writers and by Celebrity Chefs and by t. V. Personalities is we should be switching away from intensive b. Production to free range pasture fed meat that argument is completely wrong in environmental terms its the worst possible thing you could be doing so what im saying is that thats not where the choice should lie the choice should lie between meat or not to meet and the choice we should make is not me now of course there are commercial produces who would see themselves having to change their profession and im saying you know lets make sure that we support them in that change but no more than people who want to see. Green transition have a. Moral duty to justify the coal industry do people like me who want to see that transition take place in agriculture have a moral duty to justify livestock production what we should justify is helping people to get out of it and into other professions thank you very much george were going to have to end it there thank you very much amanda or there are many Resources Available to help us understand the impact we have on our planets heres one from the Global Footprints Network which provides analysis and tools to encourage us to live sustainably this footprint calculator helps us measure our own ecological footprint and consider solutions so we can trade war lightly on the earth whether combined human footprint is heaviest laundry generation can help reduce the impacts more than 500000000 people live in areas affected by desert vacation linked to Climate Change. Breaking into programming to take you now to london where germany france and the u. K. Are about to hold talks with a turkey over the crisis in syria lets listen in to what the german chancellor has to say the been under involvement of u. N. H. C. R. And the United Nations and we want to keep discussing this and be in contact and we talked about libya how from all sides the berlin pros says has been acknowledged and that this format should be continued and here again we also need a ceasefire as quickly as possible we all agreed that we will continue to work on to that form or to this format 1st on an advise certain level and then next year we will meet again. Under such a former to continue the work it was a very good meeting but it could it could only be the beginning of a longer process because it was not enough time here today of course and we must not let her majesty wait. For. All of our. Other top of the yes but. I think. With these discussions that we just had in this format with the turkish president it appeared that these meetings are always good and that we can talk about these subjects and it will also have not have been bilateral talks in various ways and i think weve got a good explanation for this is meeting and i think whatever the differences are and that we will have to name and talk about the future of nato and strategic things that we have in common but i am embarking this meeting quite optimistically. Our Angela Merkel the german chancellor speaking to reporters there after a meeting a 4 way meeting between germany Turkey France and the United Kingdom which happened on the sidelines of this nato meeting in london a 4 way meeting where they discussed the crisis in syria will have war on what was talked about but briefly the german chancellor there saying. They discussed a number of issues including syria of course but also saw libya as well the leaders are due to be hosted by the queen later this evening and their formal nato meeting will get under way tomorrow wednesday earlier today there was another bilateral meeting between the u. S. President donald trump and frances president emanuel macaw and they had a rather blistering press conference east to lead this. And they talked about a range of issues and frances leader a man iraq or. Talked about the fact that he had said that nato was brain dead and stood by his comments in fact and the 2 leaders again sparing over trade over terrorists over security and a number of other issues both the man in mccall and donald trump however agreed that the future of nato and what needs to be done to be put forward in achieves long term peace in europe lets listen to some of their comments earlier. I dont use it might my Statement Read some reactions shake a little be a lot of people i dont mind and i have to see when you look at what needs to be 1st of all. This isnt the illusion and isnt the problem to remind us of us but when we think about it its not just about money. We have to be respectful hes also. The full burden we share the full scope because he is also all this knowledge. And i do believe that in such certain terms we do the. Less we have the police security. The president i i think you really need more flexibility and i think we both agree on that so we can use it for other things than just. You know what a specific country you know a lot of people say it was better to look originally in the soviet union now russia but we also have other things to look at whether its radical islamic terrorists over there is the tremendous growth of china. And thats not the only disagreement brewing within the Alliance Nato leaders are trying to find out ways to resolve another dispute and thats with turkeys president russia typewriter one who earlier warned that hell oppose a major nato defense plan if Member States refuse to recognize kurdish fighters in syria as terrorist threats they can listen to. The nato needs to act in a proactive manner against threats proposed by the terrorist organizations its inevitable that nato is in need of readjusting itself against todays terrorist threats we expect our allies to display strong cooperation with us against the threats were facing. I lets now bring in our diplomatic editor jane spains who is live with us from london james so we heard a short while ago from germanys chancellor im going to merkel after i believe what was a meeting a 4 way meeting with turkey the u. K. France and germany on syria do we know what came out of those discussions we dont know but we do know the backdrop which is real disagreement and that came out very publicly from president macro earlier on when he was with President Trump making it clear that he disagrees very much with turkeys position on syria saying that turkey regards people as terrorists who he says all the people that weve been fighting alongside so clearly there is a problem here and i think many of the nato allies are concerned we have an old situation now if you look at the history of the war the 8 year war in syria that right now turkey is pretty well aligned and has a pretty cordial relationship with russia now on syria and of course russia is on the side of the assad regime and on the a side of of iran those are not normal bedfellows for nato so there are problems real problems in the relationship between turkey and the rest of nato because out on the turkish 1st purchase of Russian Missile systems and you have real tensions in this alliance but of course that is just one on multiple tensions happening at the same time at this summit supposed to be nato 70th Birthday Party and some seeing it a bit or almost as awake indeed and we did see those divisions. Come across during the press conference a News Conference between the american and french leaders and in fact theyre not even calling this a summit james i believe its now a meeting a nato meeting what are we expecting to come out of it that. Well i think theyre not theyre saying its not a summit thats. The diplomats of the Foreign Office trying to get out of the fact that nothing is going to be agreed here i think when you have all the leaders of all the nato countries that is the top of the mountain that is the summit so im not quite so sure about that definition its going to be a very difficult meeting because the divisions are so obvious and so exposed thats one of the things you get with President Trump he wants the reporters him there and he says exactly what he thinks youve got President Trump against the rest when it comes to nato is budget breanne the normally unc connected issues of International Trade youve got the tension between President Trump and president macro that youve seen openly on display on a number of issues you have present her to one against everyone else when it comes to syria the one that we havent remarked on yet which im told by very senior figures is actually very serious is a growing rift between the germans and the french between macro and merkel over leadership of europe and europes role in nato theres a personal element to this you have a young vibrant french leader who cant do much on the domestic stage so hes doing everything on the International Stage and the german leader who is in the end period of her time i dont want to that the fact were here in the u. K. Theres a general election taking place we have the toxic atmosphere of brics it which of course affects relations with the european allies its a multidimensional mess and it and i imagine the russians watching this very closely russian president Vladimir Putin as in fact criticize nato has continued expansion. Do we do we get a sense of you know whether there theyll be able to bridge these defenses on an issue like turkey for instance we had the threat from techies president will they be able to find Common Ground on the turkey issue. Well i think that issue which is which is turkey linking whats going on in syria to other issues and there agreement on other issues is serious and is related of course to russia because what turkey is talking about not agreeing to is extra protection for the Baltic States and for poland who fear russia potentially already you have nato countries with forces in those countries but keeping those arrangements going well need the agreement of all the allies and turkey is threatening to block that of course the other thing you still have going is the problems in ukraine probably something because of the domestic implications of that for President Trump is not to talk about very much the diplomacy on that will come in the next few days and although theres disagreements between the french and the germans they are the ones in the socalled normandy format that will be trying to make some progress on ukraine. Just coming back to that meeting on syria and that 4 way meeting on syria understand it was supposed to focus on raising funds for housing Syrian Refugees james do we know what they came up with and i know it just happened very shortly and. I havent got i havent got details of what actually happened there clearly the key areas as we come i think towards the end game in the war in syria you look at what happens next in syria is going to be the reconstruction of syria the potential return of the refugees and whether you can have a new constitution and then a new elections in syria thats what the u. N. Is working on in those talks that are have been going on rather quietly in geneva and clearly certainly many of the nato nations believe that their point of leverage of the assad regime is the fact that if anyones going to rebuild syria then they can force the russians and a sign perhaps to change their ways and certainly they would like the russians to force the assad regime to allow free and Fair Elections but of course thats something that hasnt happened in syria since the assad family took over nearly 50 years ago are you james will leave it there for now thank you so much for speaking to us about all this and well come back to you in a few minutes after the top of the hour here on aljazeera again our main story this hour today in fact analogies there is that nato meeting in london to mark 70 is of the alliance and as james said there needless to say that its a pretty a tense time for the Nato Alliance divisions in for display between the u. S. And france on a number of issues including trade tariffs and turkey will have plenty more on this in just a few minutes here on out is here to stay with us were back after this very short break. Just said on al jazeera as this year comes to an end we look ahead to 2020 and the stories that may shape the year people in power investigates the shocking treatment of disabled people in Eastern Europe skeletons and exclusive look at the Worlds Largest conference on h. R. V. In rwanda will be efforts achieved an aids free africa a true part series charging chinas rise of the 21st century superpower. Un leaders will gather in spain to discuss issues about Climate Change and examine the possible Global Solutions join us for live coverage to sound on aljazeera. Candid testimonies from lebanese women who are staying single longer. Whats causing this cultural shift in a religious society already in the grip of political and social tension. And on their implications for the arab world as a whole. Single by choice on aljazeera. Well we were yesterday. When we get tough it. Out when we get. The war on drugs in the philippines is pushing james to breaking point a Record Number of inmates languish be hauling balls for years awaiting trial while the philippine locked up on aljazeera. In their free state and to the century 20. 1 of your countrys. Divisions over funding strategy and trade overshadow a nato 70th anniversary summit in london. Im fully back to watching aljazeera live from doha what happened ages from london in just a moment where turkeys president has warned nato he will oppose a baltic defense plan unless the alliance recognizes kurdish why b. G. Fight is as terrorists also and this is not