Rewilding could be the key to carbon capture

We can and should change our lifestyles to combat global warming, but everyone knows it will take time. Meanwhile, there’s an awful lot of carbon sloshing around in the atmosphere, heating us up, turning our coasts into sea and our land into deserts. And according to Nature, there is hope-rewilding. Here’s what they say

Restoring a third of the areas most degraded by humans and preserving remaining natural ecosystems would prevent 70% of projected extinctions of mammals, birds and amphibians. It would also sequester around 465 gigatonnes of CO₂ — almost half of the total atmospheric CO₂ increase since the Industrial Revolution. Researchers scoured detailed land-use and cover maps of the globe to pinpoint the places where rewilding would have most impact and be most cost-effective. “We were surprised by the magnitude of what we found – the huge difference that restoration can make,” says environmental scientist Bernardo Strassburg. Done properly, rewilding can even go hand in hand with increased agricultural productivity, says Strassburg.The Guardian | 5 min read
Reference: Nature paper

The point is that it can be done. And in a way that will restore our most beautiful habitats-not just forests but also savannahs, wetlands and moors. Let’s take an idea from the United States. It has always been our belief that the great cultural legacy of the USA will be its conception and development of National Parks, It is a gift to the world every bit as valuable as French Gothic Cathedrals or Italian Renaissance Art. If readers will pardon the pun-take a leaf out of the Americans’ book.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/14/re-wild-to-mitigate-the-climate-crisis-urge-leading-scientis

#carboncapture #rewild #globalwarming #carbondioxide