The restoration of natural forests and coasts can simultaneously tackle climate change and the annihilation of wildlife but is being worryingly overlooked, an international group of campaigners have said. Animal populations have fallen by 60% since 1970, suggesting a sixth mass extinction of life on Earth is under way, and it is very likely that carbon dioxide will have to be removed from the atmosphere to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. Trees and plants suck carbon dioxide from the air as they grow and also provide vital habitat for animals.
Guardian 3rd April 2019 read more »
Letter: The world faces two existential crises, developing with terrifying speed: climate breakdown and ecological breakdown. Neither is being addressed with the urgency needed to prevent our life-support systems from spiralling into collapse. We are writing to champion a thrilling but neglected approach to averting climate chaos while defending the living world: natural climate solutions. This means drawing carbon dioxide out of the air by protecting and restoring ecosystems.
Guardian 3rd April 2019 read more »
World seems ambivalent about swift action on climate change – IPCC chair. Reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change will involve answering difficult questions about our lifestyles, and the signs are ambivalent about whether the world , write Professor Hoesung Lee, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and Professor Jim Skea, co-chair of IPCC Working Group III. All reasonable doubts about climate change have now been dispelled by both climate science and everyday experience of unusual weather. The world’s attention is now turning to solutions that could reduce and ultimately eliminate emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most important greenhouse gas. But CO2 emissions are deeply embedded in the activities and social practices of a modern economy. Power stations, industry, cars, aeroplanes, heating buildings, food production and land management are all major sources of emissions worldwide. In 2018, a special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provided a stark warning about the consequences of allowing the world to warm by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. The report noted that it was possible, within the laws of physics and chemistry, to limit global warming to 1.5C. But it concluded that this would require “rapid and far-reaching transitions in energy, land, urban and infrastructure” that would be “unprecedented in terms of scale”. Emissions of CO2 would need to fall by roughly 45 per cent by 2030 from present-day levels to keep us on track towards 1.5C. Are governments, and are citizens, up for that? The signs are ambivalent. Under the Paris Agreement, governments set an aim of removing as much CO2 from the atmosphere as we put in by the second half of the 21st century – “net zero” or “carbon neutrality” in other words. And some countries have indeed started to set “net zero” targets. The Climate Change Bill, which has just started its journey through the Scottish Parliament, allows for exactly that. But, at the same time, as governments are formulating lofty long-term goals, there has been less progress in terms of immediate actions. Globally, emissions are still rising. And the pledges that governments have made under the Paris Agreement set the world on a path to global warming of 3C or more.
Scotsman 3rd April 2019 read more »
