To stop the climatic catastrophe, there are certain places on Earth that we simply cannot allow ourselves to destroy, in accordance with a new research by international conservation scientists.
Compiling carbon data from forests, tasland and wetlands, scientists determined how much carbon is stored in ecosystems worldwide and measured how long it would take to lose it, and what that loss means humanity.
The result: a plan where, and how to focus efforts to protect the living carbon reserves of the Earth.
‘The carbon value of a generation’
The scientists identified the pockets of the carbon stores “of unrecoverable carbon” that are potentially vulnerable to the release of human activity and, if they are lost, they cannot be restored for the needs of needs for needs of needs for needs of needs for needs of needs for needs of needs for needs of need for need for ehans.)
The unrecoverable carbon covers six of the seven continents, including fixed stores in the Amazon, the Congo basin, Indonesia, northwest of North America, southern Chile, Southvern Australia and New Zealand. These ecosystems contain more than 260 billion tons of unrecoverable carbon, most of which are stored in mangroves, peat bogs, old forests and swamps. This amount of carbon is equivalent to 26 years of fossil fuel emissions to current rates.
“We are talking about the Horth of Carbon of a generation contained in these critical ecosystems,” said Allie Goldstein, Climate Scientist at Conservation International and the main author of the document. “The good news is that we now know where this unrecoverable coal can be found, and is largely under our control to protect it.”
Carbon constantly flows inside and outside the ecosystems, added the international scientist Will Turner, also author in the document.
But as humans destroy strips of forests the size of a city at a growing rate, the scale is tilting strongly to “out.”
“We already know that fossil fuels release large amounts of emissions and that we need to keep them on the ground,” Turner said. “Now we know that when independent ecosystems are destroyed or degraded, they release massive carbon amounts that we simply cannot return in time to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change. We have been to make the protection of the thesis.” “
Defining ‘unrecoverable’
In the document, the scientists analyzed the carbon stocks stored in the main ecosystems of the world through three dimensions: if humans can influence that carbon stock, the amount of carbon that is probably released and recovered the Housysted distydddddddD if it is lost.
With the thesis criteria, researchers could identify which ecosystems are more crucial to prioritize for climatic action, and where humans can update an impact.
“There are some carbon existences in ecosystems such as Tundra, where permafrost will release carbon as it defrosts due to global warming,” Turner said. “Unfortunately, at this point there is little that we can do directly in those places to prevent carbon being released. But other carbon existences that we studied bees released due to human activities such as eliminating a difference.
Driven by agriculture and logging, tropical deforestation rates have shot around the world. In the Amazon, the largest tropical jungle in the world, the destruction of the forest has increased an amazing 85 percent since 2018. The mangroves continue to be destroyed, with more than 100,000 hectares (247000 acres) lost from 2000 to 2012. Mainly to leave space for oil palm plantations.
We still have time
According to Goldstein, however, there is still time to protect these critical ecosystems.
“We are right at the optimal point where carbon stocks in most of these ecosystems are still manageable,” Goldstein said. “Our land use decisions are still important at this time. If temperatures increase by more than 2 degrees Celsius, then there will be more ecosystems that will change to that unmanageable category.”
Althehe Not all ecosystems that store irrecoverable carbon are under threat at this time, Fits is not always the same when it comes to risk, says Gymnast.
Take Borneo: A few decades ago, the island was full of peats and forests full of wildlife, he explained. Now, Borneo has a surprisingly high rate of deformation, with more than a quarter of a million hectares of growth and peat forests destroyed every year, much of that turned into oil palm plantations.
As intense agricultural production and development worldwide, countries must act both reactively and proactively to protect crucial thesis ecosystems, Turner advised.
“Preventing deforestation only in places where it is happening at this time is like having a medical care system composed only of emergency rooms. We need to be proactive to protect thesis carbon reserves while we can still.”
Protect nature, protect carbon
The bad news: if we lose a third of this unrecoverable carbon, that would only put us on our carbon budget to remain within a 1.5 -degree celsius temperature increase (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the limit that scientists say.
The good news: there are a number of activities that humans can do to protect it, says Bronson Griscom, who directs the work of Conservation International on natural climatic solutions and was also co -author of the new study.
To stop the climate breakdown, he explained, we need to do two things: emit less carbon and eliminate excess carbon from the atmosphere.
“Unrecoverable carbon existences are an essential piece of the history of natural climatic solutions,” Griscom said. “We need to start designing the next generation of protected area networks that cover a series of thesis, andStical Ecosystics, Andysticalsstatals, Andysticalsstatals, Andysticalssticals, Andysticalssticals and OsticesSstatals StockStics. The critical points for other services of the essential ecosystem such as floods, water filtration and biodiversity.
Next step: a ‘treasure map’
Now that thesis scientists know which ecosystems have the most unrecoverable carbon, they are determining where they can be found exactly.
“When locating the unrecoverable carbon stocks on a global scale, we can provide countries with a treasure map of the places that we can least allow ourselves to lose and the places where we have to stop deforestation faster,” Goldstein explained.
“This will help us a real protection plan against carbon and where to assign funds at local, national and global scale.”
What establishes this separate map: it will show how much unrecoverable carbon there are in the existing protected areas and under indigenous management, and where, as well as in the pockets that are currently not protected.
Conservation International is also using this research to carry out an ambitious initiative to protect dozens of millions of hectares of ecosystems in an unrecoverable carbon.
But to avoid the most serious impacts of climate change, protecting unrecoverable carbon must be a priority between industries and interested parties, from the private sector to governments.
“We have increasing evidence that the final battlefield, whether we fail or succeed in delivering the Paris Climate Climate Agreement to maintain the global heating line of 1.5 degrees Celsius, not only is it just that whispers, Ito Heter said Johan Rockström, the chief scientist of International Conservation.” Here, we provide the first global evaluation of ecosystems ecosystems that have our future in their hands in their hands. ” “
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n615S145xi
Kiley Price is personnel writer at Conservation International. Why read more stories like this? Register to obtain updates by email. Donate to Conservation International.
Cover image: Mangroves in Guyana (© Pete Oxford/ICLP)
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