Video: Coastal Wetlands Powerful Ecosystem: PEW

"Did you know that coastal wetlands, like mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes, can absorb carbon and store it for hundreds of years? Mangrove forests alone are able to store 3-5 times more carbon per acre than other tropical forests. Woah. 

Not only do they play an important role in carbon sequestration, but they buffer communities and shorelines by acting as a natural barrier to floods, storm surges, and rising seas. 

Despite their power and potential, they are also some of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. In the last century, we’ve destroyed at least half of our coastal wetlands. 

Now countries around the world have the opportunity to both protect these valuable ecosystems and, at the same time, help fulfill their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. 

 Full Transcript Below: 

 In the boundary between land and sea, rooted in the shallow waters, lie powerful ecosystems that sustain people and the planet. Coastal Wetlands, like mangroves, salt marshes, and sea grasses, are some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on earth. 

They are shelters for sharks, turtles, and birds. 

Feeding and spawning grounds for a variety of fish species, making them integral to food production. 

They are powerful places that safeguard shorelines and combat climate change. Which is why we must choose to protect them. 

Coastal wetlands have an extraordinary capacity to absorb carbon and store it for centuries, helping mitigate emissions. Mangroves alone can store three to five times more carbon per acre than other tropical rainforests. 

Coastal wetlands can also help us adapt to the impacts of climate change. 

By buffering coastlines, they reduce the risk of floods caused by storm surge and rising seas for millions of people. But these wetlands are in grave danger of disappearing altogether. 

 In the last century, we’ve destroyed half of our coastal wetlands, accelerating biodiversity loss and releasing stored carbon back into the atmosphere. 

This not only contributes to climate change, but leaves us more vulnerable to its effects. But there is a path forward to protect these vital ecosystems. 

In 2015, 197 parties adopted the Paris Agreement, committing their countries to reduce emissions and build resilience against the effects of climate change through Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs. Protecting and restoring coastal wetlands is one effective way for governments to meet these commitments. 

 It is also a critical nature-based solution to help us both mitigate and adapt to climate change. 

 In the face of historic threats, we need to take historic action. It’s time to protect our coastal wetlands."

FROM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mCR0pKInsM

https://www.pewtrusts.org

Earth at 2° hotter will be horrific. Now here’s what 4° will look like. | David Wallace-Wells

Earth at 2° hotter will be horrific. Now here’s what 4° will look like. Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos: https://bigth.ink/Edge
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The best-case scenario of climate change is that world gets just 2°C hotter, which scientists call the "threshold of catastrophe". Why is that the good news? Because if humans don't change course now, the planet is on a trajectory to reach 4°C at the end of this century, which would bring $600 trillion in global climate damages, double the warfare, and a refugee crisis 100x worse than the Syrian exodus. David Wallace-Wells explains what would happen at an 8°C and even 13°C increase. These predictions are horrifying, but should not scare us into complacency. "It should make us focus on them more intently," he says. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DAVID WALLACE-WELLS: David Wallace-Wells is a national fellow at the New America foundation and a columnist and deputy editor at New York magazine. He was previously the deputy editor of The Paris Review. He lives in New York City.

Six ways nature can protect us from climate change: CAA

This month, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released a brand-new animation to explain the increasingly popular concept of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA).

Hottest Years

Restoring and protecting nature is one of the greatest strategies for tackling climate change, but not just for the obvious reason that it sucks carbon out the air. Forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems act as buffers against extreme weather, protecting houses, crops, water supplies and vital infrastructure.

The strategy of using nature as a defence against climate impacts is called called ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) – in essence, look after nature and it will look after you.

Here are six ways that nature can defend us from climate change impacts:

Read the CAA article

#jailclimatecriminals  #humanextinction  #climatecrisis  #stopadani

Government's COVID Commission manufacturing plan calls for huge public gas subsidies: ABC NEWS

methane gas industry calls for sunsidies

State bans on coal seam gas development would be scrapped and the Federal Government would underwrite gas prices and massively subsidise costs and investment for gas companies, under confidential plans for a "gas-led manufacturing recovery" post-COVID-19.

Key points:

• Leaked documents reveal a draft plan calling for massive gas subsidies and public investment
• The interim report also calls for reduced 'green and red tape' and an end to all fracking moratoriums in NSW and Victoria
• The National COVID Coordination Commission has several members with deep links to the gas industry

The draft plans, obtained by the ABC, call for the scrapping of "green and red tape" on gas development, including a relaxation of Australian standards for equipment used in gas infrastructure and a loosening of environmental regulations and approval processes.

They are set out in an interim report from the manufacturing taskforce of the National COVID Coordination Commission (NCCC).

The NCCC is a hand-picked team of business leaders and former bureaucrats set up by the Prime Minister's Office to shape the economic recovery from the virus and lockdown, and includes several members with strong links to the gas sector.

The manufacturing taskforce includes business representatives as well as union leaders from that sector.

Its draft report advocates "underwriting new [gas] supply with government balance sheets" to allow gas producers "to invest with confidence and new pipelines to be built to get the gas to markets".

Read the ABC NEWS article

Deep ocean waters warming at faster pace, new study finds: CBS News

 

The absorption of carbon dioxide by the planet’s oceans is increasing, with consequences for both marine species and for human economies that depend upon them. For World Oceans Day (June 8), “Sunday Morning” producer Sara Kugel talks with Oceana’s Jacqueline Savitz about how climate change affects our oceans, and with University of Queensland researcher Issac Brito-Morales, whose new study finds deep waters are warming at a faster pace than the ocean’s surface.Jun 8, 2020

World has six months to avert climate crisis, says energy expert : The Guardian

Climate Change is Real

The world has only six months in which to change the course of the climate crisis and prevent a post-lockdown rebound in greenhouse gas emissions that would overwhelm efforts to stave off climate catastrophe, one of the world’s foremost energy experts has warned.

“This year is the last time we have, if we are not to see a carbon rebound,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency.

Governments are planning to spend $9tn (£7.2tn) globally in the next few months on rescuing their economies from the coronavirus crisis, the IEA has calculated. The stimulus packages created this year will determine the shape of the global economy for the next three years, according to Birol, and within that time emissions must start to fall sharply and permanently, or climate targets will be out of reach.

“The next three years will determine the course of the next 30 years and beyond,” Birol told the Guardian. “If we do not [take action] we will surely see a rebound in emissions. If emissions rebound, it is very difficult to see how they will be brought down in future. This is why we are urging governments to have sustainable recovery packages.”

Read The Guardian article

Climate worst-case scenarios may not go far enough, cloud data shows : The Guardian

Clouds and climate change

Worst-case global heating scenarios may need to be revised upwards in light of a better understanding of the role of clouds, scientists have said.

Recent modelling data suggests the climate is considerably more sensitive to carbon emissions than previously believed, and experts said the projections had the potential to be “incredibly alarming”, though they stressed further research would be needed to validate the new numbers.

Modelling results from more than 20 institutions are being compiled for the sixth assessment by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is due to be released next year.

Compared with the last assessment in 2014, 25% of them show a sharp upward shift from 3C to 5C in climate sensitivity – the amount of warming projected from a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide from the preindustrial level of 280 parts per million. This has shocked many veteran observers, because assumptions about climate sensitivity have been relatively unchanged since the 1980s.

Read the Guardian article