Indigenous lands are crucial for climate mitigation and resilience. Research shows their health is a direct result of Indigenous stewardship
While this isn't news to anyone who works in this space, it is useful to have this water-is-wet research to affirm that Indigenous knowledge and land management are extremely effective at storing carbon and protecting biodiversity.
I want to draw special attention to this part of the article:
New research shows that approach overlooks the key role that Indigenous knowledge and culture can play in mitigating climate change. It also reveals a dangerous misconception that has taken hold in global climate discussions: the idea that Indigenous lands are so rich because they are remote or sparsely populated.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The health of Indigenous lands and their ability to store vast quantities of carbon stem from the stewardship of the people who inhabit them.
Dozens of projects are in development across US despite concerns over environmental and health risks
Excerpt from this story from The Guardian:
The plan to bury carbon under remote Indiana farmland is supposed to be a slam dunk for the climate, according to its supporters – all generously funded by US tax dollars.
But as far as Melissa Harrison and some other residents of Clymers, Indiana, are concerned, it just might be the end of their town. “This is our place,” she says. Generations of her family are buried in the cemetery, and she is raising her five grandchildren in one of several dozen white-clapboard homes among cornfields and industrial plants serving the farming industry.
Now a local ethanol plant has spearheaded a project to bury vast stores of carbon deep in the geologic formation that runs under the town and surrounding farms.
The government subsidies for the plan, which is supposed to help prevent global heating, are so generous that companies all over the country have been rushing to get permission for similar projects.
But residents around some of these carbon sequestration projects are organizing to stop them, making Clymers a center of emerging national tensions around these projects.
While international climate monitors say carbon sequestration projects could be secondary tools to help contain global warming, they also say the main focus must be on urgent and deep cuts to fossil fuels. Some environmental groups question the benefits of carbon sequestration and are concerned it could delay the transition to clean energy and pose risks to surrounding communities.
The best thing to do is to stop emitting carbon. However, preserving a safe climate will likely require us to go further.
"To avoid integrity issues, the world will need robust regulations on how carbon removal is conducted. This includes:
agreed standards to measure carbon removal in ways that rule out dodgy or temporary carbon removal
more advanced carbon removal technologies that bring down the cost and reduce land and energy requirements
more sophisticated ways of aligning carbon removal with social justice so that sovereignty and humanity rights are prioritised over carbon markets
a system of incentives to encourage carbon removal. States, companies and other actors should be rewarded for their climate restoration work, but these efforts must be additional to actual emissions reduction.
Of course, the best thing to do is to stop emitting carbon. However, preserving a safe climate will likely require us to go further. It’s time to start a democratic discussion about carbon removal."
Restoring degraded natural lands highly effective for carbon storage and avoiding species extinctions
Restoring natural landscapes damaged by human exploitation can be one of the most effective and cheapest ways to combat the climate crisis while also boosting dwindling wildlife populations, a scientific study finds.
If a third of the planet’s most degraded areas were restored, and protection was thrown around areas still in good condition, that would store carbon equating to half of all human caused greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial revolution.
The changes would prevent about 70% of predicted species extinctions, according to the research, which is published in the journal Nature.
How do trees clean the air and store carbon? Find out how trees benefit people and the planet!
✅ Subscribe to One Tree Planted: https://bit.ly/2IsCtqc
🌳 Plant one tree: https://onetreeplanted.org/reforestat...
00:00 Intro
00:40 Photosynthesis
00:56 Air pollution
1:42 Storing carbon
2:51 Conclusion
Trees help the world in many ways - they create habitats for wildlife, filter water, improve community health and well-being, clean the air, and sequester carbon. Trees are like the lungs of the world, and they create a lot of the oxygen we breathe. Trees absorb carbon dioxide through pores on their leaves called stomata. Through photosynthesis oxygen is released into the atmosphere through the stomata.
Trees also remove pollution form the air, which comes from many sources such as burning fossil fuels, manufacturing, and forest fires. It comes in different forms such as particulate matter which can be intercepted by the tree's bark, branches, and leaves. There are also gaseous pollutants that are absorbed through the stomata on the leaves' surfaces. Healthy trees reduce air pollution and are able to help prevent respiratory illnesses caused by pollutants. Trees also cool the air by creating shade and releasing water vapor.
Trees also store carbon, which helps to mitigate climate change. Trees remove carbon dioxide from the air during photosynthesis and store this carbon in their roots, leaves, trunks, and branches. As the trees grow larger, they store more and more carbon making them an excellent long term carbon storage system. However, deforestation and human-caused fires disrupt the cycle of carbon storage and can be major sources of carbon being released back into the atmosphere.
To mitigate climate change and help clean the air there are a few things we can do. By practicing sustainable management, protecting forests, and planting trees we can slow the rise in temperature. But we can’t do it alone.
One Tree Planted is committed to growing resilient, healthy, productive forests for the benefit of people, communities, and the planet. If you would like to learn more and take action visit our website and subscribe to our youtube channel.
🌲 About One Tree Planted:
One Tree Planted is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and we plant trees! We are a tree planting charity with a goal: to make it as simple as possible for anyone to plant trees. One dollar. One Tree.
🙋♀️ We also run hundreds of tree planting events around the world for people to get outdoors and plant trees in their local communities.
➡️ Follow what One Tree Planted is up to:
🌱 Official website: https://onetreeplanted.org/reforestation
New research suggests that a new type of green building could become a carbon sink, effectively reversing climate change.
The building sector is one of the biggest contributors to climate change - contributing nearly 39% of global energy use and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Embodied carbon is responsible for 11% of total greenhouse gas emissions. But using materials that store carbon, like straw, wood, linoleum, and cedar, can actually soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the building's walls. It may seem counterintuitive, but just through careful selection of materials, the building sector could transform from a major carbon emitter to a carbon sink.
Building with carbon-intensive materials increases the upfront embodied carbon footprint. Magwood says that the ability to store carbon makes up for the less "energy efficient" structure. In his paper, he even calls for stricter regulations and policies enforcing caps on up-front embodied carbon.
One of my go to daydream fantasies involves me owning sth which I call ´the carbon storage facility´ and when people visit I am wearing a labcoat, goggles and a clipboard and greet them in front of my sleek white-blue name board. I have a fancy name tag reading ´dr.kiwibes, chief supervisor of carbon sequestration equipment´ and I give visitors tours in a blocky white sterile looking building with diagrams and one of those blue sipwell office machines and explanatory plaques and I guide them to a series of one way mirror windows, so that the specimens dont see us spying but each and every window just looks into a forest which I own. That´s it. That is my carbon storage facility.
There are raised walkways, wide enough to let wheelchairs comfortably pass. There is a fragrant path for people that want to test their senses, big apocalyptic looking structure like a buried statue head to give some mystic past fantasy realm vibes, wild bee observatories, plant statues, bird observatories, a safe campfire spot, climbing structures for kids and adventurous adults, woven willow structures, a beaver reintroduced stream, wild hamsters, storck hang outs, a rhododendron labyrint, enough seating spots for tired or older people, a part food forest, an atelier spot hide-out, a hobbithole for storage and everyone who is seen littering gets shot on sight (by a water gun. Or paintball gun if I´m having a bad day).
I can be hired for guided walks, showing you the best secret photography spots (nature, wedding, cosplay, ig, etc), holiday camp activities or ´safaris´ which are entirely photography related and includes a kaki bonnet and I take a throphy pic of you with a nice tree or bush.
Anyway, I spent a ridiculous amount of time daydreaming about it cuz it brings me a lot of joy so I thought sharing it with everyone to share in the joy lol
Also, someone gimme a forest. I want to catch litter people in the act so they can tell me to mind my own bussiness so I can reply that I AM minding my own bussiness cuz its my forest and they are exiled for life.
