Tackling degraded oceans could mitigate climate crisis - report // Europe’s environmental watchdog: Don't pursue economic growth at expense of environment
Halting overfishing
and the plastic
pollution of the oceans could help tackle the climate emergency by
improving the degraded state of the world’s biggest carbon sink, a report has
found. The oceans absorb both
the excess heat generated by our greenhouse gas emissions, and absorb carbon
dioxide itself, helping to reduce the impacts of climate chaos.
But we are
rapidly reaching
the limits of the oceans’ absorptive capacity as our pillage of marine
life is disrupting vital ecosystems and the natural carbon cycle. Creating ocean
sanctuaries and forging a new treaty to protect the oceans, with a target of
safeguarding at least 30% of the oceans by 2030, could restore many areas to
health and combat global heating, according to the report entitled Hot Water:
the climate crisis and the urgent need for ocean protection, published by Greenpeace
International
on Wednesday. Phytoplankton such
as algae, for instance, transform dissolved carbon dioxide into organic carbon,
which then forms part of the food chain. Gradually some of this sinks to the
sea bottom where it is buried in sediment. Without the biological
carbon pump that this entails concentrations of carbon in the
atmosphere today would be about 50% higher...
Save the Oceans, Feed the World
Don't pursue economic growth at expense of environment
Pursuing economic
growth at the expense of the environment is no longer an option as Europe faces
“unprecedented” challenges from climate chaos, pollution, biodiversity
loss and the overconsumption of natural resources, according to a
report from Europe’s environmental watchdog. Europe was
reaching the limits of what could be achieved by gradual means, by making
efficiencies and small cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, with “transformational”
change now necessary to stave off the impacts of global heating and
environmental collapse, warned Hans Bruyninckx, executive director of the
European Environment Agency. “Marginal efficiency
gains are not enough – they are not working to bring down emissions,” he said.
“There is also a higher cost to marginal efficiency gains, if we keep investing
in that....
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/04/dont-pursue-economic-growth-at-expense-of-environment-report
