Together with climate change, the world is also facing a biodiversity crisis, which has failed to capture the same attention. But efforts made by governments to tackle the climate crisis show that action is possible when there is sufficient political will, writes Janice Weatherley-Singh ahead of a UN convention on biological diversity.
Dr. Janice Weatherley-Singh is the director of EU strategic relations for WCS EU, a Belgian NGO affiliated with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
In the past decade, the impact of the climate crisis has become clear with rising temperatures, droughts, powerful storms, and floods, causing harm to local communities and economies. Increasingly, people understand why we must cut carbon emissions. Yet the global biodiversity crisis has failed to capture the same political attention and public concern.
The frequency of natural disasters has soared in recent decades. Total damage topped $210 billion worldwide in 2020. With climate change, the costs attributed to coastal storms will increase dramatically.
Op-Ed: How to save coastlines from climate change disasters latimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from latimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
London, UK (17 March 2021) A new study published in the prestigious peer-reviewed scientific journal
Nature today offers a combined solution to several of humanity s most pressing challenges. It is the most comprehensive assessment to date of where strict ocean protection can contribute to a more abundant supply of healthy seafood and provide a cheap, natural solution to address climate change in addition to protecting embattled species and habitats.
An international team of 26 authors identified
specific areas that, if protected, would safeguard over 80% of the habitats for endangered marine species, and increase fishing catches by more than eight million metric tons. The study is also the first to quantify the potential release of carbon dioxide into the ocean from trawling, a widespread fishing practice and finds that