In a new report in Nature Climate Change by Schmitz et al. 2023, nature-based climate solutions aimed at carbon capture in ecosystems that have been viewed as playing an ancillary role in protecting ecosystems and wildlife habitats have undermined the actual critical role wildlife have as a solution towards climate change.
According to the report; “Rewilding nine wildlife species (African forest elephants, American bison, fish, gray wolves, musk oxen, sea otters, sharks, whales, and wildebeest) would contribute more than 95% of the annual requirement to achieve the global target of extracting 500 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by 2100. This in turn would help cap the global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degree Celius.”
As an example, elephants by design are a keystone species, meaning they have a large effect on the natural environment. In their ecosystems, they help keep soil fertile and healthy for plants to thrive, they deposit seeds as they migrate which helps plants to grow in other areas and therefore provide us with more oxygen and cleaner air.
Keystone species are the blueprint to help keep our ecosystems balanced and intact. Saving them is a simple solution to help save our planet because healthy ecosystems provide us with healthy water, oxygen, and sequester carbon.
As many scientists agree, we have crossed the threshold and are in Earth’s sixth mass extinction crisis where by 2050, 30-50% of Earth’s species will be extinct.
According to the report by Schmitz et al. 2023, “There is an urgency because we are losing populations of many animal species at the very time that we are discovering the degree to which their role in ecosystems can enable carbon capture and storage.”
We are at a crossroads where our actions have an impact on each other, other fellow beings and the health of our planet. There is evidence that protecting nature and wildlife is literally a natural solution to combating climate change.
Resources:
Schmitz, O.J., Sylvén, M., Atwood, T.B. et al. Trophic rewilding can expand natural climate solutions. Nat. Clim. Chang. 13, 324–333 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01631-6
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