Seaweed was thought to be a vital tool in the fight to slow climate change. But it turns out seaweed ecosystems may be a natural source of carbon dioxide – and not a sink.
Tiny seashells draw carbon to the ocean floor when they die. This is the most significant geological process of carbon storage today, and it might increase in a warmer world, as it did in the past.
The U.S. had seven operating offshore wind turbines with 42 megawatts of capacity in 2021. The Biden administration’s goal is 30,000 megawatts by 2030.
AP Photo/Michael Dwyer
Wind turbines often can produce more power than is needed for electricity onshore. That extra energy could be put to work capturing and storing carbon.
Wetlands created by beavers, like this one in Amherst, Massachusetts, store floodwaters and provide habitat for animals and birds.
Christine Hatch
About 60% of Mexico’s forests are managed by local communities. A scholar who has studied the forests for 30 years explains how this system protects the forests and the people who oversee them.
A bald eagle on Baranof Island in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.
Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images
The Tongass National Forest in Alaska, a focus of political battles over old-growth logging and road-building in forests for decades, has received new protection from the Biden administration.
How do we ensure solutions to climate change doesn’t make biodiversity loss worse? Fifty of the world’s leading researchers on biodiversity and climate have sought to answer this question.
Planting trees can sometimes be a carbon-offset box-ticking exercise, but reforestation is a long-term commitment that supports communities, promotes biodiversity and tackles the climate emergency.
Aerial view of native seedlings for forest restoration at the the Instituto Terra, Aimores, Brazil.
Christian Ender/Getty Images
Large-scale tree-planting projects are politically popular and media-friendly, but without effective planning and long-term management, they can do more harm than good.
A stable ecosystem of organic matter is the key to improving agricultural yields in the surrounding farmland and fighting climate change.
An African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) in Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Republic of the Congo.
Nicolas Deloche/Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
A new review of the status of African elephants finds scientific grounds for dividing them into two species, and reports that both have suffered drastic population declines since 1990.
Ocean carbon storage is driven by phytoplankton blooms, like the turquoise swirls visible here in the North Sea and waters off Denmark.
NASA
Microscopic ocean phytoplankton feed a “biological pump” that carries carbon from the surface to deep waters. Scientists have found that this process stores much more carbon than previously thought.
Carbon in soil can help with tackling climate change. Maintaining soil quality by supporting farmers through economic incentives and technical approaches is important.
Native ash forest logs in the Rubicon Valley.
Chris Taylor
Managing Director, Triple Helix Consulting; Chief Executive Officer, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; Professorial Fellow, ANU Fenner School for the Environment and Society, Australian National University