interventions

An Accelerating Rate Of Mountain Forest Loss | Earth Wise

April 27, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Mountains contribute disproportionately to the Earth’s diversity of life. While mountains account for about 25% of the land area on Earth, they are home to more than 85% of the mammal, bird, and amphibian species. But alarmingly, forested mountain habitats in which these species live are disappearing, and they appear to be disappearing at an accelerating rate.

According to a new study recently published in the journal One Earth, more than 300,000 square miles of mountain forest has been lost globally since 2000, which is an area larger than the state of Texas.

A research team led by scientists from Leeds University in the United Kingdom and the Southern University of Science and Technology in China tracked changes in mountain forests on an annual basis from 2001 to 2018. The researchers found logging to be the biggest driver of mountain forest loss, responsible for 42% of the overall decline. This is followed by wildfires at 29%, so-called “slash-and-burn” cultivation at 15%, and permanent or semi-permanent agriculture at 10%. Significant losses occurred in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, and South America, but not in Oceania or North America.

The research team also found that the rate of mountain forest loss seems to be accelerating: in fact, the annual rate of loss increased 50% from 2010-2018 when compared with 2001-2009.

While developing additional forest protection strategies and interventions is critical, the researchers emphasize the importance of also considering food production, livelihoods, and human wellbeing in any new measures.

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Mountain forests are being lost at an accelerating rate, putting biodiversity at risk

Photo, posted December 6, 2018, courtesy of Lance Cheung / USDA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Geoengineering Research Plan | Earth Wise

July 22, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The 2022 federal appropriations act, signed into law in March, directed the Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop a cross-agency group to coordinate research on climate interventions, in partnership with NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Energy.

The group is tasked with creating a research framework to “provide guidance on transparency, engagement, and risk management for publicly funded work on solar geoengineering research.” The group is supposed to develop a five-year plan that will define research goals for the field, assess the potential hazards of climate interventions, and evaluate the level of federal funding required to carry out the work.

This marks the first federally coordinated effort of this kind and is especially significant because it contributes to the perception that geoengineering is an appropriate and important area of research as the climate continues to warm.

It is an understatement to say that such research is controversial. Geoengineering has often been a taboo topic among scientists. There are significant questions about potential environmental side effects and concerns that the impact of any such efforts would be felt unevenly in different parts of the world. There are challenging questions about global governance , including who should be able to make decisions about any potential deployment of climate interventions and what the goals of such interventions should be.

These are momentous issues to grapple with, but as the threat of climate change grows and nations continue to fail to make rapid progress on emissions, researchers, universities, and nations are increasingly motivated to seriously explore the potential effects of geoengineering approaches. We can’t hide from the fact that these issues are going to be explored.

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The US government is developing a solar geoengineering research plan

Photo, posted June 28, 2013, courtesy of Fernando Aramburu via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Climate Change And Heat-Related Deaths | Earth Wise

July 14, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a new study recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change, more than one-third of the world’s heat-related deaths each year are attributable to human-induced climate change.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK and the University of Bern in Switzerland analyzed data from 732 locations in 43 countries. They took observed temperatures and compared them with 10 computer models simulating a world without climate change. By applying this technique to their data, the researchers were able to calculate for the first time the actual contribution of anthropogenic climate change in increasing mortality risks due to heat.

The research team found that 37% of all heat-related deaths between 1991 and 2018 were attributable to the warming of the planet due to human activities. This percentage was highest in South America, Central America, and South-East Asia.

In the United States, 35% of heat deaths were found to be a result of climate change. New York had the most heat-related deaths at 141, and Honolulu had the highest percentage of heat deaths attributable to climate change at 82%.

But scientists caution that this is only a small portion of the climate’s overall impact. Many more people die from other extreme weather amplified by climate change, including severe storms, floods, and droughts. Heat-related death figures will grow exponentially as temperatures rise.

According to the research team, the study’s findings highlight the need to adopt stronger climate change mitigation strategies, and to implement interventions to protect people from the adverse consequences of heat exposure.

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Global warming already responsible for one in three heat-related deaths

Photo, posted April 14, 2017, courtesy of Karim Bench via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Biodiversity And Trawling Bans | Earth Wise

June 7, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Trawling is a method of commercial fishing that involves pulling or dragging a fishing net – called a trawl – through the water or across the seabed in hopes of catching fish. Commercial fishing companies favor towing trawl nets because large quantities of fish can be caught in one go.

However, the trouble with trawling is that it’s destructive to the seafloor and indiscriminate in what it catches. When towing these large trawl nets, the largest of which is reportedly big enough to catch thirteen 747 jets, everything that happens to be in the way gets caught. As a result, trawling results in lots of bycatch, a fishing industry term used to describe the deaths of non target species during the process.

In 2012, the Hong Kong government implemented a territory-wide trawling ban in its waters in hopes of rehabilitating the marine benthic habitat. The benthic zone refers to the ecological region at the bottom of the ocean.

Researchers from City University of Hong Kong collected sediment samples from 28 locations six months before the trawl ban and two and a half years after the trawl ban to see whether such interventions can facilitate ecosystem recovery.

According to the study, which was recently published in the journal Communications Biology, the ban on trawling significantly improved marine biodiversity. The researchers observed substantial increases in the richness of species and the abundance of benthic marine organisms following the trawling ban. And since small benthic organisms are the main source of food for large species like fish and crabs, the trawling ban actually helps support fisheries.

More governments should consider a trawl ban to promote sustainable fisheries and marine biodiversity conservation.

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Research confirms trawl ban substantially increases the abundance of marine organisms

Photo, posted December 4, 2018, courtesy of John via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Microplastic Hotspots In The Ocean | Earth Wise

June 4, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Many of us are aware of the infamous ocean “garbage patches” of floating plastic. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is roughly the size of Texas. But over 10 million tons of plastic waste enter the oceans each year and the floating patches only account for 1% of that total. The remaining 99% of the plastic ends up in the deep ocean, generally in the form of microplastics – tiny fragments of large plastic debris that have broken down as well as manufactured polyethylene beads used in various products.

According to a new study published in the journal Science, there are actually microplastic hotspots on the ocean floor, formed by deep-sea currents that act as conveyer belts moving the tiny plastic fragments around. One of these hotspots – in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the west coast of Italy – contained 1.9 million microplastic pieces in just one square meter of seafloor. This is the highest reported value for any place in the world.

Because of their small size, microplastics can be ingested by organisms across all levels of the marine food chain and eventually find their way into human diets.

The spatial distribution and ultimate fate of ocean microplastics are strongly controlled by near-bed thermohaline currents. These are deep-ocean currents driven by differences in water density, which is controlled by temperature and salinity. Thermohaline currents are known to supply oxygen and nutrients to the flora and fauna found at the ocean bottom. As a result, deep sea biodiversity hotspots are likely to be in same places where there are microplastic hotspots.

The discovery of these deep- sea hotspots is just another reason why we need behavior and policy interventions to limit the flow of plastics into natural environments.

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Seafloor microplastic hotspots controlled by deep-sea circulation

Photo, posted September 6, 2012, courtesy of Oregon State University via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.