The best way to protect us from climate change? Save our ecosystems
Last edited Fri Feb 19, 2016, 11:38 AM - Edit history (1)
The nice thing is that this approach would impact far more than just the climate, as ecological approaches always do. Biodiversity, water quality, soil erosion and many kinds of pollution would all be ameliorated.
The best way to protect us from climate change? Save our ecosystems
When we think about adapting humanity to the challenges of climate change, it’s tempting to reach for technological solutions. We talk about seeding our oceans and clouds with compounds designed to trigger rain or increasing carbon uptake. We talk about building grand structures to protect our coastlines from rising sea levels and storm surges.
However, as we discuss in
Nature Climate Change, our focus on these high-tech, heavily engineered solutions is blinding us to a much easier, cheaper, simpler and better solution to adaptation: look after our planet’s ecosystems, and they will look after us.
People are currently engaged in wholesale destruction of the systems that shelter us, clean our water, clean our air, feed us and protect us from extreme weather. Sometimes this destruction is carried out for the purpose of protecting us from the threats posed by climate change.
There is no doubt that technological solutions have a role to play in climate adaptation but not at the expense of intact functioning ecosystems. It is time to set a policy agenda that actively rewards those countries, industries and entrepreneurs who develop ecosystem-sensitive adaptation strategies.
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