Carbon Carbon Cycle Management Flashcards
What is wetland restoration?
Converting freshwater and salt marshes, peatland, floodplains and mangroves back to their original state
How much of global wetland has been destroyed?
Over 1/2
What are 3 pros of wetland restoration?
Wetlands cover up to 9% of Earth’s land surface BUT contain 35% of terrestrial carbon. They are important carbon sinks.
Mangroves in particular, store 50 times more carbon than tropical rainforests
660 million people depend on fishing and aquaculture and 266 million jobs are supported by
wetland tourism
2 cons of wetland restoration
Only occupy 6-9% earth’s surface, so even if wholly restored, impact on carbon cycle will be limited.
The UK is running a number of small – scale schemes from restoring wetlands from farmland assisting the government target of 500 ha of wetlands restored by 2020. - small scale projects provides a range of different wetland areas increasing biodiversity, however successful the small scale nature limits global success
What is Afforestation?
Planting trees in deforested areas or areas that have never been forested
What are 3 pros of Afforestation?
Deforestation in Tropical Rainforests releases more CO2 than the entire global transport sector
1.4 billion people depend on TRF for their survival
halting and reversing deforestation could deliver up to 30 percent of the climate solution, making forests one of the most cost-effective and immediate solutions to curb climate change
What are 3 cons of Afforestation?
UN Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) scheme in China successful in restoring biomass of non-native, fast-growing species of poplar and birch, but secondary forest is not as efficient as primary forest
Countries with significant deforestation could see a large improvement here, but often through small scale projects, potentially limiting success
Tropical forests are those most at risk from deforestation (17% of the Amazon rainforest has been lost in the last 50 years).
Yet of global afforestation, 75% is in temperate forests. indicating that success in tropical areas is limited
What is the Paris agreement 2015?
International agreement to tackle climate change reached in Paris in 2015 with implementation
from 2020.
3 pros of The Paris Agreement 2015
Agreed to reduce CO2 emissions below 60% of 2010 levels by 2050
Keep global temperature rises to below 2oC
Emissions targets will be set separately by countries, reviewed every 5 years and, after each review emission level targets are decreased in a meaningful way
