Even though we all may not have read the latest United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report on climate change, we have all heard the dismal findings. Humans must act now to decrease global warming or we’ll continue to suffer through more extreme weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, wildfires, below freezing temperatures and above normal heat waves.
Reducing Fossil Fuel Usage
Advocates for change tend to focus on reducing fossil fuel consumption through the use of natural energy resources such as solar and wind. But doing so is a slow process and one not so easily achieved through change. Technology advances and policy changes will need to be implemented in order to affect a change, but every day on the news, we see how even the discussions result in more fighting and partisanship than mutual advancement.
The Case for Preserving Natural Resources
There are other natural resources, however, which may be used to affect change in a less partisan manner. They are the natural resources of native plants and natural landscapes. Thanks to their carbon sequestering and storage capabilities, forests and prairies/grasslands should be absolutely essential in mitigating climate change. And thanks to their sponge-like processes, wetlands should be absolutely essential for mitigating flooding. Natural climate solutions can help us achieve 37 percent of our climate target.
Forests and Grasslands
According to the EPA, the Average US resident emits about 20 tons of CO2 a year. Research tells us carbon absorption by American forests is more than 227.6 million tons per year, and the grasslands of the American West absorb about 190 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.
Forests store CO2 mostly in woody biomass and leaves, and grasslands sequester CO2 underground mostly in their roots and in the soil. This means when wildfires cause trees to go up in flames, the burned carbon they formerly stored is released back to the atmosphere. When fire burns grasslands, thankfully, the carbon stored underground tends to stay in the roots and soil. With our climate becoming increasingly unstable, this means grasslands will tend to be more adaptive to global warming.
Wetlands
Wetlands need to be included also in this discussion because of their ability to protect against flooding. Acting like a large sponge, they store snow melt and rainwater and slowly release it over time, removing the energy and pollution from the initial downfall. As we add more and more impervious surfaces and fill in more and more marshes, there is no where for the water to go so flooding occurs. By allowing our wetlands to flourish, we should reduce the impacts of drought and the impact of large surges of water.
As I end this post, I am so very grateful I am able to do my small part to affect climate change in a positive way. I know it’s not enough, but if we all do our part “to promote environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration and establishment of native plant communities” we’ll get there.
Summary for Policymakers of IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
At one time, it was considered practical to restore wasteland. Generally land destroyed by war, by poor mining practices and by poor agricultural practices. Giant meteors destroying land, they thought this notion was stupid. One idea for desert land destroyed in these various ways was to plant cacti and other thorny plants extensively, to the point it was virtually impossible to walk outside designated paths. This would keep radioactive nooks and crannies and clean high springs forever off limits. This was done somewhat in our southwest.
Wetlands needed a coating of various mosses with intensive planting as well to recreate mats. Imagine a full-sized hellbender. There was a hellbender and other unknown large reptile lotus swamp in Japan that was destroyed by US soldiers in 1945.
Animal life gets difficult in these places. This is recreating primordial situations.
Why people think redoing a suburban yard with their notion of native plants makes that much difference. I question that kind of thinking.
Hi! Indy — I had to research hellbender before I could respond to you. Acoording to Wikipedia, “a hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), also known as the hellbender salamander, is a species of aquatic giant salamander endemic to eastern North America.” you’re correct, of course, when destruction to the Earth has been so devastating, it is much like returning to a primordial ecology.
Re your question about using native plants in a suburban yard — just one suburban yard doesn’t make very much difference. You’re correct. But more than one suburban yard does. The goal is for one yard to become a corridor of natural landscaping and then for the neighborhood to become an even more extensive corridor of natural landscaping. We humans are at the top of the food chain, but without habitat to support the lower levels, we don’t stand a chance for continued long-term existence.
Friends with a large house in Canada had geothermal heating and air conditioning installed a few years ago. The Canadian government footed most of the bill. During arctic cold events, the house remains at about seventy degrees. Zero carbon footprint. Zero utility bills.
Also, keep in mind that lawn mowers use more than five hundred million gallons of fossil fuel every year. Natural landscaping is the way to go. No need to waste fuel mowing lawns.
And if you have to have lawn, try No Mow grass. Besides requiring little or now mowing, No Mow grass is so pretty.