Met Office global partnerships’ Post

UN's attempt to establish a global treaty for plastic pollution floundered in a tar pit, to the disappointment of all. The Biodiversity COP was just as baffling in its meaningless results. Meanwhile, COP29 was widely considered insufficient to face the climate emergency we're facing, and to add, we are impacted daily by climate "natural" disasters everywhere on the planet. For this reason, I decided to repost my review of Daniel Wallace-Wells's book "The Uninhabitable Earth", from 2019, and it is even more surprising because nothing advanced tangibly, if anything, it worsened in relation to climate, health and the present sixth extinction of species. I reviewed it upon request of The Climate Reality Project, thank you for the invite. More importantly, the final chapters are about the narratives - the vast majority of people - now solidly apathetic, paralyzed, complacent - and some who remain hopeful. And with hope, there must be caution. In the lack of deus ex machina technology, a profound game-changer, all we have at this point is *faith* that this planet-saving technology will come to exist. Still, not to be forgotten, we humans hold the means to coordinate actions for damage control. We have no choice but to be active and not apathetic. What is at stake here is our very survival, it is the planet's habitability, not just for us, but for biodiversity, which is not apart from us, we ARE biodiversity. So here goes my 13-minute review, with less-than-ideal subtitles in English. Click on Settings, then Automatic Translation, and choose the language you want the subtitles in.: #habitability #planetarity

1st-of its kind study, involving our Prof. Ana Queirós, quantifies the contribution of seaweed forests to carbon sequestration at a global level and is summarised nicely in this article by Portuguese publication Publico https://lnkd.in/dY-2r57G Prof. Ana Queirós said: “Identifying seaweed forests and promoting their management will help us capitalise on natural solutions to the carbon challenge, and work towards the stabilisation of the global climate system. This work not only highlights that these important habitats need protective management but also will help refine the carbon estimates in Earth system models. The next step is to consider where seaweed detritus, and therefore the carbon locked within, may be deposited to gain a fuller picture of the ocean carbon cycle”.

Last week I was featured in the Dutch national newspaper NRC about my research and thoughts on how bottom trawling affects seabed carbon. We discuss my disagreement with Sala et al., 2021 (Nature) as well as the publication of our meta analysis on trawl effects on seabed carbon (https://lnkd.in/eqvDT8nN) on which came out earlier in the year. One of the main takeaways is that these processes are complex and any potential management should be carefully considered and tailored to specific situations. Not all sediments are important for carbon sequestration, and the science on the topic is, honestly, still quite uncertain. The last thing I would want is for countries to ban trawling for the purpose of mitigating carbon impacts and think they can increase or not reduce emissions elsewhere to ensure their climate objectives. The severity of these effects is still debated amongst experts. Wageningen Marine Research https://lnkd.in/eUvBGRw7

Following on my post last week on whether we can put a price tag on species... This article nudges one to think of how we #price #carboncredits. #afforestation #recovery #regeneration #decarbonisation #forestsascarbonsinks Did you know: : According to the Global Carbon Project (GCP): "The #Amazon absorbs #approximately2billionmetrictons (gigatons, Gt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year under normal conditions. ..." : According to the NASA Earth Observatory: "... the Amazon rainforest has historically absorbed about 25% of the total carbon absorbed by the world's forests, which equates to up to 1.7 billion metric tons of CO2 annually. ..." : According to The Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) report in 2020, "the Amazon #biome historically sequestered between 1 and 2 Gt of CO2 annually, but deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon (which accounts for about 60% of the rainforest) has reduced this capacity by as much as 25% in recent years. How do you #pricecarbon?

Recently, the world learned of a new mountain on Earth - yep, an entirely new mountain!! 🤯 At 3,109 meters (1.9 miles) high, it’s almost eight times taller than Rio’s iconic Sugarloaf Mountain. The catch? It’s hidden beneath the waves. This discovery underscores a crucial point: the ocean is vast, essential to our lives, and critically understudied. It’s time to bridge the gap between the need for ocean research and the investment it receives. This is exactly what we explore in two new opinion pieces I co-authored! 🌊 Uncovering Our Planet: New Technologies Drive Knowledge of the Ocean with Jyotika Virmani, PhD, FRMetS, from Schmidt Ocean Institute Investing in the Ocean Goes Beyond Protecting the Future with Nicole Arbour from Belmont Forum The ocean provides countless benefits to humanity, from supporting coastal communities to influencing weather patterns far inland. Sadly, Sustainable Development Goal 14, “Life Below Water,” attracts a mere 3.5% of funding. This stark reality highlights the disparity between the ocean’s importance and our investment in its future. The good news? The tide is turning! There’s a growing awareness of the need to protect this invaluable ecosystem, with 9 out of 10 investors expressing interest in financing a sustainable ocean economy. To create lasting change, we need to embrace collaboration, building bridges between sectors, fostering equitable partnerships, and including diverse voices. This is how we unlock a brighter future for our oceans. Huge thanks to my incredible collaborators, Jyotika Virmani and Nicole Arbour, and to Jorge Olavo Woellner Kintzel, for your amazing work with media. Let’s keep the conversation going! Dive in and read the full articles: https://lnkd.in/dpM3eBRe https://lnkd.in/d_RtT9aK #ocean #research #sustainability #science #collaboration #investment #climatechange #sdg14 #LifeBelowWater

Every life form on this planet uses carbon. It's in DNA and RNA, which even viruses use to store information and reproduce. Carbon storage in my view is simple. Increase the frequency of life forms. Fossil fuels are made up of long dead life forms which have rotted and been put under pressure over millions of years, essentially storing carbon. We have, over a hundred years, released huge amounts of carbon, accelerating climate change and, more worryingly, oceanic acidification. Our oceans are sinks for carbon, however, when too much carbon is absorbed, the pH of the oceans decreases, making them more acidic, which has a knock on effect for most shelled aquatic animals as they use calcium to grow their shells and carbonic acid interferes with their ability to fix calcium. This in turn makes their shells weaker and their survival rate falls which affects all other life in the oceans. This is not the only problem that climate change creates but I have a strategy for at least one of these, namely oceanic acidification negation. To combat oceanic acidification I suggest utilising shallow coastal areas that are devoid of life and have no rocky substrate by making cross shaped large metal frames, made with recycled metal with spikes to act as anchors, coated with waste clay which is a natural, non-toxic material that is formed on seabeds. These could then be baked, seeded with giant kelp and dropped on underwater sand banks. I chose giant kelp as it has several environmentally friendly properties. It grows in optimal conditions at roughly 60cm a day, storing carbon at a very rapid rate. It provides food and shelter for sea life, increasing the frequency of fauna, including increasing fish stocks for fisheries. It will make conserving areas of coast easier by preventing illegal fishing. It will also help baffle storm forced waves when fully grown, helping prevent erosion of cliffs and shores. As well as baffling destructive waves, it will also dampen noise from infrasound sonar, which I'm certain that cetacians will appreciate. Lastly, it will help deacidify the oceans which will both actively enable carbon from the air above to sink into the oceans and also help shelled animals such as coral polyps, lobsters and oysters, to form their shells and increase their survival rates. I'm sure people can see the benefits of that last reason. Anyway, what do you think people?

70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans and seas. We are reliant on our oceans and seas for many things, although most importantly for food, exploitable energy sources (such as wind power, oil and gas) and tourism revenue. It is easy to see, therefore, how our health and the health of our planet depends in no small part on the condition of our oceans and seas. The world’s oceans contain some of the richest areas of biodiversity. Our seas are already showing the effects of climate change and we must ensure that marine ecosystems are sufficiently healthy to be resilient in the face of changing conditions.

The research, conducted by an international team of scientists, including those from the Centro de Ciências do Mar do Algarve (CCMAR) and the Centro de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, used advanced ocean models to track the fate of carbon stored by algae. The results, published in Nature Geoscience, show that 15% of the carbon captured by marine forests is transported to deep ocean waters each year. This discovery opens up new opportunities for climate change mitigation, underlining the need to protect, manage and restore these marine forests. Their loss or degradation disrupts the process of atmospheric carbon uptake and transport in the deep sea, reducing their effectiveness as long-term carbon sinks. #sustainability #blueeconomy #bluetransformation

🧊ANTARCTICA UNDER ATTACK ☄️ ❗️ SHOCK! Antarctica's unique ecosystem has been threatened by invasive marine species and pollution getting there from the Southern Hemisphere. 💬 Researchers from the University of New South Wales in Australia have found that floating garbage, which includes both plastic and organics, can carry invasive species for Antarctic waters. ⚠️ Previously, Antarctic sea and land habitats have been isolated from the rest of the planet for millions of years. This isolation implies that local species are not adapted to competition and may not be able to compete with common species from around the world that invade their territory. ℹ️ According to scientists, invasive species, particularly small marine invertebrates, can arrive at the Antarctic coast on floating objects such as ⚪️ algae, ⚪️ snags, ⚪️ pumice stone or plastic. And not only from the remote islands of the Southern Ocean, but also from Australia, New Zealand, as well as South Africa and South America. 🎙 Scientists warn that the growing amount of plastic and other man-made trash in the ocean is increasing the chances for biota to reach Antarctica, and the consequences for local marine ecosystems could be significant. 📌 It should be noted that according to experts, since 1979, every decade since 1979, economic losses in the world have quadrupled due to invasive species displacing regional species. 💵 In total, such species cost the global economy more than $423 billion a year. What's more: it is invasive species that have led to the extinction of 60% of animals and plants. The main reason for this is climate change. 🌐 Our planet during the coming 12000 year cycle needs protection from external cosmic influences. And also a global cleanup of the garbage and plastic that we humans have been irresponsibly mass-producing and dumping into the ocean for decades. ‼️ It is now important to solve this problem together. Therefore, it is time to unite all scientific potential of mankind into a single scientific center. 📱 Subscribe: t.me/creativesociety_en