• Food

Vegetables Are Good For You And The Planet

• carbon
• carbon sink
• climate change
• nutrition
• perennial
• soil erosion
• vegtables

A recent study demonstrated that perennial vegetables are very important in preventing and mitigating soil erosion and climate change, Virginia Gewin reported last month for Civil Eats. This category of vegetables, which grow year-round, goes beyond simply artichokes and asparagus — they studied over 600 species. And they were able to demonstrate a “full accounting of their potential to pull carbon from the atmosphere.”

Why This Matters: As the authors of the study contend, “Perennial vegetables are a neglected and underutilized class of crops with potential to address 21st-century challenges.”

• Sustainability

New Report Finds Protecting 30% of US By 2030 Provides Major Carbon Offsets

• #30x30
• carbon offsets
• carbon sequestration
• carbon sink
• climate change
• nature based solutions

New research by the Center for American Progress (CAP) takes this analysis the next step and calculates the carbon sequestration benefits of various nature-based solutions being contemplated as part of the effort to conserve 30% of the U.S. lands and waters by 2030.  Forests and other lands in the United States, if properly conserved, have the potential to store an additional 1,000 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually.  

Why This Matters:  We need to use our full arsenal of tools to sequester carbon.

• Climate Change

New Biotech Companies Aim to Shrink the Carbon Footprint of Cement

• bioengineering
• carbon dioxide
• carbon footprint
• carbon sink
• concrete

Cement accounts for 8% of the annual emissions of carbon dioxide globally and reducing the carbon emissions from the process of making it has been a tough nut to crack, The Wall Street Journal reports. But now climate-conscious entrepreneurs are working to develop three new construction materials that could replace cement (read more about them […]

• Ocean

Top Stories of 2019: The Ocean Is On the Rise

• carbon sink
• climate change
• ocean
• plastic pollution

In 2019, the ocean finally got its due — from a growing public determination to end ocean plastic pollution (think straw bans) and the increasing scientific recognition that the ocean has taken the brunt of climate emissions and now is rapidly changing in ways that are impacting people all around the world today (like sea-level rise and historic/chronic flooding jeopardizing places from Houston to Venice), the ocean as an environmental cause finally got the attention it deserves.  

Why This Matters:  The ocean connects everyone on the planet, and globally there is tremendous support for protecting it — we are called the “blue planet” for a reason.

• Forests

Top Stories of 2019: Forests on Fire All Over the World

• carbon emissions
• carbon sink
• climate change
• Fire
• trees

This year will be remembered for searing images of the Amazon burning at an unprecedented rate (there were so many fires you could see them from space), with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro alternating between downplaying the severity of them and then sending in Brazilian military troops to fight the tens of thousands of fires burning there.  As we reported, world leaders and environmental organizations — even the Pope — pushed Brazil to take action — and the worst part was most of the fires were started by people who wanted to clear land for agriculture and other development.  But fires were bad all over the planet — from the Arctic tundra in Greenland, Alaska, and Siberia, to Australia, and of course, California.

• Climate Change

Nature-Based Climate Solutions Like #30×30 Gaining Traction With New COP Leaders

• #30x30
• biodiversity
• carbon sink
• climate change

Yesterday was #HumanRightsDay and the importance of access to and conserving nature as a basic human right was emphasized repeatedly at the UN Climate Meeting in Madrid — sustaining biodiversity is increasingly recognized for its benefits to addressing the climate emergency. And as developing countries are stepping up to fill the leadership void at the Climate Meeting, their leaders are looking for multifaceted climate solutions that conserve biodiversity and provide for sustainable use of natural resources.

Why This Matters:  It is just this simple — without biodiversity, life on Earth for humans is not possible.  But if we started by protecting or restoring 30 percent of the planet by 2030 for nature itself, that would provide huge carbon capture as well as biodiversity benefits.