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IMPORTANT: LAST CALL FOR
PATRONS!Dear
reader, We've come to an inflection
point here at SFB headquarters: plough on in the
face of economic uncertainty or call it quits and
move on to pastures new. In advance of such a
tricky choice, we've decided to make one last call
for patronage in a final bid for the
publication to stand on its own feet financially.
So if you get any value out of the service we
provide, we hope you will consider becoming
one of our sustaining patrons – whether its enough
for a monthly takeaway, a sandwich or even just a
coffee, any little you can afford to spare would
be so gratefully appreciated. In exchange,
we pledge that if we cross the £500/month-mark,
we'll publish a new longread or photo essay every
week along with the newsletter. And if we hit
£1000/month, we'll launch a new solutions-focused
podcast. Of course, we'll keep you informed
of our decision in the coming weeks. But whatever
happens, we wish you a heartfelt thanks for your
all your time and support so
far! Ollie Founder &
Editor-in-Chief, Struggles From
Below | |
In our top read this week, the
Guardian's Karen McVeigh takes a look at 'blue carbon': the hidden CO2
sink that pioneers say could save the
planet.
Coastal wetlands such as
mangroves forests are powerful carbon sinks. That
is, they suck up carbon dioxide from the air to
store in their roots and branches, as well as the
sediment that collects around them. They do this
so well that they can store up to 10 times more
carbon than forests.
And unlike “green
carbon” rainforests, which store carbon in
biomass, and therefore release it when the trees
die, mangroves store most of the carbon in their
soil and sediment. If undisturbed, it stays there
for millennia.
This superpower means “blue
carbon” (the sequestration and storage of carbon
by ocean ecosystems) is gaining attention in the
race towards net zero. And the “big three” stores
of blue carbon – mangroves, salt marshes and
seagrass – are suddenly urgent new areas of
conservation.
As much as a fifth of the
emissions cuts we need to limit the global
temperature rise to 1.5C will need to come from
the ocean, according to the High Level Panel for a
Sustainable Ocean Economy. Protecting and
restoring seagrass, mangrove and salt marsh
ecosystems – which account for more than 50% of
all carbon storage in ocean sediments – could help
absorb the equivalent of as much as 1.4bn tons of
emissions a year by 2050, it says.
These
ecosystems are some of the most threatened in the
world by coastal development – damaged by farming,
harmful fishing practices and pollution – so
protecting and restoring them is
expensive.
Enter the carbon-offset market.
Some conservation groups are selling carbon
credits to fund their work. For example, Verra, a
non-profit organisation based in the US that
administers the world’s leading carbon-credit
standard, estimates that the carbon emissions
mitigated by the mangroves of
Colombia's Cispatá conservation
project to be almost 1m tonnes over three
decades – the equivalent of greenhouse gas
emissions from the annual mileage of 214,000
cars.
The carbon-offset market remains
controversial. Not all schemes are reliable. A
Guardian investigation earlier this year found
several carbon schemes paid for by logging firms
were selling carbon credits based on keeping
forests standing, thereby allowing other logging
to continue.
However, for ocean scientists
alarmed at the rate these ecosystems are
disappearing, blue carbon could be used as
leverage – to restore and conserve parts of the
ocean that might not otherwise get much attention.
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What we're reading:
COP26: Financiers vow to shift
investments from fossil fuels to
renewables
The announcement, on day three
in Glasgow, that financiers who control 40 percent
of the world’s corporate assets, with a value of
$130 trillion, are promising to set their future
investments toward achieving net-zero greenhouse
gas emissions in 2050, is clearly a big deal. YALE
ENVIRONMENT 360
COP26: Reducing deforestation and
methane emissions take centre
stage
Tuesday’s highlight at the Glasgow
climate summit was the Declaration on Forest and
Land Use, under which more than 100 leaders — from
Russia to Brazil to Canada to Indonesia — pledged
to end deforestation and land degradation by 2030.
A second major announcement Tuesday, the pledge by
80 nations to join an initiative of the European
Union and the United States to cut methane
emissions by 30 percent during this decade, looks
more auspicious. YALE ENVIRONMENT
360
COVID: new antibody treatment could
offer up to 18 months’ protection against severe
disease
A new treatment could soon help
protect people from developing severe COVID.
AstraZeneca has just released results from a phase
3 clinical trial – the final stage of testing
before a drug is authorised – that suggest its new
COVID treatment, AZD7442, is effective at reducing
severe disease or death in non-hospitalised COVID
patients. THE CONVERSATION
The regenerative revolution in
food
Half of the world's land is used to
grow our food. A new generation of 'carbon
farmers' are making their land absorb greenhouse
gases, rather than emitting them. BBC
FUTURE
This concrete can eat carbon
emissions
Concrete is responsible for more
than four percent of all global CO2 emissions. In
the race to find alternatives, some companies are
using it to sequester CO2 instead. WIRED
One to ponder:
Energy, and how to get
It
All of us know people who have
more energy than we do, but the science of the
phenomenon is just coming into view. THE NEW
YORKER
Quote of the
week:
"To have a right
to do a thing is not at all the same as to be
right in doing it." – G.K.
Chesterton
Song of the
week:
Eliphino - More Than
Me | |
That's it for today, folks. If you're
enjoying this newsletter, please do forward it on to any friends who
might be into it. All the
best, Ollie Founder &
Editor-in-Chief, Struggles From
Below | | |
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2019 Struggles From Below, All rights
reserved.
Our mailing address
is:
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