The New Climate. New(s)letter #8
Troubled oceans, artificial islands, seaweed forests, and killing elephants.
It often happens that a rash of articles coincidentally appear on the same topic. Last month, weirdly, it was compost. This month: the ocean.
Perhaps it’s strange, given that 70% of our planet’s surface is taken up by it — and it is arguably the ecosystem most affected by climate change — that we don’t read and write about it more than we do. We talk about planting trees and reforestation far more than we talk about planting seaweed and kelp forests. But that needs to change, suggests Sílvia PM, PhD 🍂in Can We Engineer the Oceans to Help Battle Climate Change?: “Macroalgae, red, green, and brown seaweed, can grow several centimeters daily. These photosynthetic organisms absorb carbon dioxide from the ocean to sustain their growth.” She also touches on some more ‘engineered’ examples of using the ocean to absorb carbon, which stray nervously close to geo-engineering, and warns “we don’t want the solution to be a bigger problem than the problem itself”.
But the first of this month’s wave of articles came from Ricky Lanusse on that stunning Nat Geo drone photo showing penguin chicks seemingly make a death-leap to find the sea. This is another abiding image of animals forced to desperate measures due to climate change. It reminded me of the walruses in David Attenborough's Planet Earth, plummeting to their deaths due to a loss of sea ice. As far as we know, these penguins survived, but, writes Ricky, “more chicks are being bred on permanent ice shelves, forcing them to jump higher distances into the sea, due to earlier seasonal thawing of sea ice from climate change. These chicks found themselves in a tough spot, likely starving, and their parents had already gone to sea.” Antarctica is now warming nearly twice as fast as the rest of the world.
Tropical oceans have their own set of problems, too. How Saving The Maldives May Actually Destroy It looks at how the Maldivian “government has been sucking up sand, coral, and debris from the ocean floor to create new land”. While Sílvia PM, PhD 🍂also looks out to the reefs, urging us It’s Time To Talk About Global Coral Bleaching. Why? Because “they cover less than 1% of the seafloor but support at least 25% of all marine species” and “act as natural barriers against storms and floods, protecting coastlines and, by extension, millions of people from disaster.” Well, that’s me sold. Maybe we need to start talking about reef restoration and kelp reforestation in the same breath as rainforest protection.
One environmental and conservation issue that gets a disproportionately large amount of press is trophy hunting. I think we can all agree, we all hate trophy hunting. But, much like fishing licences here in the UK, such licenced hunting actually goes to pay for national parks and wider conservation efforts. In one of my favourite articles this month, Kenny Minker challenges us Why Don’t YOU Try Living With Elephants? “In theory, a limited amount of trophy hunting can fund habitat preservation, maintain stable populations of protected species, and reduce conflicts between humans and wildlife... Botswana’s wildlife minister said:
“Elephant numbers, just like those of Scottish stags, have to be controlled. Hunters in the Highlands pay to shoot deer and put their antlers on their walls. So why is Britain trying to stop Africa doing the same?”
Like so many environmental issues, it’s just not as black and white as it first seems. No one wants to see elephants killed. But, with a bitter irony verging on the unpalatable, the income from trophy hunting can preserve the species at large. (Though we are unquestionably a deeply weird species for making this the case). (Oh, and if you want a less controversial topic as a palate cleanser, try Dr. Pine’s Are Christian Values At Odds With Climate Change Activism?)
Staying in Africa, another favourite article this month came from Precious Awonge, in her promising TNC debut Pollution and Climate Change: A Nigerian story. Reporting from her home city Abuja she informs that since January, “exasperating heat waves hit the Nigerian state in ways it has never done before. The previous temperature for a normal day in Nigeria was a range from a high 30°C to a low 25°C… March saw temperatures rise to as high as 39°C.” Being on the equator, Nigeria is more used to consistent temperatures all year round. A 10 degree temperature rise, therefore, is a very big deal indeed. No wonder a common refrain heard on the streets of Abuja now is, she reports, “Who opened the gates of hell?”
And a tiny plug for myself and The New Climate to end with. I realised that I’ve been so busy editing — and fulfilling my duties as part of the @Medium Boost Nomination Program — that I’d forgotten to write any TNC articles myself for a whole year! So, like London buses, two came along at once. Both How Smart Home Batteries Could Solve Renewable Energy Storage and Are Agrivoltaics The Ultimate Climate Win-Win? gained a lot of traction. For which, I have you — my fellow TNC writers and readers — to thank. Because we have created a platform that is allowing previously niche articles to find a wider audience. I ended the last newsletter with a plea to hit 1,000 followers. Well, we hit it — and more besides…
It’s May the Fourth tomorrow. If only there were some pithy, popular culture reference I could end with to sign off and wish you all well… Nope, nothing’s coming to me. Best not to Force it.
Tim Smedley, Editor, The New Climate.
