Tropical rainforests are important carbon sinks, capturing and storing extensive amounts of carbon. But they are also carbon sources, releasing almost as much carbon through animal and plant respiration. Climate change and deforestation may lead to increased CO2 emissions from tropical rainforests, therefore threatening this balance.
Our world is facing a polycrisis for which growth is primarily responsibleGreen growth will not save us as it does not address key issueDegrowth could provide an alternative to our ways of being that meets everyone's basic needs within planetary boundaries
As climate impacts worsen, managed retreat may be inevitable in some cases. Managed retreat in the US is centered around flood hazards and most cases occur in the eastern half of the US. Such programs may worsen social inequity if justice considerations are not taken into account.
The Global Covenant of Mayors is the largest alliance for city climate action leadership representing over 1 billion citizens.The GCoM cities and local governments could reduce global emissions by 1.9 GtCO2e annually in 2030, compared to a business-as-usual trajectory, and by 76.5 GtCO2e in 2050.Greater financial investment in city climate actions is needed especially for adaptation activities; implementation of all actions could generate 11 million new jobs worldwide.
Individuals in low-income communities are more affected by inadequate waste management and resource exploitation. People who live in poverty are more susceptible to the consequences of climate risks and lack the adaptive abilities to reduce their exposure than those who have access to education
Only 18 % of appointed ministers worldwide are women. The vulnerability of women to the climate crisis is not only environmental but it is also rooted in its intersection with socio-economic and cultural factors, as well as lack of gendered policy. The inclusion of women in decision making and climate related policies is vital to combating women’s vulnerability to the climate crisis.
The boreal forests are in danger of flipping from a carbon sink to a carbon source in the coming decades. Threats to the boreal forests include increasing global temperatures, more wildfires, and the northward migration of invasive species of insects. These threats have interlocking feedbacks to each other, whereby the increasing influence of one worsens the other.
The ICC has the power to prosecute people (and not nations or organisations) for four types of crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression.There is a formulated legal definition of ecocide as a prospective 5th offence under the Rome StatuteEcocide: activities done with knowledge that those acts have a strong possibility of causing severe and either widespread or long-term environmental damage
The European Parliament voted in favour of a Regulation that would restrict imports to “deforestation-free” products for EU bloc countries on a set of commodities that have been identified as key drivers of deforestation.A reduction of 31.9 million metric tons of carbon emissions is achievable with adoption of the law, which sets international precedent in regulating a high-emission supply and demand chain.The outlined definition of deforestation is weak, and the land-type to which the regulations will apply is limited to natural forests. Other ecosystems have not been considered.
The boreal forests (also known as the Taiga) experience some of the harshest conditions of any forest, and yet support robust ecosystems capable of significant biological activity.The boreal forests are excellent “carbon sinks”, not because of the extensive forests but because of the frozen and waterlogged soils that cover the biome.Unfortunately, rising temperatures due to climate change is weakening the boreal forests’ ability to store carbon.