This Inside Climate News article discusses saving Ecosystems to protect the climate, and vice versa. A new study explores how to prevent a sixth great extinction and stop climate change at the same time. Forests, tundra and other ecosystems play critical roles.
For years, experts in conservation and climate science have urgently pursued two parallel paths—one to interrupt a large-scale extinction event, the other to avert a runaway climate crisis.
Now, an international group of scientists is proposing a third way that marries the two in an ambitious plan they hope will save the species that make our planet so rich—including ourselves.
They set out their timetable in a paper released Friday in the journal Science Advances calling for a “Global Deal for Nature.” Its unified objective: protect the ecosystems to combat climate change; combat climate change to protect the ecosystems.