OPINION: Bring the Wild Back to Earth
Why do we need rewilding?
Millions of people, who are now and in the future vulnerable to climate change, are already suffering from the crisis. In the same way as a mass extinction, it is multifaceted. With continued rises in carbon emissions, global temperatures are getting hotter, hurting economies and the well-being of people around the world. These Boreal Forest and Amazon Basin ecosystems are critical to the overall ecological balance of the Earth's climate, and these critical ecosystems are rapidly diminishing. However, if we could reverse this loss of our global forests, thereby bringing back into existence these wild biodiversity zones that were once previously reduced to the fringes, would that be a beneficial move?
Thousands of species, ranging from tigers and polar bears to rare flowers, birds, and insects, are on the verge of extinction. If current trends continue, half of all plant and animal species could become extinct by the end of the century, along with the life-sustaining ecosystems that provide us with food, water, medicine, and natural defenses against global warming.Â
Furthermore, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released a report that shows that climate change is affecting every part of the world, and that many of the changes we're seeing are unprecedented. Many weather and climate extremes are already being influenced by human-caused climate change in every region. Since the Fifth Assessment Report, evidence of observed changes in extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, drought, and tropical cyclones, and, in particular, their attribution to human influence, has strengthened.
The report admitted that if we significantly reduce our carbon emissions over time, we may be able to somewhat mitigate some of the most catastrophic effects of climate change. Wreaking havoc in an attempt to make a point is where the concept of rewilding comes into play. The most effective way to rewild the Earth is to replant our forests, bringing the cultures and societies of people back to their roots in the land. By working together on a global scale to reforest the areas that aren't used for farming or human settlement, we can help break a critical feedback loop that is threatening the extinction of biodiversity and has happened in the last generation: exponential loss of global biodiversity, and a massive increase in species extinction.
We would be able to reverse the loss of our global forests and begin to restore them if each person on the planet planted one tree per year. We can hasten this process by strategically replanting and protecting existing forests in the world's most ecologically degraded regions. Tropical hardwoods and mangrove trees, which grow in tropical climates, provide the greatest reduction in carbon emissions.
The people of developed economies can easily fund the majority of this effort because they have the largest carbon footprints, which measure a country's total carbon emissions per capita from burning fossil fuel energy to maintain their standard of living. As a result, the wild is our best option for restoring the planet's balance. Climate change, the extinction crisis, and pandemics are all linked, and healthy and intact ecosystems can help address them.
