#human impacts

“We declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency.”

Summary:

They provide a list and graphs of ‘vital signs’ for monitoring the climate emergency, which include human activities (e.g. fertility rates, air transport, world GDP) and climactic responses (e.g. greenhouse gas levels, ocean acidity, sea level).

They suggest six steps to addressing these problems: 1. Replace fossil fuels with renewable energy 2. Reduce climate pollutants (such as methane and carbon dioxide) 3. Protect and restore our ecosystems (i.e. stop land clearing etc.) 4. Reduce meat consumption 5. Shift economic goals (i.e. measure health/wellbeing instead of GDP) 6. Stabilise population growth

Sadly, more often than not, our fun and photography dives turn into clean up dives.

Urgent action is needed if we are to curb human impacts on biodiversity.

Paris Agreement. We can ramp up our commitments to cutting carbon emissions under the Paris Agreement and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

30X30. Our leaders can support the America the Beautiful initiative to conserve 30% of US lands and waters by 2030.

Build Back Better. Congress can support a policy package that offers the largest-ever federal investment in clean energy.

UN Biodiversity Summit. US leadership can play a critical role beside 195 other countries and agree to new ambitious global goals on biodiversity and how they can be financed and implemented.

Grassroots action. While the federal government can set high-level policies to conserve nature, businesses, communities, and individuals have a powerful role to play in shifting corporate behavior with their consumer choices and demanding accountability from political leaders.

I am honored to be presenting at "Wasted" next Wednesday November 1st at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office here in New York City. The evening is curated by Human Impact Residency Artist Carolyn Monastra .  Three artists, Carolyn Monastra, Niki Lederer and myself will present our work, all centered around the theme of waste.

The event starts at 7:00 pm and is free and open to all. 

Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO)

1 East 42nd Street

New York, NY 10017

At this point, if the rapid urbanization of California continues, vernal pools could continue to be lost. While it seems people are more careful of directly paving over them now, they are difficult to recognize when not filled and most do not see their importance, so this will continue to happen. More regulations will likely be put in place, but it's also likely that species will continue to be lost. There aren't strong efforts to bring them back, and it's difficult to impossible to create a vernal pool-not like it is to simply plant new trees after you cut some down. While I do not think that they will completely disappear, I think it is likely that they will become less diverse and lose much of their beauty and importance. California's drought will also affect these pools by causing much of the water to evaporate and because rainfall is very important to some of the pools. This will likely cause many species to die, especially those near the top and edges of the pool, contributing to killing some of the diversity.

To prevent this, serious efforts to identify and protect all vernal pools need to be made. More of the native species must be introduced and bred so that they get off the endangered species lists. There's little to be done short term about the drought, but its effects can be managed if efforts to monitor the pools are made. There need to be federal regulations on not paving over any vernal pools, and private land owners, who may not like this, need serious fines/ consequences on the line if they do not comply, even though it is their land. More protected wetlands must exist in order to protect these beautiful ecosystems that help keep our water clean and our planet healthy. Why are we destroying something that is helping us?

According to "VERNAL POOL CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT", new federal and state laws that work to protect vernal pools only regulate things that affect the actual basins, and disregard the "terrestrial upland habitat that vernal pool animals use outside of the breeding season when they move into the surrounding forest" ("VERNAL POOL CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT"). So basically, the regulations affect the pools and the species that live there, but as the pools fill and drain these species don't always live there, and during some seasons go to the surrounding areas, which are not being protected. Not protecting these areas could be just as dangerous as not protecting the vernal pools. According to the website, not only the actual pools must be protected, but also the surrounding upland habitat and corridors connecting vernal pools to water and wetlands. Private landowners, businesses, municipalities, natural resource agencies, and conservation organizations can all work to conserve these areas and manage them well. Considering and using the best methods of farming and conserving/managing the land, vernal pool restoration and creation, helping pass new laws and restrictions ,and acquiring land from private landowners, can all help save these vernal pools. It's important to identify the surrounding habitat (800 feet into the uplands from the edge of a 200 ft no disturbance zone around the pool) and keep half to 3 quarters of the tree canopy there, and not let it be destroyed by logging, as well as keeping the soil mostly undisturbed. ("VERNAL POOL CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT")

While there are some efforts to save vernal pools, many are still disappearing or at least losing some of their species. 90% of California's vernal pools have been lost in the last century. Many of the plants (13) and animals that live in vernal pools are on the endangered species list. About 1/3 of California crustaceans from the 1800s have since gone extinct with this loss of habitat. The ones that are left do not exist in all pools now, which can cause serious problems with loss of prey for other animals and can hurt diversity. Being bulldozed over to create shopping malls and apartment buildings has been their main killer. Certain agricultural practices and native grasses or other plants crowding out the species in the area can be deadly too. Vernal pools are often on private land that is sold away or treated with carelessness or ignorance to the value of the vernal pool (Brown 1998).