 Have you woken up recently to go for a walk around the neighbourhood park just to find all (or at least most) of the trees cut down?
Well, it turns out you are not alone!
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 Last week I spoke about the wonderful world of intertidal habitats like wetlands and their functioning in terms of ecosystem services and in particular carbon storage,
But what are we really talking about when we talk about carbon storage to mitigate emissions ? As I explained last week, plants play huge role in trapping carbon from the atmosphere - and so a supposedly ‘easy way’ to offset emission is to plant some greens.. but how does this work in practice ?  Tomorrow is world wetlands day (marking the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea) and for the occasion I decided to dedicate this week's post to the wonderful world that lies between the sea and the land - those transitional ecosystems that are partly exposed to water and partly exposed to air..
Well, wetlands are an even more particular version of a ‘transitional ecosystem’  Today I want to try and shift some of the stigma usually associated with Italy, and other Mediterranean countries with a similar culture (like Spain and Greece). These countries are often associated with laziness, holidays (great places to visit in the summer), where you can eat good food and bathe in beautiful crystal waters. They are rarely considered places where to set up business because of corruption, inefficiencies and long siesta times ( which by the way are not much of a reality anymore). We are not seen at the forefront of innovation or technology (is well known that you should opt for a German car rather than an Italian or even worse a french one) and are often not even considered in the race when it comes to sustainability...  Economy as it is seems to be failing. People are buying less, and whether this is because they cannot afford it, because of a rise in the minimalist mindset, because of sustainability or other million possible reasons is not the point of this post. People are spending less. Especially younger generations (with opposite trends for the older.. maybe due to old habits?). And yes, online shopping might have taken over , but actually the trends in many countries are still that people are spending less. So what?  As someone who loves good food and tends to buy local ‘seen-it-growing-with-my-own-eyes’ but equally is fascinated by science - I was captured by this article in the guardian by George Monbiot (a great columnist!) talking about lab grown food.
A very interesting read - and I recommend you to head there and read that first before continuing (click here ) as what follows is entirely my own take.  2020, we are here. It has arrived. With such a beautiful number, it could only mean that an important year lies ahead of us. If 2019 was the year in which climate change became a hot topic in the press, 2020 will already be the ‘deadline’ year . Think about it, it will be a time to come to terms with success (or failures)of current policies - as the European climate and energy targets had a 2020 deadline .  Like every year, the last plenary of the British Ecological Annual Meeting was all about the last '12 months in ecology' and this year was given by Helen Roy, ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. What comes next, is a personal take on her inspiring talk, but you can read a little snippet from her here.
 As we saw last Friday with the elections in the UK... it has happened again! I woke up and the same feeling I experienced in both June and November 2016 assaulted me (3 years later). My mind spinning with questions: is it true? How it is possible ? Are people just ‘stupid ‘?
But my biggest question now, after a few days, is : why was it so unexpected ? Could it be that algorithms , that are keeping me into my happy bubble of ecologists friends who want to change the state of things, are masking reality?  The British Ecological Society Annual meeting this year is in Belfast and has started with a very thought-sparking side event on rewilding chaired by journalist Ella McSweeney who did a wonderful job. You can follow the conversation and some insights on twitter following the #WildIreland.
Here, I will condense my thoughts (too many). I would like to start by giving you a definition of ‘rewilding’, especially for those that don’t feel familiar with the term. But, as it turns out, not only there is no definition but also, there is no agreement on what we actually mean by it. So, please bear with me... As the name implies, rewilding means bringing back some state of wild. Which brings one big question to the table: what is ‘wild’? |
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Photos used under Creative Commons from marcoverch, Pascal Volk
