It is of the utmost importance that the climate negotiators in Paris understand that nature is collapsing on land and under the sea as we cross the 1 degree Celsius threshold.
Ancient trees are the greatest carbon dioxide warehouses to have ever evolved on Earth. For every metric ton of wood created, 1.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide was removed from the atmosphere and one metric ton of oxygen was released.
Frighteningly, Earth’s forests are dying on every forested continent from temperature-related stresses including prolonged heat waves, intense wildfires, vicious droughts and sub-continental insect epidemics.
In June, 337 23-ton-each Sei whales were found beached along the coast of Chile in one of the largest whale strandings ever recorded.
Rising ocean temperatures from daily burning in excess of 96 million metric tons of heat-trapping, climate-altering fossil fuels are creating epic, toxic red tides with deadly levels of nerve poisons never witnessed before.
It’s time to end $5.6 trillion in fossil fuel subsidies now and keep 80 percent of the remaining fossil fuels in the earth.
Loving nature is the solution.
Earth Dr. Reese Halter is the author of “The Insatiable Bark Beetle.”