How Living Systems May End Up Helping Combat Climate Change (as Nature Intended)

 

Wade Templeman

About a week ago, my peers and I were asked to find a scholarly article on climate change for our seminar in science writing. I will begin by saying climate change is not something I frequently educate myself on. Reading about how our planet is being destroyed tends to bum me out. But, our professor, John Horgan, urged us to find an article that interested us, something that made us think about climate change in a different light. Thankfully, I stumbled across a Nature article about the Billion Oyster Project happening right outside my Hoboken backyard out in the New York Harbor.

As a man of biology, I could not have been happier to learn about an optimistic project like this that utilizes living systems to accomplish such an ambitious task. The initiative has been seeding oyster beds around the harbor to take advantage of the mollusks’ reef making capabilities and construct a living breakwater of sorts. Their presence will also enhance water quality through increased filtration and assist in promoting biodiversity. Now, a week later, I could not get these damn oysters out of my head. This could not possibly be the only project like this; I had to know what other living matter was being used to fight the damage we have caused to our planet.

The first types of projects that came to mind were any of the vast array of tree re-planting efforts taking place around the globe. I’d argue this is the simplest way of combating climate change with living systems. We need oxygen, so plant more trees. But is it really that simple? 

An article by Sahana Ghosh says no, and researchers in India agree. While the country as a whole has pledged to absorb 3 billion tons of CO2 by 2030 through reforestation, the article suggests three additional strategies to double the absorption. By reducing deforestation currently occurring, minimizing degradation of green cover, and restoration of degraded forest land, we can stop derailing carbon sink commitments with unscientific tree planting.

It continues by detailing that although these trees do provide long term benefit, there is always a chance they fall victim to deforestation before they absorb enough CO2 to justify their planting in the first place. In addition, “Insufficient guidance... has led to forest managers planting the wrong species or putting trees in unsuitable areas… nearly 40% of foresting budget was spent in places with decent tree cover and only 14.1% focused on sparsely covered areas.”

I was feeling bummed out again after reading this. 

When it seemed that hope was lost and living systems were too complicated to combat climate change, yet another inconspicuous article came to my aid. This time, it was about a group studying a bunch of rainbowfish in Australia. The article shows that populations have crossbred and hybridized over the years to develop a new subspecies of rainbowfish that is resistant to global warming and pH changes in the water. This absolutely blew my mind and I instantly saw the potential for its implementation. I will digress, hybrid species are already a hot topic in the climate change sphere, they have been linked to outcompeting old populations and thinning out the current gene pool. However, when done with good intentions and in small, at-risk zones on our planet, planned hybridization efforts could be what we need to help preserve life on our planet. 

Imagine the potential with the aforementioned trees. Efforts to make our trees more sustainable, resistant, and effective could not only add to their merit and prevent deforestation, but bring the planet together in a concerted effort. When it comes to climate change, that is what we need the most. Attacking the problem from multiple perspectives and angles with man-made technologies is only leading to disagreements and stagnated progress. There is one thing our planet knows how to do best when left alone: heal. Some day in the future it might come time to let our planet solve her problems the best way she knows how, with the help of the life she brought forth. With a little nudge in the right direction from us humans, we can kick start the healing process.

My bias towards biology and the power of living systems may be clouding my optimism. This would still be a concerted effort for scientists across the world to decide what species to focus on, what areas to build up, how to optimize them, and figure out who is footing the bill. Yet, I cannot shake the vision of humans working hand-in-hand with the planet to combat our mistakes in a natural way. A world with superpowered, genetically engineered trees sucking up twice as much CO2 and spewing out three times as much oxygen or slightly hybridized fish that are more resistant to pollutants in our waters will be a massive step in the right direction. 

I did not anticipate a harmless looking article about a billion oysters to completely reshape my views on what we can do about climate change. At the bare minimum, I am thankful that it has allowed me to look at ways to combat this issue through natural and mindful means.

I sincerely hope though that I do see those mollusks thriving in the harbor and a superpowered tree or two in my lifetime.


Billion oysters: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03118-6

How India isn’t planting trees correctly: https://www.nature.com/articles/d44151-023-00166-1

Fish hybridization: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01585-1

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