Coastal
habitats, such as mangroves, sea grasses and salt marshes are being
cleared at a rapid rate for shrimp farms as well as agriculture and
other forms of human development. Now a new study by Dr. Emily Pidgeon,
Director of the Conservation International’s Marine Climate Change
advocates for the immediate preservation of these vanishing habitats,
due to their ability to sequester as much as 50 times the amount of
carbon as tropical forests.
Dr. Pidgeon explained that unlike
forests, which store carbon primarily in the living flora, plants in
salt marshes are very efficient at burying carbon in the soil itself so
that it is not released when the plant dies and can remain underground
for thousands of years.
She stated, “The simple implication of
this is that the long-term sequestration of carbon by one square
kilometer of mangrove area is equivalent to that occurring in fifty
square kilometers of tropical forest.”
Dr. Pidgeon and
colleagues at Conservation International, many thanks for shedding
further light on the value of our coastal ecosystems. Let us all strive
to tread more lightly and preserve nature’s balance.
Supreme Master
Ching Hai has long highlighted the need for humanity’s greater
protection of our marine environment, as during a November 2008
interview with Ireland’s East Coast Radio FM.
Supreme Master Ching Hai:
We have to stop it Just stop the fishing. The government has to forbid
fishing because it’s too important to our survival to delay any further.
To stop this destructive practice of fishing, the solution is the vegan
diet, no fishy stuff in our meals.
The sea offers us plenty of
better food choices; the wide varieties of super healthy and nutritious
sea plants. We can even live on it forever. We must protect a living
and healthy sea, as it relates to our living and healthy self.
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1117-hance_coastalveg.html
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