carbon sequestration

Recently I wrote about planting trees in Lebanon, Israel and Palestine as a way to promote economic and environmental stability, preserve water resources, and to sequester carbon as a way of dealing with global warming. I got lots of replies, particularly on Daily Kos, and will in the near future revisit that issue both to try and get more people donating to plant trees in the region, and to discuss some of the issues brought up in my last diary.

But today I want to discuss another way of possibly addressing global warming through carbon sequestration, and to definitely mitigate some of the problems global warming will mean for coastal areas. I want to discuss the preservation and restoration of wetlands.

Since the Katrina disaster I have become aware of the critical role wetlands play for protecting coastal regions from damage from large storms. One of many reasons why the damage to the Gulf Coast from Katrina was so bad is the degradation of wetlands by human activity. Too often these regions have been seen as a luxury and expendable in the name of progress. But the truth is wetlands are a major buffer zone between storms and storm surges from the ocean and settled coastal regions. A summary of the many vital functions played by wetlands can be found here. And a good summary focused on Louisiana can be found here. But a couple of quotes will suffice for now: