Doing nothing in our oceans is a major way to do something about climate change

Abstract

What if I told you that we could absorb carbon over millions of hectares by simply doing nothing? What if I said that doing nothing would also restore a range of biodiverse habitats in these areas? Would you believe me if I mentioned that doing nothing would protect massive carbon stores? Could I persuade you that the science journal Nature recently called for this to happen globally? Could you imagine that an area greater than all the country’s land, could recover by doing nothing? Why would ‘do nothing’ be so important when we are asking everyone to do ‘something’ about carbon? The Marine Sciences Society of New Zealand/Te Hunga Mātai Moana o Aotearoa recently wrote to the Climate Change Commission/He Pou a Rangi on the ocean’s ability to capture and store carbon. It advised the commission that it had an oceanic-size hole in its draft advice, and asked it to urgently identify ways to improve carbon-storage capacity and reduce disturbance to existing carbon stores.